England Blind Cricket Squad captain Matt Dean (left) with Emdad Rahman

Sports

England to take on rivals Australia for final spot in Blind World Cup Semi Final

By admin1

December 04, 2014

England’s Blind World Cup team were defeated by Sri Lanka by 90 runs yesterday in what was described by head coach Ross Hunter as ‘“A tough day again when you play the sub-continent teams, but a fantastic effort by all the boys.’

Although England lost the match there were some shining lights in personal performances. Youngest member of the squad Justin Hollingsworth, 17, bowled an England blind cricket record breaking haul of 4-54 off eight. Asked about his performance, Hollingsworth said, “It’s bitter-sweet. Losing was a bit hard to come by. It was good at half-time because I knew I’d got the record.”

Luke Sugg continued his great form with the bat, scoring 130 off 111 balls – including a 203 run partnership with fellow opener Matt Page, who scored 102, his second century of the tournament.

England take on Australia today to fight it out for the last place in the semi-finals which are due to be held on Saturday, 6th December. Hunter stated, “It’s always going to be a big rivalry because of history. We are in an incredibly strong place to go in with loads of belief tomorrow as a group.”

•England take on Australia, 8am GMT, Thursday, 4th December, YMCA Ground, Cape Town.