From what we have seen of the Quarterfinals in the ICC Cricket World Cup 2011, the two semi finals - today and tomorrow - and the Finals on 2nd April are for the teams to lose.
Brilliant strategic moves, stupefying batting, extraordinary bowling and excellent fielding were all seen in the league games and but the Quarter Finalists seem to have forgotten all about them.
What actually happened was that the Winners - India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and New Zealand - did not overcome their opponents because of any of the above by them.
They won because their opponents - Australia, West Indies, England and South Africa - lost their game plan and the game. It was not a case (actually 4 cases) of a superior team play; all the 4 matches were because the losers played awfully.
Looking at the India versus Australia match, if Aussies had had a good pace bowler (like the injured Bollinger) instead of Krezja and had broken through Yuvraj and Raina, it would have been a different story. Lucky for us.
As written yesterday, the Aussies while batting looked casual and for quite a few overs appeared unconcerned while bowling at Gambhir and Kohli.
BTW Yuvraj is a lucky man. If the match had gone wrong, he would have been on everyone’s shit book for the run out, which was totally his fault. Yuvraj is fond of run outs as blogged earlier.
India is lucky too that Bangladesh didn’t pull any more surprises and create an upset; as written before, it might have indeed messed up our chances.
As long as Pakistan don’t create an upset in the knock stages, that is in the Semi Final against India, it should be all right.
Looking ahead at that match, it is going to be an ‘inspired’ bowling attack under the mercurial Afridi versus the famed, solid Indian batting line up, revolving around Tendulkar. I feel that the toss is not going to matter in this match. Whoever bats first, would want to post a 330 plus total on the board.
If India bat first and post 330, it would be touch and go while the top four Pakistani batsmen are out in the middle. If Pakistan bat first and post 330, India would probably win if they see Afridi safely away.
Anything less than 275 would mean the match would depend on how well the other bowlers support their side’s bowling lynchpins - Umar Gul and Afridi for Pakistan with Zaheer Khan and Ashwin for India.
But more than anything else, it is going to be the battle of the captains - the volatile Afridi versus Captain Cool Dhoni and we all know that the coolest head plots the smartest, the swiftest and the most cunning response.
As far as today’s semi final match, Kiwi Kebab is the order of the day. The New Zealand team is the most erratic team in Cricket today. It would be too much to expect that they would play top quality cricket consistently over two consecutive games. Don’t take me wrong - they are talented and quite capable of upsetting any team on a given day. But would not be able to stand up to the lowest rank team the next day.
Brilliant strategic moves, stupefying batting, extraordinary bowling and excellent fielding were all seen in the league games and but the Quarter Finalists seem to have forgotten all about them.
What actually happened was that the Winners - India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and New Zealand - did not overcome their opponents because of any of the above by them.
They won because their opponents - Australia, West Indies, England and South Africa - lost their game plan and the game. It was not a case (actually 4 cases) of a superior team play; all the 4 matches were because the losers played awfully.
Looking at the India versus Australia match, if Aussies had had a good pace bowler (like the injured Bollinger) instead of Krezja and had broken through Yuvraj and Raina, it would have been a different story. Lucky for us.
As written yesterday, the Aussies while batting looked casual and for quite a few overs appeared unconcerned while bowling at Gambhir and Kohli.
BTW Yuvraj is a lucky man. If the match had gone wrong, he would have been on everyone’s shit book for the run out, which was totally his fault. Yuvraj is fond of run outs as blogged earlier.
India is lucky too that Bangladesh didn’t pull any more surprises and create an upset; as written before, it might have indeed messed up our chances.
As long as Pakistan don’t create an upset in the knock stages, that is in the Semi Final against India, it should be all right.
Looking ahead at that match, it is going to be an ‘inspired’ bowling attack under the mercurial Afridi versus the famed, solid Indian batting line up, revolving around Tendulkar. I feel that the toss is not going to matter in this match. Whoever bats first, would want to post a 330 plus total on the board.
If India bat first and post 330, it would be touch and go while the top four Pakistani batsmen are out in the middle. If Pakistan bat first and post 330, India would probably win if they see Afridi safely away.
Anything less than 275 would mean the match would depend on how well the other bowlers support their side’s bowling lynchpins - Umar Gul and Afridi for Pakistan with Zaheer Khan and Ashwin for India.
But more than anything else, it is going to be the battle of the captains - the volatile Afridi versus Captain Cool Dhoni and we all know that the coolest head plots the smartest, the swiftest and the most cunning response.
As far as today’s semi final match, Kiwi Kebab is the order of the day. The New Zealand team is the most erratic team in Cricket today. It would be too much to expect that they would play top quality cricket consistently over two consecutive games. Don’t take me wrong - they are talented and quite capable of upsetting any team on a given day. But would not be able to stand up to the lowest rank team the next day.
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