ICC Cricket World Cup 2019, Tour Diary: Watching David Warner's ton, more rains and Jason Roy fandom

World Cup day 14 I wake up in Taunton in a state of complete shock. It isn’t raining. My walk down through the old town is completely dry. The large town squares and the church towers everywhere do make me feel like I’m walking through a medieval village, where a chandler and a cheesemaker are about to bustle into view engaged in heated debate over the price of a donkey that has gone lame. But the rustic extras all wear Kathmandu rain gear these days rather than breeches and stockings. Pakistan make a hash of things at Taunton, with everyone but Mohammad Amir bowling poorly until the back half of the innings. The key partnerships end in unnecessary ways when Pakistan chase. David Warner makes a hundred and gives the celebration everything, then gives his man of the match award to a kid in the crowd. Behind the game, the Quantock Hills provide a gentle backdrop and offer the ever-present threat of drizzle. [caption id=“attachment_7317931” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] David Warner celebrates after scoring a century against Pakistan in Taunton. AFP[/caption] But it doesn’t come. Australia win, and I join some colleagues planning to drive to Nottingham in a large motorhome vehicle. We catch a cab to the distant carpack to collect it. The driver is very cheerful and answers calls in a thick West Country accent to take bookings. Hot tip: don’t ever plan to get anywhere quickly in Taunton. There seems to be one cab in town, and it’s 45 minutes away at any given time. If you are wondering what a West Country accent is, it’s basically your stereotyped pirate accent but with the edges smoothed down a bit. Even so, the sound of “arrrr” comes up in far more words than you might expect. We make it to the campervan. I write an article in the front seat as we drive. The work never stops. It rains, hard, all the way to Nottingham. As we enter the new city at around midnight, lots of road signs point us to the National Watersports Centre. At this rate of rain, the whole country could be a watersports centre. World Cup day 15 Nottingham, incredibly, isn’t raining when I wake up either. And I wake up in an attic room with a skylight in the low ceiling right over the bed, so I would know. One of the nicest things about travelling in England is staying in small rental houses with nice England hosts. There are lots of very kind and interesting elderly people putting their spare rooms up online, and you get to meet them and chat to them and enjoy their range of accents. The best thing about the house in Nottingham is Lottie the dog, a curly-haired spaniel type who walks up and looks at you enquiringly before launching herself onto your lap. The second best thing about Nottingham is that they’ve named their local bus tickets a ‘Robin Hood card’. This is like London’s Oyster card except that oysters are not a famous thing about London. Robin Hood is the only famous thing about Nottingham. But after I mentioned Robin Hood and public transport in the same sentence in our last diary entry, I’m amazed to find that Robin Hood and public transport actually go hand in hand in this city. The worst thing about Nottingham is that it rains all day. The dry morning is fool’s gold. The ground has been soaked for three days straight and cannot recover. Thousands of India fans hang around the Oval all day just in case, mostly gathered below the players’ windows hoping for a glimpse of their heroes. All you can do when it rains all day is keep eating a stupid number of sandwiches, and sending in updates on rain to the Firstpost blog every few minutes. One of the perks of writing about cricket is that every cricket ground will feed you during the day. But when there’s nothing else to do, it’s dangerous. Eventually, Paul Reiffel and Marais Erasmus get sick of poking the ground with their umbrellas every half hour, and we’re allowed to go home. Catching a lift back down the highway most of the way to London. The superfast train from Watford does the last bit of the stretch. World Cup day 16 Today is podcast day. I do one for the BBC in the morning where we interview Yuvraj Singh after his recent retirement announcement. Another for the Guardian in the afternoon, about the rain and what we might do to alleviate it. Then our very own Final Word podcast for Firstpost in the evening, to review the day’s match. This involves zooming all over London on the tube, going to different places for different things, listening along to the match on the radio, and following replays and bits of live television wherever possible. The World Cup is always going on, even when other things are happening as well. There are big posters in the subway with Jason Roy all over them. The Jason Roy fans don’t enjoy his game against the West Indies. Roy only makes it a few overs before limping off with a hamstring problem. Eoin Morgan goes off later with a back problem. Mark Wood’s ankle seems to be holding up but he’s always in inch away from an injury. Adil Rashid’s shoulder looks a problem. England are creaking and lurching towards the semi-final. But the West Indies are a massive disappointment. After getting off to a flyer against Pakistan, throwing away a win against Australia, and being rained off from a good position against South Africa, they just can’t bring anything good enough this time in Southampton. With two batsmen injured, the chase could have been really hard for England. But West Indies don’t even test them, notching just over 200. Joe Root runs it down on his own. England are back in business, with a couple of low-key games to come where injured players can rest up. Surely, surely England won’t find a way to fall over in this World Cup? They must be blessed – their game is played in bright sunshine at Southampton, even as the rain continues down much of the day in London. By evening time though, it clears enough for some late sun to emerge. Next up will be the sound of the papare bands, with Sri Lanka and Australia at the Oval.