The Cream Rises to the Top

Well at least two out of the 4 teams. The Super Six result is what I predicted. I did not really want New Zealand to be in the semi-finals because they messed up the whole cup by mixing politics with sports, as did England. The Cinderella story of Kenya continues. I have no issues with Cinderella stories and enjoy it when a lowly ranked team just “upps” their game and makes it to the top. However, what I do not like is if the tournament format or some ridiculous rule makes them get there. If anyone really thinks that Kenya would have made it to the semifinal or Super Six round without help from the tournament format and rules then they are totally mistaken. I am glad for Kenya and this will do their players a lot of good. But, this certainly was not fair to South Africa or West Indies. One of those teams should have been in there instead of Kenya. Sri Lanka on the other hand were lucky as New Zealand blew it and crumbled under pressure. The Lankans however are a very good team and so their presence in the semis will make for a good game. Do not get me wrong, on any given day anything can happen in one-day cricket. Kenya can play out of their mind and beat India but the chances of a good game being played were far greater if it was a SA/India semi or a WI/India semi. Australia has braved injuries, controversy and tough games to make it back to the final four. They are a very tough and disciplined side. They will be hard to beat.

I have discussed the format to death in a previous article but let us touch on it a little bit. Firstly the rain rule stinks. It should be like tennis. You have to play the game. So keep an extra day and finish the game. Do not start afresh but keep going and finish it. Yes it will give one of the teams an advantage to start afresh in the morning but it is better than a complete washout and 2 points shared. That should never happen, the game should be completed. However many overs the first team got (at least 25) should be the number of overs the second team gets. No Duckworth-Lewis, just complete the game even if it takes a couple of hours the next morning to do it. Everyone will at least get a fair shot. The game will at least have been completed. The point carry over and the games forfeited I have already talked about in my last piece.

Not many of the Super Six games were exciting as predicted and it has pretty much been boring after the first round. The only game that came close to being exciting was the Australia vs. New Zealand game and that too was won by Australia by 96 runs!! Sri Lanka got thrashed by Australia. They made the same mistake Pakistan did in the game against Australia. They put them in to bat after winning the toss. I did not understand that at all when it is obvious that their lower middle order was not playing well. Australia got a huge total & Sri Lanka lost not only the game but also Jayasuria to injury. Sananth has recovered but he does seem a little hampered while batting. The India Sri Lanka game turned out to be the biggest surprise to me. It was a good batting wicket and India did bat brilliantly most of the way before Sri Lanka pulled it back a little bit at the end. It was still an imposing total but not to the extent that Sri Lanka lost their first four for about 20 odd. Srinath bowled brilliantly. He kept the ball straight and let it do its trick. Pakistan pacers can learn a lot from Srinath. He does not have the same pace as the Pakistanis but he keeps an immaculate line and length and is one of the main reasons why India is where it is. Zaheer has also been impressive and has swung the ball back into the right-handers. Nehra has been effective most of the time with the England game being the exception where he was unplayable under lights. I still feel that if they do not play both Harbhajan and Kumble they are a bowler short. Against Australia they will absolutely have to play two spinners as Aussies have shown their vulnerability to spin. I wonder why Pakistan have gone away from making spinning wickets and playing 2-3 spinners like they used to in the past at home. They used to trounce Australia and the likes of Iqbal Qasim and Tuaseef etc. were all over the Aussies. Even Kenya highlighted that fact in the last game of the Super Six. More of that later. India trounced the Lankans by 180 odd runs. None of the Lankans did much in that game. It was total humiliation. India really has played well after the loss to Australia but they have not had a flutter against any good team yet. They had a little bit of a problem against Holland early in the tournament and against Kenya in the Super Six but apart from that they have dominated the other teams from the start to the finish. It will be interesting to see how they react to the loss of Tendulkar early against a quality side chasing a big total.

New Zealand beat Zimbabwe easily & their showdown against Australia was being hyped as the big game in the Super Six. I was of the opinion and still am that New Zealand looked like the only team that could beat Australia. New Zealand bowled very well and Bond showed his class. He ran through the Australian top order before Bevan and Bichel again got them to a respectable 208. New Zealand started well with Fleming looking great but they lost quick wickets on the other end. When Cairns and Fleming got together they looked like they would get the runs easily. Cairns smashed McGrath over mid on for a fantastic pull, one of the best shots I have seen in long time. But he chanced his arm one to many times and got out caught at third man off Bichel. That did it. New Zealand just capitulated after that to Lee. Another big win for Australia and New Zealand were left to wait for the India game. Kenya would have got into the Semis even if they lost all their games and New Zealand lost two of their three. However, Zimbabwe took care of that. They never showed up against Kenya and folded. It is quite surprising how low the Zimbabwe team has gone after showing such promise one to two years ago. Now that they are losing Andy Flower and some other senior guys, they will be in deep trouble for the next 2-3 years. Kenya’s march to the semis has been remarkable. Their win against Zimbabwe was convincing but that should not normally guarantee you a place in the semis in a world cup. It however did. New Zealand were left with having their fate in their own hand. They had to beat India to get in, as Sri Lanka losing to the Zimbabweans did not look likely. The Indian bowlers however bowled very straight and very well. They got New Zealand out for a paltry 146. No one got going and Zaheer bowled very well. The runs should have been easy to get considering that India has the best batting in the world. However, that man Bond came out firing. He got Sehwag and Ganguly early. Tendulkar played some gorgeous shots before throwing his wicket away to Tuffey. India were 24-3 and in trouble. All that was needed was another wicket there and panic may have set in. It may sound redundant but catches win matches. Bond got Dravid to edge one for a straightforward catch to the keeper and MacCullum put it down. It was just a regulation catch and he dropped it. New Zealand players’ were devastated as they dropped their shoulders. Dravid gave another chance soon after as Fleming flung himself to his right but only got a hand to one at gully. Harris then put Kaif down at point. Three chances in the space of a few overs to get into the game and all were floored. The game was over. Kaif played very well and Dravid gave him good company. They kept getting singles and twos with an odd boundary. And once they were out of early trouble it was all very easy. New Zealanders only had themselves to blame. Sri Lanka beat Zimbabwe in another bore of a game and are into the semis.

Australia has been through a lot with injuries, controversy and tough games. They lost Warne before it all started. They lost Gillespie to injury. Now they do not have Martyn for the semifinal. Someone has however stepped up in every game. They are certainly more vulnerable than they have ever been. It was obvious against Kenya when after an absolutely blistering attack by Gilchrist, they lost 5 quick wickets with 3 being picked up by the spinner Asif Karim. The spinners gave the Australian top order a lot of trouble and Sri Lanka and India will have made note of that. Sri Lanka is not really tearing up the field. Murali can however make the difference and can be a danger man. The Lankans would love to inflict some pain to the Aussies after the racial incident with Lehmann. Australia would love to get some payback for the 1996 final. India is probably sitting pretty smiling at all this knowing that since they are playing a weak opposition, the day and night factor may not be a big deal anymore. They have already played Kenya and batted second under lights and won. They had a bit of a stutter in that game though. Losing 4 quick wickets early before Ganguly and Yuvraj put an end to the Kenyan hopes. The field may not be spectacular but it is the biggest stage so people will watch. On form and for the sake of cricket, we hope that Australia and India make it to the final. They have been the two best teams in the tournament. Cricket is a funny game though and anything can happen. A Sri Lanka/Kenya final will be outrageous. However, the chances of that happening are miniscule. But as they say, “that is why they play the games”.