Archive for the ‘World Cup’ Category
Quarter final lineups
The league games are around the finishing corner and the 3 QF spots are still to be grabbed within 4 teams : India, England and West Indies being the most likliest contenders in addition to BD.
Lets take Group A first:
Current standing after today’s game in Group A
|
Sri Lanka
|
9 from 6
|
|
Australia
|
9 from 5
|
|
Pakistan
|
8 from 5
|
|
New Zealand
|
8 from 6
|
The only game tomorrow that holds significance is the biggest game of the group now between Australia and Pakistan.
So here are the possible scenarios if Australia win:
| Aus (11) |
| SL (9) |
| NZ (8) |
| Pak(8) |
And if Pakistan win :
| Pak(10) |
| SL(9) |
| Aus(9) |
| NZ (8) |
If there is a tie or a no-result
| Aus (10) |
| SL (9) |
| Pak (9) |
| NZ (8) |
So in this scenario its a forgone conclusion that SL would end up 2nd in their group at all times. If Aus lose tomorrow, they drop to 3 and Pakistan go to top.
But the most likely scenario is an Aussie win and in this case Aus finish top, Kiwis 3rd and Pak 4th.
Group B
The most complex, weirdest and ipen scenario:
If SA win tomorrow and India win on Sunday (the most likliest of the scenarios)
| SA (10) |
| Ind(9) |
| Eng (7) |
| WI (6) |
| BD(6) out |
A defeat tomorrow means more stones would be pelted on Deshis bus and may be axing of Shakib from the captaincy. End of Crapafool may be.
But if Deshis win tomorow and India win on Sunday, WI go out.
| Ind (9) |
| SA (8) |
| BD(8) |
| Eng(7) |
| WI(6) Out |
India end up as group toppers. But if India lose on Sunday, then England go out and West Indies top the group.
| WI (8) |
| SA(8) |
| BD(8) |
| Ind (7) |
| Eng(7) out |
If BD lose tomorrow and West Indies beat India then
| WI win |
| SA(10) |
| WI(8) |
| Ind(7) |
| Eng(7) |
All sorts of permutations and combinations are possible though, but the most likeliest of the scenarios are :
SA beat BD
Aus beat Pak
India beat WI
So the final group standings should look like:
| Most Likely scenario – Aus win |
| Aus (11) |
| SL (9) |
| NZ (8) |
| Pak(8) |
| Most Likely scenario — SA and India win |
| SA (10) |
| Ind(9) |
| Eng (7) |
| WI (6) |
And in this case the quarter final line up would be:
| SA vs Pak |
| Ind vs NZ |
| Eng vs SL |
| Aus vs WI |
India play its QF in Ahmedabad, Eng ends Lankan campaign in Colombo, Australia sails past West Indies in Mirpur and SA would beat Pak in Mirpur.
Fairy tale campaign of England
What a world cup England are having. Hot blooded, exciting, adventurous, fabulous, breathtaking……Remember an adjective and place it here. It’d be apt for describing England’s campaign. The story is similar:
1. Get a good start from top 3.
2. Fluff it up in the middle overs
3. Stage a recovery of some sort
4. Leak runs when bowling
5. Some wickets fall
6. When dead and seem dusted,somebody would nip a wicket and every body shall rally around him. Most often resulting in a win but not after providing sea saw of fortunes, heart breaking fights and in the end awing everybody.
Something of this sort was unimaginable to think of England teams of 90s (post 1992) and almost entire 2000s(except 2004). They took ODIs to be of least importance and considered appearing in world cups to be a mere formality. No wonder they went out miserably in every tournament. Since making the finals of 1992 world cup, they have crossed the first round only 2 times — 1996 and 2007. They were kicked out in 2003 and 1999 (their own party).
This England team seems to be different. They have got solid top 3. Oh no, 2 of the top 3. Strauss and Trott. No KP now, Prior is forgettable. Bell is inconsistent. Collingwood is out of form and may be out of chances too. But then comes somebody who does a rescue act and poses a decent total on the board. Luke Wright against WI, Eoin Morgan against BD and Bopara against SA.
Bowling, they have their own Nehras, Munafs and of course they have match winners like Swann. They have their own share of Tredwells and Shehzads (had). All combined together they either fall short of winning when none expects them to lose or they win when everybody has given up.
Should England go through on Saturday evening in the Quarters (should SA win, everybody goes thru), they would be the team who would be tested the most in the knock outs and should be expected to play their A game in the quarters ownwards.
Should they lose, that would be too unfair for them. They deserve to reach at least semi-finals. Such has been the English story, who are now my 2nd fav team after India.
Maverick English!!!
England are new Pakistan in this world cup and surprisingly Pakistan are not the ones they used to be all this while.
How did this happen ? May be that long tour last summer did the trick and Strauss inherited the typical stani unpredictability and maverickness from the Afridis, Butts and Yousufs.
After messing up with their batting for the nth time in the tournament, they are now turning it with the ball in the middle and they have grabbed half Windies side and are just 5 wickets away from giving themselves a chance to go through quarters. And in between that stand Kiran Potdar and Ramu Sarwan.
Will England cross the line this time or will they implode?
If England lose, the Group B would be new Group A where except the European sides everybody would go through to the quarters. If they win they exert little bit of pressure on India and if SA beat BD tomorrow, its the end of unpredictability in B as well as everone except BD and Ire, Net go through to the quarters.
Interesting!!!!!!!!
Fact about West Indies
Before writing off England against the most crucial game of Group B later today one must remember the fact that West Indies has not beaten a serious Test opposition in an ODI since June 2009. Plus how they play on turning track (if ) of Chennai would be an observation for MSD and team to decide on the team composition for the Sunday’s game.
Negative media coverage
The kind of reaction Indian media has given to the India’s performance in the 5 games so far is at best called knee – jerk. They are out to highlight negative stuff. Open any newspaper or watchout its website, you’d find negative reprotage on India’s chances. Views of players who are a bit negative on India’s chances are put in high prominence. If there was a mini-break to the players in between 8 days of the 2 games, then thats highlighted as well. And then immature, fool fans react in the comments section that the players do not play for country.
And then there are idiotic articles on the web which say that Tendulkar is not lucky for India in the world cups. They also go onto compare that sans Sachin, India won the T20 world cup in 2007.
At best this kind of reporting and coverage is detrimental. How much players read this is not known, but this is very disgusting to read and even open up the sites like ndtv.com or timesofindia.com or cricketnext.com.
Few more.
Every ex-cricketer is an expert in India be it the likes of Vinod Kambli or Saba Karim or Atul Wasan. Every body offers 2 cents of advice to the skipper on the team combo, powerplay strategies and what not. Just that they failed miserably when they turned up to play in their playing days. And having just one or 2 caps in the belt, they are advicing to men who have on average 100 caps in their belt.
Looking back at the moral sapping defeat to SA
So India lost the first game of the tournament and in an insipid style. In a way it was good they didnt deserve to win after spineless performance from the lower middle order and the middle order.
Yuvraj Singh attempted what he does the best — hit successfully, but Saturday wasnt his day. MSD has forgot to hit fours and sixes and like dogs he scratches around and then stands infurirated and gives some spectacularly inefficient statements in the press. Yusuf Pathan is a mug and he shines occasionally to seal his spot for next few games. He has never delivered when needed the most. The best he can do now is to focus on IPL career. No more needed in the world cup.
He is useless in all departments. Cant bat, cant bowl, cant field.
Same goes for Virat Kohli. After that opening 100, he has faltered away. He has been bowled, caught & bowled, run out in last 4 games. What was he attempting on Saturday is best answered by him.
Coming to the fielding, it was the best display in the tournament unforunately didnt come good. Munaf Patel continued to be lax and listless with ball and field. Do we really need him? He is too passive and Sreesanth is too charged up. Extreme characters in the team.
He leaked runs in 48th over in England game too and here again. Both times he got the opposition in the game again after Zaheer Khan and Harbjhajan respectively had got India back into the game.
Foolish stuff.
Ashish Nehra, I guess his India career is almost good as over. No imagination, no yorkers like Zak and no wickets. Giving last over to him was a big mistake. Well if he did manage to get RP out and somehow stop 13 runs from being leaked, India could have hailed him as hero. But he did a good favor to the side by leaking 18 runs to a tail ender.
India needed this defeat at this stage and hopefully after the 8 day break they shall come out all guns blazing. The quarters scnario would be clear by then. They shall know what they’d need to do to go through should there be some upsets in this next few days.
Hopefully they will learn something from the games so far and make some changes in the personnel :
Suresh Raina for Virat Kohli in his IPL home ground
R Ashvin for Munaf Patel in his home and IPL home ground
May be Sreesanth for Nehra
Sreesanth is drama queen / king, is erractic and all the negative things, but only one thing he’s got what others in the pace department dont have — PACE. And if he is ready to play in the team cause and not let his emotions get better of him, he can very well turn out to be surprise package for West Indies. But dont know predictions dont always come true in Indian team combination.
There is a very little chance India might not make it to the final 8.
The remaining games are:
SA vs Ireland : SA expected to win and get 8 points
WI vs England : England need to win this to stay afloat. if they do they shall end up with 7 points. If they lose, they are out and BD go in. India also go in.
SA vs Bangladesh : SA should win this and top the group with 10. If BD win they go through and if SA lose this one they should still make it provided they dont lose to Ireland.
India vs WI : If India lose to WI and BD win their other game vs SA and WI lose to England they could go out depending on how bad they lose. If India win they end up 2nd in the group and go through.
I guess the turning point in Saturday’s game were:
1. 9 for 29 in 9
2. One additional over for Zaheer in batting power play where he leaked 17 runs and if he was saved for last over, he could have got India 2 points.
3. Nehra over Harbhajan
Hopefully this was the bottom India saw and hereon they shall rise to the occasion and not squander the 100s from Tendulkar and starts from Delhi dashers.
Rant
9 for 29 in 9 overs. … Amazing batting performance.
Nehra standing as if batsmen like him got out for a duck. The so called star batsmen just could not get 33 more runs to hit the 300 mark. Shameful. Go fag yourself guys. Kick out the lads who are high on IPL, zero on India. Virat Kohli, Yusuf Pathan are such creatures.
Take Viru, Gambhir and Tendulkar out. This team struggles to make runs or the impact that it should.
None showed the willingness or “character” to stay and improvise. Everyone holed out. Everyone just wanted to get to the pavillion. Meek paper tigers.
If a man 22 years old in international cricket has to make a 100 to bail the team out to a safe score then what good are the hyped heroes for? Especially Virat Kohli, Yusuf Pathan — the idiots who just dont know how to play. Pathan — riding high on those once in blue moon 100s and what has he done?
Kohli played too well before world cup but when it mattered he has been a bigot with the bat. Run out, bowled, caught n bowled.
Freaking stuff. Scoreline that looked good to touch 400 once didnt even touch 300. Now we cannot even say we ‘ve got good batting lineup. All we would say is be scared of top 3 or may be 4. Not rest. The rest are pussies. They play well only for their franchisees. Chennai Super Kinks or Royal Challengers or Rajasthan Royals. Kick their contracts out and let the reality dawn on them. Assholes.
The rest just froze today. No boundary was scored after that Yuvraj 6. Inept. And what the hell was MS doing? Giving strike to Nehra and Munaf? Mind bogling skipper. Get your thinking right.
This was worst batting display ever by the starry batsmen. We have seen the lesser mortals like Bossadeshwar, Vijayeshwar choke, but the likes of Kohli and Pathan were always expected to shine. But they are not lightining crackers, but just a “foos fooljhadi”.
SA mind games
What pressure and heat are Lance Clusener and Hashim Amla talking about ? This just seems to be another loose talk from their camp. South Africa are now in a precarious position and should they lose tomorrow, every thing would come down to their last game vs Bangladesh.
Saffers choked to 165 from 3/124. Their batsmen failed to conquer a decent target of 172. Their frontline spinner is injured, their best bowler in Tests is no force in ODIs. So what kind of pressure or heat is on India?
India is unbeaten in the group and if they win tomorrow SA would be in a real tight position. Let Saffers look at their own problems rather than looking on in Indian camp.
What if SA choke once again tomorrow ? Bwhahahahaha.
Friday is going to be key in deciding Group B stndings
Friday is going to be a big day in deciding the potential QFs of the Group B. England take on Deshis and Windies take on Ireland.
England win and they are through to the next round and Deshis are out.
Windies win and they almost go through. Ireland win they would be in for key chance. Should Deshis win in the other game, they would then need to beat Netherlands in their final league game.
India would probably want to win the remaining both league games. WI should not pose a problem and SA are too familiar with India now having played 8 ODIs over year and won 4 games each. Get in Amla, DeVilliers and SA are captured.
I believe India, South Africa, England and Windies / Ireland would make it to the next round.
More Kamran Akamal jokes
More Kakkumal bashing here:
Another Kamran property is he fluffs everything from batsman;s bat and pockets everything which is not off the edge and appeals for it every time. Thats bcos those moments come rarely and fool him into thinking that he has actually caught a batsman’s nick.
Switch Hit 