Anybody else still reeling from the drama of the Cricket World Cup final?

As we now know, England were gifted an extra run by an umpiring error, but that’s not really enough to say they wouldn’t have tied the game anyway.

Then came the Super Over, another tie, and the single most absurd way to decide a World Cup in living memory.

But yeah, I’m slowly getting over it.

All of the above makes rooting for the Poms in the upcoming Ashes a little tougher, but then you remember that the Ozzies have David Warner, Steve Smith, and Cameron Bancroft in their ranks.

Throw in a side of reserve keeper Matthew Wade and it’s ‘come on, England’!

As the Ozzies prepare for the first test of the five-match Ashes series, which kicks off on Thursday at Edgbaston in Birmingham, they were greeted by a rather interesting scoreboard at the ground.

The World Cup semi-final between England and Australia may have taken place on July 11, but how about this for a not so subtle reminder:

Former Ozzie quick Jason Gillespie knows the score:

One more:

Marvellous.

It’s worth pointing out that David Warner, Steve Smith, Pat Cummins, Mitch Starc and Nathan Lyon were all part of that ODI team that collapsed in the semi-final, and then lost inside of 33 overs.

For those who think this could just be an oversight, here’s NewsAU:

The scoreboard sledge will particularly rankle the Aussies because two matches of England’s domestic Twenty20 league have been played at the venue after Australia’s World Cup elimination, meaning the cheeky groundstaff went to all the trouble of recreating the scorecard of Australia’s harrowing humiliation in the old enemy’s backyard.

We know the Ozzies love to talk about ‘mental disintegration’ (as opposed to ‘sandpaper disintegration’), so they’ll have to be prepared to take it on the chin this series.

I expect the English crowd to give them hell, and let’s all join forces in hoping Warner takes a few bouncers to the grill.

Sledging count – England 1, Australia 0.

[source:newsau]