ICC World Cup 2011 (India - Sri Lanka- Ba

Originally posted by MalhotraRaj84 I don't think there is going to be any upsets in Group B, while in Group A -Aus,NZ and SL will easily make it to next round.My prediction skills say that Pakistan might not make it to second round one more time. But if there are no upsets then any of the following 8 have chances in following order (Format is such that anyone who wins 3 matches that count on a trot wins the cup) - ENG - India - SL - Aus - SAF - WI - Pak - NZ   Though NZ I have placed at 8th, they are kind of a Dark Horse for me this time.

 

Originally posted by sam_ahmed Originally posted by MalhotraRaj84 I don't think there is going to be any upsets in Group B, while in Group A -Aus,NZ and SL will easily make it to next round.My prediction skills say that Pakistan might not make it to second round one more time. But if there are no upsets then any of the following 8 have chances in following order (Format is such that anyone who wins 3 matches that count on a trot wins the cup) - ENG - India - SL - Aus - SAF - WI - Pak - NZ   Though NZ I have placed at 8th, they are kind of a Dark Horse for me this time.     you are riding your luck Raj, i do not have an iota of doubt that your predictions are going to go horribly wrong... and it is just a matter of time.

  Man, I just fell of my chair.Ok, here I go ...

I will say one thing, Raj has a far better record of success with his predictions than most, if not all, others on here

You are still in touch with Mystery. Say my "Hi" to him.

Zimbabwe have announced a very very formidable WC squad and making a return is Sean Ervine after a gap of nearly 7 years and he is still 28.

Ervine, Taylor and Taibu form a very decent batting line up and then they have players like Charles Coventry and Elton Chigumbura who are very clean strikers of the ball... pace bowling is their weakness but their Spin Attack comprising of Price, Utseya and Cremer is again a formidable one.

Team: Elton Chigumbura (capt), Regis Chakabva, Charles Coventry, Graeme Cremer, Craig Ervine, Sean Ervine, Gregory Lamb, Shingirai Masakadza, Christopher Mpofu, Raymond Price, Edward Rainsford, Tatenda Taibu, Brendan Taylor, Prosper Utseya, Sean Williams

Yeah, quite right guys and i'm happy for Zimbabwe.  Their pace options is pretty weak though and that might haunt them.

They do have a fairly decent batting line up now Zuhair. We all know how good Taylor, Taibu and Sean Ervine are and even players like Lamb, Chigumbura, Coventry, Craig Ervine are no push overs.

wow, I think now we can use JP's threads for the discussion. Good that we now have a seperate section for WC discussion.

Pakistan definetly make it to the next round. They have a wonderful record in India. I think Sri Lanka, India, South Africa and Australia will reach the semi finals. One of Pakistan, england, NZL or WI could surprise us and make it to semis.

Originally posted by sam_ahmed I think they do allow replacements sledge and the logic behind selecting Mike Hussey seems to be that they expect him to be fit at least by the Quaterfinals.

      Yes Sam , that gives him a couple of months to recover from the surgery.

Andrew Hilditch just keeps 'em coming . His latest is his explanation as to why Nathan Hauritz got into the Australian WC Squad -
 
      " Nathan is our preferred spin option and his one day record in India is excellent."

  Simple enough until you see Hauritz's one day record in India..............

       Matches 7  Overs 62 Maidens 4  Wickets 4 @ 70.75  economy 4.56

       A request from an Englishman to Cricket Australia - please , please keep him on !!
 

Guys hardly a month to go.Anyone for the prediction game ?

Edited by MalhotraRaj84 - 20 January 2011 at 3:57am

Putting stats aside and just by watching, Hauritz was doing very fine in ODI's and in Test Cricket too.  Due to him being slaughtered by the Indians, they got rid of him, as if better bowlers haven't been slaughtered there before.  Hauritz brings back a bit of balance to the Aussies, he's no mug with the bat.

Scyld Berry wrote an interesting article about the World Cup chances of the sides yesterday in the Telegraph.   India , Sri Lanka and Bangladesh offer the best spinning options (no surprise there) and the one fact that raised my eyebrows was that in the trinations tournament in Bangladesh this time last year , the side batting second won every match !!   
       The participants were the three sides named above and the reasons given was simply because of the dew factor - spinners just couldn't grip the ball in the wet conditions.   My view is that the toss shouldn't have such a massive influence - to remove the dew factor the games should have been staged in the daytime.     In the World Cup just 12 of the 49 games will be day matches - the ICC have got it wrong again and the winners could well be the team with the luckiest captain at the toss.

Edited by Sledger - 24 January 2011 at 6:56am

Yep , the usual factor came into play - money.   It's annoying though that players and supporters alike will be on pins at the toss.