Week Three of the World Cup

New Zealand Pak Match

The New Zealand - Pakistan match was a great match . Pakistan fielded first and all was quiet till the 45th over of the NZ innings . Pakistan did well till that point , pushing the Kiwis to the back foot and having a good dominance over the game. Birthday boy Ross Taylor changed all that , sent them on a unforgettable leather hunt. 114 runs came off in six overs as Taylor tore in to the Paki attack and sent the ball over the ropes with ease. It was carnage . If Rawalpindi express Akhtar gave away 28 runs in one over , his colleague Abdur Razzack bettered him. He conceded 30. Taylor's magnificent attack pushed NZ past 300 mark and from then on Paki were never in the match . Twenty Twenty has brought in this element of attack by the batsmen and Taylor played some audacious shots as Pakis who did well for 44 overs of the Kiwi innings could not believe that they played badly for just six overs of the 50 overs and lost. Pakis were also bent back by some good swing and seam bowling by NZ and with pressure of six an over to chase lost the match comfortably to the Kiwis.

England -- they cannot be left out -- can they ?

England played Bangla Tigers , batted first and were well set till the batting power play messed them up. Some reckless batting meant that Eng set the Tigers a total of 226 that was easily gettable as the wicket held no demons. Tigers chased and were at a comfortable 154 for 3, when they returned the favour of England's poor batting and brought England in to the match. At that score Imrul Kayees , the Tigers top scorer was run out going for a needless second run. Then England refreshed themselves , piled the pressure and soon Tigers were eight down for 169 needing 57 runs more with the tail enders left. Tigers with Mahumudllah and Shaiful carried on and England did not apply pressure. Runs trickled in and soon Shaiful become bold and started playing attacking strokes. It was pressure back on the England bowlers as they lacked the length and line . Wides followed. In the end, it was a historic win for Bangla Tigers , their first win against England and that too in a World cup. It was celebration time for the entire nation .. The stage was set as if Bangla won the world cup. Such was the importance of this win.
England will be wondering as to where they stand after shocks from Ireland and Bangladesh .

India South Africa

There is lot of talk about whether Dhoni was right in using Nehra for the last over against SA or he should have used Harbhajan ? To me , as we look through, where India lost the plot, this question did not arise. India were doing so well on the batting front and if the middle order had played the batting power play well without loosing wickets and ending up not utilising the full quota of 50 overs, they could have easily scored another 40 -60 runs . That is where India lost the match and not in the last over is my thought. The ifs and buts do not work well at all once you have lost the match and so it does not matter if Nehra bowled and messed the last over . Harbhajan could have had the same result as well. It was a pity that Sachin's lovely century went in vain. It was classic and vintage stuff from the Little Master . If he scores a lot , we all know the result for India
I hope this was a good wake up call for the team and that should help them to play well in the future matches

Talking of favourites to win the world cup after over 20 + plus matches have been played -- the chance is even for every top team to win the cup. NZ was struggling and suddenly it needed just 6 overs and a Ross Taylor blitz to bring back all its confidence and beat Pakistan which is a dark horse favourite. SA brought India down and is a favourite as well. Aussies have not lost any match either and are favourites as well. SL are in the hunt so are West Indies as well . I think it is a question of a good performance on that day and little bit of luck. Whichever teams has both has the Cup for itself.