Topsy turvy start to World Cup
I know, I know, I’m such the cynic that even after England tonked Bermuda by 240 runs I still wasn’t convinced, bemoaning the fact that England didn’t look convincing enough. But I hold my hands up - I was (potentially) wrong. In contrast to a number of other big teams, England have had a glorious start to the World Cup. So they’re only warm up games, but we’ve already seen a couple of warning shots and one actual upset.
For starters, Ireland gave South Africa a decent run for their money, restricting South Africa to a below par 192. Ireland were at one point cruising at around 140 for 4, but a horrific England-style collapse saw them lose by 35 runs. But nevertheless, world #1 South Africa were certainly on the ropes for a time and it relied on Andrew Hall to save their bacon. West Indies turned in a similar performance, managing a 21 run win over Kenya. However, New Zealand, on the back of a 3-0 demolition of Australia played a total shocker against Bangladesh, managing to lose by 2 wickets. New Zealand even set a modest total - 227 - but Bangladesh knocked them off with an over to spare. Although none of these matches are official one day-ers, this is nevertheless the first upset.
Australia, Sri Lanka, Pakistan and India have all had successful first matches (Zimbabwe, Scotland, Canada, Netherlands) with India scoring an impressive 300, Sri Lanka managing 294 and Australia 290. Arguably, the bowling has been the weak point thus far, and England’s dismissal of Bermuda of 45 is the best performance yet.
It’s of course expected that the bigger teams will raise their game as they enter the group stages. I am intentionally ignoring the argument over the inclusion of the “minnows” in the World Cup (is it good for them? is it a waste of time? is it an insult to the elite sides, yahda yahda yahda) - the bigger sides are expected to make it through the Super 8 stage, and the matches against the minnows, even in the group stages, are really just warm ups, with the odd banana skin here and there. But if the bigger sides aren’t able to raise their games, and these opening games are anything to go by, then there could be a whole bunch of banana skins lying in wait.
Tags: Australia, England, India, new-zealand, pakistan, west-indies, World-Cup-2007Related Stories
POSTED IN: Cricket
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