ICC WT20 2016

                  Now with the Asia Cup done and dusted, the focus of the cricket fans will move on to a single event which is the Twenty20 World Cup which is to be held in India from tomorrow. The main event does not kick start from tomorrow but the qualifiers do. The bottom 8 teams fight it out among 4 in a group and only the winner going to the main draw where the top 8 await them and play a round-robin fixture with 10 teams split 5 each in a group. From there the top 2 will qualify for the semi-final which will be played in Kotla and Wankhede and the winners will play the summit clash in the Eden Gardens, Kolkata on the 3^rd of April.

                                                     

                Now who are those 8 teams who gained qualification already?

INDIA:

                 

Mahendra Singh Dhoni (capt.); Ravichandran Ashwin; Jasprit Bumrah; Shikhar Dhawan; Ravindra Jadeja; Virat Kohli; Pawan Negi; Ashish Nehra; Hardik Pandya; Ajinkya Rahane; Suresh Raina; Mohammed Shami; Rohit Sharma; Harbhajan Singh and Yuvraj Singh.

                The Home team/Hosts. Champions of the inaugural edition and runners up of the previous edition, are now playing in home conditions where they are considered difficult to beat. The batting is powered by Rohit and Dhawan opening who recently told they are hoping to emulate what Sourav and Sachin did 10-15 years back, and then comes Kohli, Yuvraj and Raina who can change the match within overs and then knock, knock… someone has answered Dhoni’s want of an aggressive hitter and a handy bowler, Hardik Pandiya. The line-up is then followed by the skipper himself at 7, followed by Jadeja, Ashwin, Bumrah and Nehra. The 4 bowlers have been in good form since the start of 2016 in T20Is and the bench of Rahane, Harbhajan, Negi and Bhuvi were all tested and their good form will make Dhoni not to worry for back-ups for the main plan.

SOUTH AFRICA:

                                   

Faf du Plessis (capt.); Kyle Abbott; Hashim Amla; Farhaan Behardien; Quniton de Kock; AB de Villiers; JP Duminy; David Miller; Chris Morris; Aaron Phangiso; Kagiso Rabada; Rilee Rossouw; Dale Steyn; Imran Tahir and David Wiese.

                The Saffers. They had just washed away some part of that CHOKERS tag with a knock-out win over Sri Lanka in the CWC2015 quarters and almost went for the finals. Now with form they are in and also not being alien to the Indian conditions with the IPL and the previous 2-0 win in the T20 series, they will hoping to go on high. In batting they have de Villiers and de Kock to kick-start the innings which will be followed by du Plessis, Duminy, Behardien, Miller and Wiese. In the bowling, they have Steyn, Abbott to combine and the young Rabada who has shown promise to be the next-spearhead if Steyn calls it a day. For the Indian conditions, they have Tahir and Phangiso with all-round experience of Morris. In Rossouw and Amla they have fire and a dependable back-ups for the main players.

WEST-INDIES:

                             

Darren Sammy (capt.); Samuel Badree; Sulieman Benn; Carlos Brathwaite; Dwayne Bravo; Johnson Charles; Andre Fletcher; Chris Gayle; Jason Holder; Ashley Nurse; Denesh Ramdin; Andre Russell; Marlon Samuels; Lendl Simmons and Jerome Taylor.

                The men from Caribbean. Once they were a force and now they are a shadow of that when considered in the Tests and ODIs. But come the T20 format, where their marquee players earn money playing the same format round the year, it will be hard to stop them in this shortest format of the game. A team which comprises of game-changers like Gayle, Russell, Sammy, DJ Bravo, Holder, Simmons, Samuels and so on… all they need to do is play in unison and they would be team to beat if any other teams wants to keep their hands on  the trophy.

NEW ZEALAND:

        

Kane Williamson (capt.), Corey Anderson, Trent Boult, Grant Elliott, Martin Guptill, Adam Milne, Mitchell McClenaghan, Nathan McCullum, Colin Munro, Henry Nicholls, Luke Ronchi, Mitchell Santner, Ish Sodhi, Tim Southee and Ross Taylor.

                

                The Kiwis. When it comes to the World cup, do not keep them aside, for they can make you pay for that. Their batting looks strong even after the departure of Brendon BAZZ McCullum. Guptill, Munro, Anderson, Ronchi provide the fire-power and Williamson provides the anchor in case of a collapse. Bowlers on the other hand are looking strong with Southee-Bolt, Milne and McCleanaghan with McCullum, Sodhi and Santner turning up for some spin in the pace majority attack. They have an experienced campaigner in Ross Taylor and the Veteran Elliott who can give the experienced hand in need. They have only 1 ICC trophy (Champions Trophy 2000) in their cabinet and would look to add more to it.

ENGLAND:

               

Eoin Morgan (capt.); Moeen Ali; Sam Billings; Jos Buttler; Liam Dawson; Steven Finn; Alex Hales; Chris Jordan; Adil Rashid; Joe Root; Jason Roy; Ben Stokes; Reece Topley; James Vince and David Willey.

                The Poms. Inventors of the game have just 1 trophy in their cabinet which is the same that they are playing for. The 2010 champions have been a regular finalists in the 50 overs affair before and they have not done well in this format apart from the 2010 edition…and the heroes of that edition KP, Wright and not even in the radar of the selectors even though they are in good knick. Most players are relatively new to the international arena with Vince, Willley, Dawson, Billings and Roy not known by all in the other camps. They need to use this element of surprise but will it work for them? We should just wait and watch. On the other hand, they also have seasoned players like Morgan, Ali, Hales, Finn and Stokes who can win matches for them. England’s case, we need to wait and watch for their performance to see how far they go in the campaign.

SRILANKA:

             

Lasith Malinga (capt.); Dushmantha Chameera; Dinesh Chandimal; Niroshan Dickwella; Tillakaratne Dilshan; Rangana Herath; Shehan Jayasuriya; Chamara Kapugedera; Nuwan Kulasekara; Angelo Mathews; Thisara Perera; Sachithra Senanayake; Dasun Shanaka; Milinda Siriwardana and Jeffrey Vandersay.

                The Defending champions. Without the veterans Sangakkara and Jayawardene, their batting looks a level lower than its formidable self. But they can see that the bowling core which formed the 2014 squad remains almost the same. Malinga, Kulasekara, Perera, Mathews, Herath are all the bowlers core who had won it for them last time. The batting mostly now depends on the experienced Dilshan, Mathews and Chandimal. Their recent form has also been not that good winning 2 of their last 7 games. How the manage to defend the title with the transitional squad is upto them and it would be great if they pulled it off as so far no team has defended its title in the tournament history.

PAKISTAN:

          

Shahid Afridi (capt.); Anwar Ali; Imad Wasim; Khalid Latif; Khurram Manzoor; Mohammad Amir; Mohammad Hafeez; Mohammad Irfan; Mohammad Nawaz; Mohammad Sami; Sarfaraz Ahmed; Sharjeel Khan; Shoaib Malik; Umar Akmal and Wahab Riaz.

                The Green Army. If you say in a crowd gathering that cricket is now becoming a batsman’s game, you just hoped you didn’t say that coz they reply with their bowling. Invariably the best bowling pack of the tournament, Pakistan are happy reaping benefits on the return of Md. Amir to international cricket which was evident from the Asia Cup where even on flat pitches he made the White Kookaburra talk. Alongside Amir now they have Riaz, Sami, Afridi and Irfan who can almost demolish any batting line-up. Provided with needed help from their batters, they can win the World Cup and show the world, Bowlers can dictate the matches.

AUSTRALIA:

                   

Steve Smith (capt.); Ashton Agar; Nathan Coulter-Nile; James Faulkner; Aaron Finch; John Hastings; Josh Hazlewood; Usman Khawaja; Mitchell Marsh; Glenn Maxwell; Peter Nevill; Andrew Tye; David Warner; Shane Watson and Adam Zampa.

                Attendance at the Australian trophy cabinet…ICC 50-over World Cup (Check), Champions Trophy (Check), ICC Test Championship Mace (Check), ICC ODI Championship Mace (Check), ICC WT20 Cup??? Now where is this guy??? The Kangaroos ruling the cricket world have until now not set their hands on the T20 World Cup. Can they break that jinx and go more than a final appearance and 2 semi-final appearances??? With Warner, Watson, Finch, Maxwell, Smith, Marsh and Khawaja, any target and their batsmen once settled will be just like playing EA Cricket to them. Their bowlers will have to do their job in the absence of their spearhead Mitchell Starc and the spinners Zampa and Agar will just have to do it on their first time in India.

                These are the top 8 teams which gained direct entry virtue of their rankings and they bottom 8 who play the qualifiers comprise of Bangladesh, Zimbabwe, Ireland, Netherlands, Oman, Afghanistan, Hong-Kong and Scotland where Hong-Kong, Zimbabwe, Afghanistan and Scotland go for one spot and Bangladesh, Ireland, Netherlands and Oman go for the other. While one would be decided mostly by the ZIM-AFG encounter, the other is a group of death as they say in Football…

                            

                Which 2 goes from the bottom 8??? Which 4 goes from the next 10??? From there who plays the summit clash in Kolkata and who lifts the trophy on the night of 3^rd April?? Wait until then when the event starts tomorrow… 

                                             











S.T. Guha Karthikeyan

THE IPL: YES or NO?

April-May Month. What does that mean to any average school or a college student?? Summer holidays or semester holidays right?? But now ask them they would say it tis the season of IPL, the great Indian gala. Most of the kids who used to keep the grounds busy in the evenings on the other days, come the IPL they would want to play earlier or finish off the matches soon or play less matches just to go home and watch the game.

What impact has IPL made to the Indian Cricket? This topic is very much debatable.

What is IPL? The IPL was started in 2008 not to entertain the people, but just as a rebel league to Kapil’s Indian Cricket League as the BCCI did not want an individual to find talents for India and also make huge profits. So they made a huge advantage of the loophole the ICL had. The ICL was only for uncapped and out-of-radar Indians and retired and interested players from foreign countries. They found this loophole and made the advantage work for them by allowing all then present-day players from India and other countries to participate. This was a huge success as the spectators were more interested in watching their heroes in action for 40 overs rather than watch some X uncapped Indian player or an overseas player.

How did the IPL override the ICL? Firstly it was the auctions and the cities. The IPL had almost covered the same cities like the ICL had and if I remember the names would also be somewhat same. Like the Chennai Superstars and Chennai Superkings, Mumbai Champs and Mumbai Indians like that and then added more entertainment in cheer girls.  Then in the players who played the game. Obviously an average Indian would come and watch a Sehwag or a Sachin play rather watching a Hemang Badani or an Ibrahim Khaleel play. That was followed by the blazing start that the tournament got in the form of B-Mac’s 158* in the tournament opener. This created more buzz and fan-following. To eliminate the ICL completely they further imposed bans on the ICL contracted-players by not considering them for selections even for Ranji trophy matches, and in 2009 by issuing that players who leave ICL can participate in Ranji and  will represent India almost every players declined their ICL contracts thereby ICL was done and dusted.

This was followed by huge amount of successes in the next editions and with the quality of the cricket it is one of the most viewed leagues in the world. The Young Indian players were getting tips from foreign players and were exposed to tough match situations which make the present Indian team strong even in nail-biting situations as they have been exposed to such situations, they know how to react and also handle the pressure well. Without the IPL, players like Sanju Viswanandh, Rohit Sharma, Vinay Kumar, Mohit Sharma and many more would not have come to the limelight soon.  Some of them like Rohit and Sanju are even talked about being the next big in Indian cricket with Sanju as MS’s successor as a gloves man and Rohit for his captaincy.

With the IPL, not only talented Indians got national call-ups but also some foreign players too. And the main reason they were picked in the squad- talent? There would be more talented players in the queue for the spot. It was the exposure they had to the sub-continental pitches by which they were selected.  Brad Hodge had to still wait for an Australian call-up after Symonds, Martyn and Gilchrist leaving the arena. Who was that who got the nod ahead of him? Shaun Marsh the Orange Cap winner of the IPL 2008.

But for a brighter side there should be some dark side behind it. No, am not going to talk about the fixing scandals. But the other dark part of the story. The Indian sub-continent was once a fortress for the other nations to win and to win here you need to change your game and adapt to the conditions here unless you are part of the Invincible Australian era. They play with the Indian players get to know their strong-zones and weak-zones and play your ODI/T20/Test against them? They were ready to use it. This cannot be said as a minus as the Indians also got to know the weak-zones of the overseas players too. But it was the valuable experience that they got by playing the Indian conditions. And given that the BCCI did not allow Indian Players to participate in BBL, CPL or the Ram-Slam, played further to their part. On one side you have a Steve Smith who knows how to play in Indian conditions and on the other side you had a Rohit Sharma who struggled Down Under against Australia. Even if the BCCI allowed, would the players have played? No. The BBL allows 2 overseas player, Ram Slam 0-2 overseas players in their sides. But they would have got the exposure of the conditions. Imagine if a Rohit Sharma or a Virat Kohli who would have played a season or two of the BBL? The entire scenario in the recent Border-Gavaskar series would have been different.

              

             What can be done? My suggestion is that if the IPL is here to promote cricket make it in some neutral venues or around the globe not only in India and rename it to as Cricket Premier League. The main reason is that some players are making them available for IPL even when on national-duty. Or if it is for entertainment only, it can be slowly scrapped off. Or adjustments can be made in other leagues to ease the quota of overseas players and make the Indians participate. Whatever done should benefit Cricket as a whole not only to the advantage and disadvantage of some boards to make Cricket more global. Organising Cricket in growing nations like Ireland, UAE would benefit in globalising cricket rather than it happening at India always.


-S.T. Guha Karthikeyan.

THE QUARTER FINALS

                                  

                              With the round-robin stages of the tournament over, the tournament now shifts to the knock-outs where the teams cannot afford to have a bad day at the office. If so they go home, and it would be over. The Quarter finals will be held in Adelaide, Sydney, Melbourne and Wellington from March 18 to March 21. The teams that have qualified for the quarters are New Zealand, Australia, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, India, and South Africa.  So without any delay let us look into what each team has had and they have to do look ahead the next 2 weeks.

                         

NEW ZEALAND:

           

                The co-hosts will need to play only the final in Australia on the event they qualify for the finals as both their quarters and semis will played in New Zealand itself. Having reached the semis 6 times out of the last 10 editions, they would like to do what a Martin Crowe or a Stephen Fleming failed to achieve. They are at a strong position and they solved the questions regarding the form of the middle order with some displays against Bangladesh. With Boult and Vettori in fine form, and the speed of Milne and swing of Southee their bowling attack is above par and the batting led by the blitz of McCullum seems to get that fire-power needed at the starting of the innings. With Guptill, Williamson, Anderson in fine form, they are sure a hard team to beat at their own backyard.

AUSTRALIA:

               

                The other co-hosts are chasing history like what Brazil is chasing in football, to win the world cup across all continents. Having won the cup in Asia, Europe, Africa and in America (Caribbean), they need to win that trophy in the Antipodes, their home. Having seen the group stages, they are very much intended on that approach with their only loss coming in New Zealand where they do not have to play a single game anymore. Their bowling is strengthened with Mitchell Starc, the best death bowler at the moment and their batting is aided with fireworks from Finch and Warner and Solidity in Smith and Clarke who can also go for the kill and the BIG SHOW Maxwell. They have many all-rounders in their ranks which can provide more options to Clarke should any of the main bowlers are taken to cleaners.

SRI LANKA:

           

                The Asian Champions magnificent run in this World Cup is all about a single player, Kumar Sangakkara. Get him out, raise your hopes of winning, or else better start packing… is what I have to say about the impact of that man in this edition. Having raked up 4 centuries in a row, he is the lynchpin of the Sri Lankan batting order. With Jayawardene and Dilshan playing their last World Cup they would surely would like it to end on a high. The bowlers have not been under the scanner so far in this tournament as they are provided by huge totals to defend with and it was against Australia they came under the hammer and would like to improve on that. Lasith Malinga is up to be fully fit and this was evident from that Yorker that rattled Clarke’s stumps. The bowlers need to up their game and need to support their batsmen if they want to get what they failed to get in the last 2 final outings.

BANGLADESH:

      

                 The Bangladesh Tigers was the pick of any pundit to have a team outside the top 8 teams in the rankings to qualify for the knock-outs. And they did it in style. Having won against Afghanistan and Scotland and a point from the washed out match against Australia, a place in the quarter-final was at stake when they met England at Hobart. And against all the odds they won the match and qualify for the first time to the knock-outs. Their batting is having the fire-power of Tamim Iqbal and the in-form Soumya Sarkar and Mahmudullah, Shakib gives some all-round performances and does the job of a No.1 All-rounder and their bowling was at peak against that England mach. Having to play in Australia for the rest of the campaign would make them lessen that fatigue factor if they advance to the next stages. What they need to do is be unified and not let that team morale go down.

INDIA:

                

                The Defending Champions. Could MS do what Ponting, Lloyd had done by retaining the Championship and take home the 3^rd ICC World Cup?? Yes, of course. Going by their current form, there is no stopping them from doing that and only a bad day at the office could rob them of the chance. What has surprised every cricket fan worldwide is the Indian bowling attack. Considered as the weakest link among the top 8 teams, India are the only team to take all 60 wickets from the group stages. With Dhoni likely to retain Shami, Yaadav and Mohit for the remainder of the tournament, India’s most experienced swing bowler Bhuvaneshwar Kumar is fighting for a place in the squad which is a healthy competition. The Batsmen are in fine form with all having at least one remarkable outing in the tournament. With India to play only in Australia for the remainder of the tournament, where they had been playing since December, it is hard to beat the Men in Blue.

SOUTH AFRICA:

                                        

                The Proteas or now having reached the knock-out stages they would be known for the other name they earned worldwide-CHOKERS. The South-Africans are this time an even more strong line-up that what they played in the all the previous outings and were the team to beat for the cup. Losses against India and Pakistan would have hurt their morale but not their consistency and thirst to win matches. This time they are to win something what no other South African team has done. Knock-out wins and the World Cup. Their batting order has the world’s best 2 batsmen at the disposal, AB de Villiers and Hashim Amla. Apart from their batting, it is their bowling attack that is more dangerous. With likes of Steyn, Morkel, Abbott and Philander they could rattle any side and have Imran Tahir to spin the ball and apply brakes on the run rate. A Quarter final win would result in them travelling to New Zealand and then back to Australia on the event of playing the final which could be fatigue given the amount of travel already the players have undergone.

PAKISTAN:

                     

                The Men in green, the Antipodes defending champions. Can the 40 year old Misbah do what the 40 year old Imran did in the 1992 Benson & Hedges Cup?? If the swing of Wasim Akram has won them the 1992 World Cup, this time it would be the four-pronged pace attack that would do them the job. Their batsmen have found some runs coming off the bat in the later stages of the group phase and with the inclusion of gloves-man Sarfraz their batting and keeping have strengthened. The only thing which is due in their armoury is that BOOM BOOM Afridi is yet to give the fans some dhamakha and hope he will do so in the knock-outs as Pakistan need their most experienced all-rounder the most at these stages. Having already played 2 matches in Adelaide, their venue for the Quarter-finals, they would have by now known how the pitch behaves and if they go on with the current form, their bowling can dictate victories and prove the world the point that BOWLERS STILL DECIDE THE OUTCOME OF GAMES.

WEST INDIES:

          

                The Caribbean boys. The party continues for them, the advertisers of limited overs cricket have not any remarkable outings since the retirement of the legends of that West Indies which spelt doom over its opponents. The good thing to note is that their batting does not revolve around a single player which is very good as all players have contributed with the bat, starting from Gayle at the opening to Holder at 9. Gayle apart from that record breaking 215 against Zimbabwe has remained a mere shadow of himself in the remainder of the matches. The bowler aided by Ambrose are now have some quality attack and Sammy and Russell continue to be entertainers of the game contributing with both bat and ball. A victory at Wellington would see them to wait at Auckland for the semi-final and with considerable smaller boundaries in New Zealand, let the party continue for the Caribbean boys!!!!!

                Who among these 8 will win the next 3 matches on their schedule and lay their hands on the trophy?? Are we going to see India defend the cup, or a former champion get the cup once more time or a new champion??....Let’s Wait and Watch…..Stay tuned Folks!!!!!

-S.T. Guha Karthikeyan

CRICKET WORLD CUP PART 2

In the previous post all must have read about what happened in the Antipodes over the first fortnight of the World Cup 2015. As always the second fortnight also brought some high voltage clashes and thrillers to keep us updated with the tournament daily. If it was Gayle’s 215 that was the highlight of the first 2 weeks then the man of the moment in the second 2 weeks is Sangakkara without any doubt. Not to say the bowlers have also decided matches just like the previous fortnight. Starc’s death bowling and a spirited Pakistani comeback were all instances where the Bowlers shared the lime-light.

NEW ZEALAND:

             

                The co-hosts were simply superb in the first half and maintained that in the second half also by maintaining a clean sweep of 6-0 wins in the group. Having played against all the big boys in the first half itself the second fortnight was just like gearing up for the quarters for them. Trent Boult and Dan Vettori continued to beat batsmen and the middle order was also put into the test and they also performed well showing that there are hardly less problems for the Kiwi’s. McCullum as always continues to be the aggressor no matter what and his opening partner, Guptill also joined the party scoring a century in the last match. 

AUSTRALIA:

                  

                The other co-hosts came into the 2^nd fortnight with 3 points from as many games but collected the full bounty from the next 3 outings and finished second best to New Zealand. Coming into their performances, all players are in form and Mitchell Starc is arguably the best death bowler of the tournament. Not to forget the solidity of Clarke and Smith and the blitz from Warner, Finch and Maxwell. At the end they finished second in the group with 9 points.

SRI LANKA:

            

                The Asian Champions, came into the 2^nd half with 4 points from 3 matches and also got the same from the next 3 games. Sangakkara continues to just score centuries at will and their bowlers are backed up with huge totals to defend, which was seen against Bangladesh and Scotland and against England, though the bowlers failed, the batsmen scored the target without any problem. Lasith Malinga is on track to be full fitness and this was evident that toe-crushing Yorker that rattled Clarke’s stumps. Others contributing with the bat were Dilshan, Thiramanne who scored centuries and Mathews who has scored the fastest Sri-Lankan 50.

BANGLADESH:

                 

                The tigers, surprised everyone and were favoured as one of the teams outside the top 8 to qualify for the knock-outs. Led by Mortaza, their batting was ably supported by Soumya Sarkar and Mahmadullah Riyadh and Shakib came in with some fine all-round performances. The bowlers on the other hand were not at their best against New Zealand but in the all-important match against England, they fired down perfect and sent the Poms Packing. Mahmudullah became the first Bangladeshi to score a world cup century and doubled it in the next match and is looking in fine form.

ENGLAND:

             

                What Newton is to gravity is what England is to cricket. But what they showed here was some dismal performances and led to their early exit from the cup. They were not unified on the day. When the batsmen racked up 300 on the board, the bowlers failed to apply pressure and when the bowlers restricted the opposition to under 280, the batsmen lost the plot. As many of the experts said what they lacked was imagination and creativity, the batsmen knew that once they withstand Anderson and Broad in the initial overs, there are no problems after. They managed to defeat Afghanistan but the damage was already done.

AFGHANISTAN:

             

                Probably the second best associate nations as they never lost the match before putting up a fight. Against New Zealand, they were the first team to restrict the Kiwis to under 5 runs an over. Against Australia, they were totally outclassed by the Kangaroos and against England in a dead-rubber they failed register a win which if they had done would have just dented England’s campaign further. But with the provided background and the amount of match practice they got, they put up a good fight for that.

SCOTLAND:

                         

                 The Scott’s, are still in search of a maiden world cup win and will continue to be in search of that having clean washout of 0-6 in this campaign. Josh Davey put up some performances and not to forget Coetzer’s 156 that almost won the match against Bangladesh. But apart from that they were totally in a disarray and might as well improve their strengths the next time they qualify.

INDIA:

                     

                The Defending Champions were just like Pool B’s New Zealand. Collecting the full bounty in all the 6 matches and also all 60 wickets, they look like a formidable line-up and when questions were raised over form of middle order, they responded with match winning contributions. The Pace trio of Shami, Yaadav and Mohit continued to ask questions to the batsmen and Ashwin was bowling miserly spells apart from the outing against ZIM. Raina too chipped in with some off-spinners and Jadeja continues to fill in the spot of the 5^th bowler in the team.

SOUTH AFRICA:

                                           

                 The Proteas, entered this fortnight with 4 points from 3 games and were expected to take full bounty from the remaining matches, but they lost against a quality Pakistan attack but went on to dominate the other 2 matches against the UAE and Ireland. De Kock continues to raise doubts over his place in the squad whereas Amla and du Plessis scored centuries and de Villiers just meant business. The South African Pace attack was not just a single man show but a combined attack of Steyn, Abott, Morkel and Philander ably supported by the spin of Imran Tahir.

PAKISTAN:

                               

                 The Men in green, the antipodes defending champion, started their first leg on a silent note and then were resilient as they shrugged of the staring blues as they collected all the 8 points from the remainder 4 games. Fielding an all-pace attack was finally its strength and the Pakistan bowlers dictated victories against the opponents. Their batsmen were coming back to form as one player some bits and pieces knock in one game or the another with Misbah alone performing in all those matches. Shezhad had a magnificent outing against UAE, Sarfraz had a good outing with the bat and the glove bagging 2 times the player of the match award. Apart from them Younis, Harris have also scored some runs in their bags. Fans are yet to witness BOOM BOOM Afridi magic.

IRELAND:

                      

                Probably the best Associate nation of the 4 teams that played in the World Cup. Having 4 points from 2 games in the first half, they started off with a hammering blow from South Africa, and then managed to win over Zimbabwe to keep their hopes alive and then lost to India and in the final do-or-die game against Pakistan, barring Porterfield’s century other failed and they managed only 237 on the board which wasn’t enough. Their bowlers are all medium pace bowlers who bowl in the 130s and they do not have a 140s+ bowler who could have made the difference in the team.

WEST INDIES:

              

                The Caribbean boys. Having played 4 games already in the first 2 weeks they had more rest than other teams and they played only 2 games winning one and losing one. Their first match against India was a thriller as they managed to bring down the Indian batting order with some quality bowling and that continued to run through the UAE line up. Their batting doesn’t revolve around anyone with all players making useful contributions with the bat.

ZIMBABWE:

                          

                The Zimbabweans almost pulled out a narrow win against Ireland which would have seen them in contention for the quarters and hopefully have some pride as their board in under debt for having to pay salaries to players for months. As a result of those incidents, their prolific run-getter Brendon Taylor signed a Kolpak deal with a county sacrificing his national duties. Sean Williams put up and all-round show and the bowlers who held the plot in the initial overs seem to be nowhere in the successive overs and it cost them as all the matches they lost were by close margins and also their fielding was below par.

UAE: 

             

                The Emiratis. They came to the World cup surprising all associate nations and provided some quality cricket with Shaiman Anwar their stand-out performer and some bits and pieces performaces from the others, unlike the first half of the tournament where they played some good cricket, the second half was a big test and against Pakistan, and South Africa they conceded 300+ totals and against West Indies, their top order totally surrendered. But like Afghanistan, they also take some positives from the tournament and hope to do better the next time. 

                So with the group stages over, it is up to the 8 best teams that qualified to provide some cricket over the next 2 weeks and who takes the World Cup????   Wait and Watch………

-S.T. Guha Karthikeyan