In praise of the Cricket World Cup's nine-to-five heroes

When the winning runs had been hit Peter Borren fell to his knees, disconsolate. He looked like a man who had lost something much more precious than a game of cricket. Ravi Bopara allowed himself a quick grin, then simply tucked his bat under his arm and trotted briskly from the pitch, pausing only to exchange a perfunctory fist-thump with Paul Collingwood. As embarrassed as they would have been had they lost, England's players felt that win far less than the Dutch did their defeat. It was only a group match after all, the first of many. For England it was just another game. For the Netherlands it was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, as the respective reactions of Borren and Bopara showed

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