World Cup 2019, Match 6, England Vs Pakistan: Why England will win the match 

Hosts England will play their second match of the ICC Cricket World Cup 2019 against Pakistan on June 3. They come into this game with loads of confidence after winning their first game against South Africa in a comprehensive manner.

England were as professional as any team could be in defeating South Africa by a huge margin of 104 runs. South Africa won the toss and opted to bowl on a pitch that looked pretty good for batting. But when England ended their innings, the pitch gave a different outlook as it turned out to be on the slower side. Considering that, England did a magnificent job in posting a total of 311 runs.

It has to be said that there were a lot of interesting twists and turns in that innings. Bairstow bagged a duck off Imran Tahir's bowling in the very first over and this meant that Jason Roy and Joe Root had to be slightly careful in their approach.

But as usual, even their careful approach resulted in a quick and useful 106-run partnership. However, both Roy and Root lost their wickets in quick succession and suddenly South Africa stormed back into the game.

Nevertheless, England rallied back yet again through an aggressive partnership between skipper Eoin Morgan and Ben Stokes. After Morgan's dismissal after a well-compiled half-century, England struggled to accelerate as the team lost wickets at regular intervals.

But, Ben Stokes almost stayed till the very end to help England reach a target of 311. Stokes tried to play quite a few big shots but only ended up failing on most occasions as the pitch turned out to be very slow.

South Africa's seamers, Kagiso Rabada and Lungi Ngidi also used the pitch in their favour as they used plenty of slower deliveries to restrict South Africa.

In the second inning, South Africa's essay went nowhere as England targeted them with some excellent short-pitch bowling. Jofra Archer hit Hashim Amla very hard on the helmet with one of those deliveries. Due to that, Amla suffered a concussion and this put South Africa's chase in trouble very early on.

Only Quinton de Kock and Rassie van der Dussen managed to put up respectable performances with the bat as the other batsmen crumbled against England's outstanding performance on the field.

Through this performance, England started off their World Cup campaign in a rollicking fashion and justified their tag of favourites for the tournament. England's fixture will be against Pakistan.

While England had a faultless performance in their first match, Pakistan are coming off a morale-crushing loss at the hands of West Indies. The fact that this was Pakistan's worst loss since they arrived in England tells something about that performance considering that they have lost 11 matches on the trot. Pakistan weren't good enough to face some good hostile fast bowling from the West Indian quicks.

Four of those 11 matches came against England in the ODI series that was played prior to the World Cup. This makes England overwhelming favourites for this particular encounter. Let us dive a little deeper into the reasons which make England such a huge favourite for this match:

Contrasting confidence levels of the two teams

Pakistan has been on a wretched run ever since they landed in England

Although, a result of a cricket match mostly depends upon the ability levels and performance of the competing teams, certain intangible factors like confidence, attitude can affect a contest too. This might help England in their match against Pakistan. England were fantastic in the 5-match ODI series against Pakistan prior to the World Cup as they beat the visitors 4-0. Such a convincing series win will boost the confidence of any team.

On the other hand, Pakistan might be feeling down and out as they find themselves in a precarious situation.

World-class batting line up

Jason Roy and Jonny Bairstow- Two integral components of England's unbelievable batting line-up

England's amazing success in the ODI format can be attributed to their magnificent batting line-up. Each and every batsman in England's line up possess the ability to win a match on their own. Further, the depth in their line up helps the team to attack from ball one as they have found ways to win games even after big collapses. This makes it almost impossible for any side to outbat this English unit.

Jofra Archer and Pakistan's vulnerability against short-pitch bowling

England v South Africa - ICC Cricket World Cup 2019

England fast-tracked Jofra Archer's debut in international cricket as his potential was too big to ignore. But there were still a few doubts as to whether Jofra Archer can translate that potential into actual performance at the international level.

Now, just after a few games, it seems as if Archer's doubters are fast disappearing into oblivion. Jofra Archer also started his World Cup campaign on a bang as his pace and persistent short-pitch bowling was too hot to handle for South Africa in the tournament's opening clash. This augurs well for both England and Archer as Pakistan also struggled against short-pitching bowling against West Indies in their first match.

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