Business end of the world cup cricket tournament is about to begin after next week when the line-up for the quarter finals will be decided. Both the groups are still wide open in terms of who will play who with the exception of most unpredictable team of the tournament – England.
Without doubt, England has been the most unpredictable and entertaining team so far. All five matches that they have played till now have gone down to the wire – be it against minnows like Ireland or Netherlands or be it against giants like India or South Africa. With KP and Broad gone out injured, it is just a matter of time when their journey ends. If they fail to win their last match of the league stage against West Indies, it is most likely they will catch an early flight back to London.
West Indies and New Zealand are riding their luck on a few individuals and it would take mountain of tasks for them to qualify for the semis. That leaves us with five potential champions but none of them are looking as convincing as the champions should. Perhaps that is the reason I have maintained the importance of batting powerplays. Playing in the sub-continent makes it all the more important where bowlers have sweat it out for wickets.
A thriller between two of these five teams i.e. India and South Africa was sandwiched between two batting powerplays yesterday – one taken at the wrong time and another at the right time. Tactically, it is a big mistake if team batting first takes batting powerplay at the brink of 40 over mark when they are 2 or 3 wickets down. Similarly, team batting second must assess the situation of the game and then plan for the powerplay. Batting powerplay was decisively used by Ireland and Bangladesh in their big wins against England. While Ireland needed an early powerplay to accelerate the run rate in a high run chase, Bangladesh awaited for it till the last to ensure a famous win. To be honest, the players should not be thinking too much about this and play their natural game and that is the KEY. A team is anyways going to slog in 45-50, then why not wait until 45 overs for this.
A lot of outburst is made in the internet and news media on Indian loss against South Africa and MSD has been criticized like never before. First about team selection, then about batting order and then about bowling changes. Yes, some gambles did not pay off but that does not mean Dhoni does not know where he is heading towards. I would like to remind all my fellow cricket crazy fans that it was the same Dhoni who threw the ball to innocuous Joginder Sharma in the final over of T20 world cup final. I am sure MSD is trying few things as the team approaches the final frontier and he is yet to show his cards. In my opinion, India is definitely going to reach the finals – no matter what!
Without doubt, England has been the most unpredictable and entertaining team so far. All five matches that they have played till now have gone down to the wire – be it against minnows like Ireland or Netherlands or be it against giants like India or South Africa. With KP and Broad gone out injured, it is just a matter of time when their journey ends. If they fail to win their last match of the league stage against West Indies, it is most likely they will catch an early flight back to London.
West Indies and New Zealand are riding their luck on a few individuals and it would take mountain of tasks for them to qualify for the semis. That leaves us with five potential champions but none of them are looking as convincing as the champions should. Perhaps that is the reason I have maintained the importance of batting powerplays. Playing in the sub-continent makes it all the more important where bowlers have sweat it out for wickets.
A thriller between two of these five teams i.e. India and South Africa was sandwiched between two batting powerplays yesterday – one taken at the wrong time and another at the right time. Tactically, it is a big mistake if team batting first takes batting powerplay at the brink of 40 over mark when they are 2 or 3 wickets down. Similarly, team batting second must assess the situation of the game and then plan for the powerplay. Batting powerplay was decisively used by Ireland and Bangladesh in their big wins against England. While Ireland needed an early powerplay to accelerate the run rate in a high run chase, Bangladesh awaited for it till the last to ensure a famous win. To be honest, the players should not be thinking too much about this and play their natural game and that is the KEY. A team is anyways going to slog in 45-50, then why not wait until 45 overs for this.
A lot of outburst is made in the internet and news media on Indian loss against South Africa and MSD has been criticized like never before. First about team selection, then about batting order and then about bowling changes. Yes, some gambles did not pay off but that does not mean Dhoni does not know where he is heading towards. I would like to remind all my fellow cricket crazy fans that it was the same Dhoni who threw the ball to innocuous Joginder Sharma in the final over of T20 world cup final. I am sure MSD is trying few things as the team approaches the final frontier and he is yet to show his cards. In my opinion, India is definitely going to reach the finals – no matter what!
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2 comments:
Just shows how much sport is still a mind game. Batting power plays have been hugely overemphasised - teams like India would do well to treat them exactly as an ordinary period and simply play the same game.
The Indian cricket fan is a fickle fellow. Dhoni is a very good captain and just because it didn't click yesterday, we can't vilify him. India is still a good team with a lot of mental strength as well. We should keep the faith.
@ Ramesh - So true. You have summed up very well. Let us watch out remainder of the tournament with great passion!
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