The Brewing of a Great Cricket World Cup


How often has cricket been predictable? How often have big teams dominated and minnows just faded away?

The cricket world cup always turns up a few surprises, but it is surprising to see that the surprises have gone far ahead this time around and has set the groundwork for a very interesting round two when the teams of the two groups A and B meet head to head.

The group A matches consisting of Australia, New Zealand, Sri Lanka and Pakistan have been predictable so far except for the Pakistan versus Sri Lanka match, where Pakistan, the battered team was definitely expected to lose to the powerful and well-trained Sri Lankan team.

Group B on the other hand has held up a few surprises and they are pretty handsome and worth writing home about.

The most amazing surprise is probably the insurgence of the Irish team with their win over neighbors England. They have also pushed India to some sweat in their match yesterday. The second surprise was the high voltage encounter between England and South Africa that happened last day as well.

To be honest, after England’s loss to Ireland, the world was shocked and had written England off. How then would punters have guessed that the same team would be able to produce such a close match against the dominant South Africa? England scored low, seemed down, but they did not allow the easy ball to South Africa and beat them to the finish. What are the odds now of Ireland beating South Africa? A bit far-fetched maybe, but Ireland still may have the hunger to beat the world-beaters.

Pakistan is the other team which is looking strong for the world cup. It is an unexpected rise in stature for the troubled country which has been in the center of cricketing non-cooperation with other nations, topped with the halo of match-fixing and drug abuse scandals. Top talents of the country have been left out of the team. Their win against Sri Lanka against such odds speaks volumes for their team-spirit and passion for the game.

Bangladesh showed promise in their first match against India, or was it just a faltering Indian team which made them look better than they actually were? West Indies has a strong package this time around with a well-bolstered batting line-up and capable bowling, and with Australia not in world-dominating form, 2011 could be anybody’s cup. New Zealand should not go unmentioned in this race either.

The trend this World Cup has been to carefully study the Indian conditions and build teams suited for that, and that has probably been the reason for such an even playing ground. Most teams have equipped themselves with capable spinners and taken a lot of training against spin bowling. The Indian Premier League has helped all, including the associate nations to study the conditions of Indian grounds.

It seems at the end of the day a match may be decided not by expertise but by the pitch and conditions and that includes the teams from the sub-continent as well.

May the best team win, and may the World Cup continue to be a closely contested battle amongst nations.

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