Cricket World Cup: welcome to the league within the league

As predicted at the very start of this Ulysses-like quest to find four semi-finalists: Australia, New Zealand and Sri Lanka are through.  This leaves three teams scrapping for the final slot, my money was originally on West Indies, but that was before they decided to riddle their play with Raspberry Ripple type streaks of incompetence, and so I fear they are out of it.

This leaves the final slot to be given to either the frighteningly inconsistent South Africa, or the frighteningly mediocre England.  Therefore the match tomorrow between the sides is probably the first really meaningful encounter of this coma-inducing stage of the tournament, and I for one am praying to every god I believe in that it is entertaining match.

England simply have to win tomorrow, and if they win well then they will be level on points with SA, but with a better run rate, meaning they could then lose to the Windies and still go through. 

Can England do it?  Well, if SA bat to their potential then no, but if they bat like they did against Bangladesh, then yes.  Much will depend on getting Smith, Gibbs and de Villiers cheaply.  Also, one thing that England showed in the recent CB series is that they can win when it really matters.

Either way, four weeks of underwhelming cricket has led to this: the one match that matters. [lee calvert]