Wickman's Hopes Rising... to be Dashed Again?

Anyone with half an eye on events in the West Indies will probably sympathise with Wickman today. For years now (probably since 1987 in India) it has been completely acceptable as an England cricket fan to sit back at the beginning of a major one day tournament and quietly write England off.

Let's face facts. We haven't been in a one day final for quite some time. The last time was that ICC tournament that ended with West Indies caning us on home turf in the gloom of a frigid September. And the last time we were in a tournament in the West Indies... *shudder*.

Heading into this one our press was busy writing off our chances because our bowlers don't play in the IPL (and actually KP wasn't too complimentary about that either) and because we're habitual underachievers. The more rabid elements on cricinfo were much of the same opinion.

A shaky start where the Windies did us under Duckworth / Lewis conditions and then Ireland held us to a below par score before crashing out when it pissed down didn't promise much - alhtough before the rain came against Chris Gayle's mob we'd posted a very competitive total which most observers have quietly forgotten.

Since then we have absolutely killed Pakistan, murdered South Africa and comprehensively brushed aside New Zealand though and the cricket has been really, really exciting. We've posted some of the best powerplay scores in the tournament and Lumb, Kieswetter, Pietersen, Wright, Morgan and Bresnan have looked like "proper" 2020 cricketers (whatever that means).

The fielding has been largely superb and the bowling streetwise except against the Windies who were in a race against the rain to beat the D/L formula. In fact if it wasn't for Colly's relative no show so far we'd be looking very strong indeed.

Which is worrying. This afternoon the semi against the mercurial Sri Lankans kicks off at 1530 UK time and Wickman is looking for excuses to lig off despite a burdensome workload. Because it should be an excellent game if both sides bring their recent form to the game. Jayawardene has looked immaculate for most of the tournament and SL bat most of the way down. Dom Lown is perhaps the go to 2020 bowler in world cricket and they have a hatful of spinners to play on what has been a pretty slow, low track.

Can we counter their bowling with another big batting performance? It looks like the guys have hit form at the right time. So Wickman is beside himself. He has been allowed to hope that England will be more than competitive, more than making up the numbers, more than simply trading on Test status and past glories. And without the spine of the team playing IPL. Not to put too fine a point on it this tournament could be heralding the re-arrival of England as a major force in one day cricket...