The Cricket World Cup Action so far
The Cricket World Cup Action so far
The matches have gone on predictable form so far. The minnows have been generally outplayed and questions will be raised on their participation in the future world cups . The ICC has already trimmed the teams from the current 14 to 10 for the next One Day Series World Cup. Seemed the right thing to do with teams like Kenya and Canada out of depth at this level.
New Zealand and Pakistan thrashed Kenya while Srilanka did the same to Canada. The Dutch gave the run for the money to the English but the English prevailed due to their experience at the end over's. India played out Bangladesh -- Bangladesh ran up more runs than they should have but at no point they threatened to win after India had put up a winning score. Sehwag and Kohli sizzled and that was good enough irrespective of how you bowled. All this set up the weekend matches between Lanka and Pakis and India and the English.
The Pak SL match , although it went to the wire , I had no worries on Pak. winning. They were on top all the time as Lankans chasing 270 odd fell behind the run rate as Chamara Silva scratched around till he found bat to ball . As he scratched , the pressure built on to his team mates and in the end it was too much to catch up. The victory margin does not tell the Pak dominance. Had only Akmal not missed to stump Sanga not once but twice and had Pakis held the catches that came their way , the match would have never got as close as it did in the end . The batters who helped Pakistan were old stalwarts -- Younis and Misbah . Afridi lead the team cleverly and also took wickets at the right time. Pakistan seems to be on a roll and Afridi seems to have strung the unit together with his leadership . Normally, when all goes well , Pakistan will find a crisis to blow . Hope they do not do it this time , with Afridi vowing to win the cup for them.
One interesting referral was forced by Akmal for a caught behind of Angelo Mathews. With no "snicko "to help , not sure how Akmal went for a referral for a caught behind. I thought he did it just to get a catch against his name and clearly replays would have not revealed the nick !! The decision went in favour of the batsmen.
One more incident to do with Pak. cricket is to do with the opportunity that exists in today's world. With a ten year ban on playing Cricket , Salman Butt cannot play but Channel five has chosen him to be a commentator.. Not sure if the ban applied to his talking over a microphone !!
The India England match was classic. First , it was the Little Master who held sway with this lovely touch and gentle caressing of the white ball. Sachin found the gaps with soft hands and raced to yet a another century.. Rubbish are talks about his aging , retirement etc., India put up a winning total , which is what everyone thought -- not to be . I thought India was short by 20 -25 runs . Strauss , The English captain led the chase admirably. Indian bowlers bowled short to Strauss and he kept going deep in to his crease to play the pull short.Most of his runs came that way. The match was drifting England's way till the 42nd over, when batting power play was taken by England and Zaheer Khan got India back in to the match with three wickets. The power play built more pressure and England was left with 29 too get of the final two overs . Surely , India had it in their bag. But Swann and Bresnan swung sixes to bring it down to 14 from the final over. And Munaf Patel bowled a length ball at Shezhad , which was gleefully whacked for a six and in the end two runs were needed offthe final delivery, of which England took one to tie the match. Munaf should have bowled a short ball at tail ender Shezhad rather than length ball. In the end it was Honours even for both sides which was a fair result. Point to note is that the batting power play of five overs were destructive for both sides. India made 32 runs and lost one wicket while England made 25 runs and lost four wickets. Both teams must be happy with the cricket. None could be happier than the fans who watched 676 runs being scored in 100 overs !!
The matches have gone on predictable form so far. The minnows have been generally outplayed and questions will be raised on their participation in the future world cups . The ICC has already trimmed the teams from the current 14 to 10 for the next One Day Series World Cup. Seemed the right thing to do with teams like Kenya and Canada out of depth at this level.
New Zealand and Pakistan thrashed Kenya while Srilanka did the same to Canada. The Dutch gave the run for the money to the English but the English prevailed due to their experience at the end over's. India played out Bangladesh -- Bangladesh ran up more runs than they should have but at no point they threatened to win after India had put up a winning score. Sehwag and Kohli sizzled and that was good enough irrespective of how you bowled. All this set up the weekend matches between Lanka and Pakis and India and the English.
The Pak SL match , although it went to the wire , I had no worries on Pak. winning. They were on top all the time as Lankans chasing 270 odd fell behind the run rate as Chamara Silva scratched around till he found bat to ball . As he scratched , the pressure built on to his team mates and in the end it was too much to catch up. The victory margin does not tell the Pak dominance. Had only Akmal not missed to stump Sanga not once but twice and had Pakis held the catches that came their way , the match would have never got as close as it did in the end . The batters who helped Pakistan were old stalwarts -- Younis and Misbah . Afridi lead the team cleverly and also took wickets at the right time. Pakistan seems to be on a roll and Afridi seems to have strung the unit together with his leadership . Normally, when all goes well , Pakistan will find a crisis to blow . Hope they do not do it this time , with Afridi vowing to win the cup for them.
One interesting referral was forced by Akmal for a caught behind of Angelo Mathews. With no "snicko "to help , not sure how Akmal went for a referral for a caught behind. I thought he did it just to get a catch against his name and clearly replays would have not revealed the nick !! The decision went in favour of the batsmen.
One more incident to do with Pak. cricket is to do with the opportunity that exists in today's world. With a ten year ban on playing Cricket , Salman Butt cannot play but Channel five has chosen him to be a commentator.. Not sure if the ban applied to his talking over a microphone !!
The India England match was classic. First , it was the Little Master who held sway with this lovely touch and gentle caressing of the white ball. Sachin found the gaps with soft hands and raced to yet a another century.. Rubbish are talks about his aging , retirement etc., India put up a winning total , which is what everyone thought -- not to be . I thought India was short by 20 -25 runs . Strauss , The English captain led the chase admirably. Indian bowlers bowled short to Strauss and he kept going deep in to his crease to play the pull short.Most of his runs came that way. The match was drifting England's way till the 42nd over, when batting power play was taken by England and Zaheer Khan got India back in to the match with three wickets. The power play built more pressure and England was left with 29 too get of the final two overs . Surely , India had it in their bag. But Swann and Bresnan swung sixes to bring it down to 14 from the final over. And Munaf Patel bowled a length ball at Shezhad , which was gleefully whacked for a six and in the end two runs were needed offthe final delivery, of which England took one to tie the match. Munaf should have bowled a short ball at tail ender Shezhad rather than length ball. In the end it was Honours even for both sides which was a fair result. Point to note is that the batting power play of five overs were destructive for both sides. India made 32 runs and lost one wicket while England made 25 runs and lost four wickets. Both teams must be happy with the cricket. None could be happier than the fans who watched 676 runs being scored in 100 overs !!
Comments
Just shows that 50 over ODI are still the best compared to 20-20.
Thx, Radha
With the quality of our bowling, we should ask our batsmen to score 375+ in each innings to pose a defendable total.
My favourites to the cup are India and Pakistan, although AUS / ENG cannot be ruled out. Let us wait and see whether the MSD charm extends to the finals.