"Late on Friday morning, after the entire playing surface had spent most of the preceding few days shrouded in plastic sheeting, the sun broke out. The covers were peeled back and the ground staff a huge team of about 70 people, those covers don't move themselves set about trundling their roller slowly across a fresh pitch at Pallekele International Cricket Stadium. The bad weather had lifted and, finally, work could begin."
"There has been much comment about the two Super 8s groups, determined by pre-tournament seedings rather than results, one of which happens to contain all the first-stage group winners and the other all the runners-up, including England. The players' position is that what happened over the past fortnight, as Bethell put it, doesn't really matter at all. Those games are gone, the points accumulated no longer of any importance. The real tournament starts here."
Late Friday morning sunlight allowed ground staff at Pallekele International Cricket Stadium to remove plastic sheeting and prepare a fresh pitch after days of rain. England trained while ground crews rolled the wicket and sought to convert awkward early results into momentum. Players, led by Jacob Bethell's sentiment, insist earlier group-stage outcomes no longer matter because the Super 8s represent the true start of the competition. Super 8s groups were set by pre-tournament seedings, placing winners in one pool and runners-up, including England, in the other. England's group includes New Zealand, Pakistan and Sri Lanka, and continued heavy rain risks further disruption and reputational damage.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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