Chances of each team for World cup Cricket 2011

The stage is all set for the biggest contest of modern cricket and the countdown has already begun. ICC Cricket World Cup is to begin on the 19^th of February, 2011, hosted by India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. Earlier, Pakistan was to co-host the tournament; however, thanks to an attack on the Sri Lankan Cricket team in 2009, they lost their rights.

Below are the fourteen teams fighting for the cup, divided into two broad groups. Both the groups are to have their individual league matches, where each team would have to play versus each other. The top four teams based on points awarded or in case tied based on their Net Run Rate, would proceed to the next round i.e. Quarter Finals.

Here on, the knock-out begins and it would drill down to the Last Men standing. 

A prediction in terms of who can win might be a tough job as the teams have evolved over the past four years and quite a few of them have started to make good progress. Let’s take an analytical crack at this.

Group A League Matches: 
Undoubtedly, Australia would be the hot favorites but might end up taking the second and third slot considering the fact that they don’t play as well on the sub-continental pitches as they do outside. However, Sri Lanka should come out victorious in the league table, definitely because they have five home matches out of the six that they are supposed to play.

Pakistan should either trail Sri Lanka or Australia with some of the key players back to their squad. They have a nice blend of youth and experience on their side which might come in handy on the sub continental turfs.  The Kiwis however can be very unpredictable and on a given day can beat any team in the world. They should end up third or fourth on the chart.

Kenya has been a developing team for quite a while and have shown occasional sparks but their performance have not yet established a strong belief in the mind of cricket followers. The same can be stated about Zimbabwe. However, to infer, both the teams don’t have enough fuel to outclass teams like Australia, Sri Lanka, Pakistan and New Zealand. Canada is still an amateur in this sport. They should be happy to win a match or two on a good day.

Group B League Matches: 
This is the Group of Death. Other than Netherlands and Ireland, all other teams are capable of making it through to the Quarters.

India has quite a few players capable of single-handedly butchering the opposition. Home advantage alone can play a big role in their success story.  Also, unarguably, the best batsman in the world, Sachin Tendulkar would be creating history playing the sixth World Cup. His inclusion in itself is a massive confidence boost.

The South African side has been phenomenal in terms of adapting to various playing conditions. They seem to have what it takes to win the cup, leave aside their chance of making it through to the Quarter Finals. A lot of their players have been playing in the Indian Premier League giving them a lot of comfort.

Bangladesh and West Indies are highly unpredictable in terms of their approach but I would like to keep Bangladesh ahead of West Indies due to their home advantage. They have a lot to play for and history suggests that they are capable of making huge upsets.

The English team is quite unstable and is capable of losing matches from winning situations. However, it’s hard to rule them out as well. They have quite a few match winners in Kevin Peterson, Andrew Strauss and Paul Collingwood. However, their strong swing attack might find it tough to adjust.

Possibilities and probabilities might be endless but, what all should be looking at is a competitive series and not something like the previous one.

Truly Amazing

Gautam Gambhir is the first Indian batsman to score 300 or more runs in 4 consecutive series.

He has now the highest average(54.07) among the Indian openers.

Since India's home series against Australia last October, he has scored 1269 runs in eight test matches at an average of 84.6, including a double century, four centuries and four half centuries.

truly amazing...isn't it??

Brothers did it

Hussey brothers for Australia against NZ and Pathan brothers for India against SL did well to make sure their teams win the game...

Michael Hussey and David Hussey ensured the Chappell-Hadlee Trophy is alive by winning the 4th ODI and levelling the series against NZ with one more ODI to play where as Irfan Pathan and Yusuf Pathan took India to a thrilling win against Sri Lanka in a T20 match. No one might have thought India can win the match until Pathan brothers came to the crease. They completely changed the complexion of the game and won the game for India....

It's a rare happening(on the same day) and it was really nice to see these partnerships....well done Hussey bros and Pathan bros...

Where is the common sense?

India have won the 3rd ODI by D/L method. It's very sad that we did not have the full match. England was very unfortunate. They set a chaseable target for India and got wickets at regular intervals. They were set back by bad light.

The toss was delayed because of the haze and overcast conditions. And we lost 45 mins before the start of the play. Finally the match was reduced to 49 overs per team. When we have lost 45 mins and you expect bad light at the end of the day, 2-3 more overs should have been deducted per innings.

And adding to this the lunch break was not shortened. A 10-15 min lunch break would have been fine in this situtaion.

In a ODI match played between England and New Zealand at Edgbaston on 18th June 2008, England's time wasting tactics cost New Zealand the match. ICC changed the rule after this match to prevent such instances.

As per the rule, the 10 minute's break will be taken only if we lose more than an hour of play. We lost 45 minutes here and the bad light was expected at the end of the day. So, why wouldn't they implement this rule and reduce the lunch break to 10 minutes?

And why didn't they make use of the flood lights?

I strongly feel that D/L method should come into play only when any further play is not possible because of rain. In situations like bad light or anything other than rain, they must make use of the flood lights.

Suresh Menon at cricinfo says 'Have a full game at any cost'.

The struggle continues

After 2-0 humiliation by India, Australia is now playing against New Zealand and their struggle continues, especially Ponting's poor form.

New Zealand did well to restrict Australia to a low first innings total. Except Michael Clark, no one showed the signs of offering resistance. Tim Southee was the star of the day with his superb bowling.

But New Zealand has a reputation for inconsistent performance. If NZ bowlers can bowl out Australia then New Zealand may be bowled out for a score less than Australia's. Anything can happen with New Zealand. But the clash between Australia and New Zealand is always interesing.

Unusual thing happened:
Andrew Symonds scored 8 runs of one ball when he hit O'Brien and ran four runs and then got four overthrows from New Zealand fielding.

Tight Schedule

Australians are still here playing test cricket. England have already reached India for 7 ODIs and 2 Tests. And they have already started their preparations. ODI series between India and England begins on 14th November, just 3 days after the test series with Australia concludes.
The players(Indian) have no time to rest. It's not this time, it is going to be the case for the next 9 months.

Indian players are going to play non-stop cricket for the next 9 months, which starts with the ODI series against Egland. The ODI series will be followed by Champions Twenty20 Leauge in India and then the 2-test series with England. Soon after India will facing Pakistan in Pakistan for a three-match Test series, 5 match ODI series and a Twenty20 match. Then India will play 2 tests, 5 ODIs and a Twenty20 against New Zealand in New Zealand. Soon after this series finishes, they will take part in the 2nd season of Indian Premium League. They have to fly all across the country during the IPL. Within a week, India have to go to Egland to play in ICC Twenty20 World Cup, followed by 4 ODIs with West Indies in West Indies.

The schedule for India in next 9 months is as follows.

India Vs England : 7 ODIs and 2 Tests, 14th Nov'08 - 23rd Dec'08
Champions Twenty20 Leauge : 3rd Dec'08 - 10th Dec'08
India Vs Pakistan : 5 ODIs, 1 Twenty20 and 3 Tests, 6th Jan'09 - 19 Feb'09
India Vs New Zealand : 5 ODIs, 1 Twenty20 and 2 Tests, 6th Mar'09 - 7th Apr'09
IPL 2nd season 10th Apr'09 - 29th May'09
ICC World Twenty20 : 5th June'09 - 21st June'09
India Vs West Indies : 4 ODIs 26th Jun'09 - 5th July'09

There has been a lot of debate over too much cricket in India. This schedule causes a lot of problems to the players' fitness. Many players are prone to injuries because of this kind of schedule.

Many people were surprised over Sachin's decision to opt out of the first 3 ODIs. He wanted rest and so he opted out for first 3 ODIs. Many players would follow Sachin if such is the case with this tight schedule. Dhoni pulled himself out of test series against Sri Lanka this year because of the tight schedule at that time.

The cricket fans will enjoy this, but not the players...a tough time ahead for the players...
I am afraid some of Indian players may pull out themselves during these 9 months. BCCI need to implement rotation policy.

Cricket-Past, Present and Future

Cricket is one of the greatest games ever played. It is a mind game than body. Going back to the past, it was a game played by a minimum number of nations, but as time passed on, the game raised interest in the hearts of millions. The number of cricket playing nations have increased over time.

Cricket was discovered in England and the only countries which played it initially were England and Australia. Then the countries South Africa, West Indies, India, New Zealand, Pakistan, Srilanka and Bangladesh have joined the list. Now cricket is played in more than 100 countries. It all started with test matches which do not have a limit on time. Then the time was limited to 5 days and later the limited overs game was established which are the one-dayer. The one-day matches were initially 60 overs but were later reduced to 50 overs. Now the new format of the game is established which are the 20-20's. This was introduced in England to provide the tired workers with some evening entertainment and it proved prosperous. Thus the unlimited time matches has reduced to a very much limited time. And what might be the future. It might even reduce to 10 overs.

In the past cricket was even seen with pride ,but now its been a business with a lot of sponserships, telecasting rights and even high amount of betting. The players are giving top priority to money than game. Now by introducing different leagues like IPL,ICL and the Champions league which are drawing more crowds, the number of one-days and tests played will get down. Even the players are giving priority to the leagues than playing to their country. Many players already said that Test matches are no more interesting. The interest in test cricket has gone down. The stadium in India which are always seen filled up are now seen empty during the test matches between India and Australia. Even the 50-50 format is slowly loosing its grip. ICC is taking care to limit the number of 20-20 played every year. But this cannot avoid the fact that other formats of the game are dipping. The future might well give way to short time matches like the 20-20 where the importance of class-play is minimum. The test matches might not be eradicated but might loose their importance.

What a day

for Bangladesh, especially Shakib Al Hasan and India, especially Ganguly.

Shakib Al Hasan ripped through New Zealand to boost Bangladesh on the second day of the first of 2 tests against New Zealand. A six-wicket haul from the left-arm spinner Shakib Al Hasan allowed Bangladesh to make an impressive start to their test match against New Zealand today. He took six for 32 from 24 overs at the Chittagong Divisional Stadium to make New Zealand struggling at 155/9 at stumps on day 2 after they bowled out Bangladesh for 245. New Zealand pinned their hopes on Oram , McCullum when they were 57/4 at tea. But both these players got out looking to play big shots. Vettori is batting on 48 and they still trail by 90 runs.

India had an excellent day at Mohali they could be proud of. Brilliant performances from the captain MS Dhoni(92) and Sourav Ganguly(102) took India to a good total of 469. Dhoni was a little unlucky to be given out. He deserved a century. Dhoni played his natural game after a long time. Dhoni played agressively and carried the momentum set by Sachin Tendulkar. It was nice to see him playing this way. Ganguly makes his last test series a sweet one with his hundred in the first innings of the second test and a good performance in the first test. He was cool and confident throughout his innings and did not play a too many unnecessary shots. He constructed his innings with ease.

Here is what Ganguly has got to say after the day's play "This will be my last series, I will not reconsider coming back (smiles). It's been a fantastic batting quartet. Our overseas performances have improved over the last few years. I knew I wasn't going to be selected any more"

Zaheer Khan got the early breakthrough by removing Hayden for 0. It's Zaheer Vs Hayden now after Harbhajan Vs Ponting. Zaheer gets Hayden three times in a row in this series. Debutant Amit Mishra took 2 wickets. Australia is 102/4 at the end of day2. The day completely belongs to India. Australia keeps its hopes on Hussey.

New Zealand struggles

New Zealand is struggling on 57/4 at tea on day-2 in the first test against Bangladesh. All the 4 wickets have fallen to the spinners. Shakib Al Hasan takes 3 wickets. McCullum and Flynn are at the crease. Can McCullum play a long innings to get his team to a comfortable position? A lot depends on McCullum, Oram and Vettori.

India heading towards a big total

A good knock of 88 by Sachin, a brilliant unbeaten 91 by Ganguly and an entertaining knock of unbeaten 45 by Dhoni ensured India a big total in their first Innings in the second test of Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2008 against Australia. India is 401/6 at lunch. Ganguly is well set to score a century. I think Australians missed a trick while bowling to Ganguly. There were only a few short balls bowled to him.

Meanwhile, Bangladesh 245 all out in their first Innings against New Zealand...and NZ is 8/0 in 3 overs.

India ends the day on a high note

Well, first day of the 2nd test between India and Australia saw some milestones. Sachin beat the Lara's record of most test runs, Sachin corssed 12000 test runs, Ganguly crossed 7000 test runs. But one sad thing is Sachin Tendulkar once again missed a well deserved century. His partnership of 142 runs with Ganguly took his team to a comfortable position. Ganguly scored a half century and is looking strong and confident.
Sachin, after the stumps on day 1, says " When I got out in Bangalore a few guys made it a point to remind me about the record. I knew I had done a good job there and that was important. My focus today was just to watch the ball. The journey over the last 19 yrs has been fantastic. There are stones thrown at you and you turn it in to milestones. I was not that excited to be honest. The focus was to continue and not lose concentration. Me and Sourav focussed on batting out the day. I didn't really think of the record too many times. I try to keep the records out of my mind and my aim is mainly to contribute. It's nice that it's come at the right time, the Australians are a quality opposition. I planned to stay till the end but it didn't happen. I thought i didn't use my feet well but that's the beauty of the game. The ball changes and so does the game." India end's the day with 311/5.

Meanwhile, Bangladesh recovered an initial setback by New Zealand and ends the day with 183/4. Bangladesh's batsmen Mehrab Hossain and Mushfiqur Rahim played well and made an unbeaten partnership of 139 runs.

India makes a flying start

In the absence of Anil Kumble, Dhoni came out for the toss and he won it. He decided to bat in the second test against Australia at Mohali. Indian openers Virender Sehwag and Gautam Ghambr made a flying start before Sehwag departed for 36. They made 70 runs for the first wicket. Dravid joined Ghambir after Sehwag was out. Ghambir made a half century to take India to 104/1 at lunch. Ghambir is on 53 and Dravid is on 11 at lunch.

Meanwhile, Bangladesh is 34/1 , in 32 overs, against New Zealand at lunch on day-1.