Archive for ‘September 28th, 2009’

3 results.
Sep28

The favorites crash out

by wasim on September 28th, 2009 at 6:58 am
Posted In: Cricket, Cricket Pakistan, Cricket, Cricket South Africa, Cricket, Cricket Srilanka

Like many other pundits I also picked South Africa and Sri Lanka as favorites for the champions trophy based on their recent ODI performance, South Africa has already crashed out and Sri Lanka is just sitting on the brink hoping for a miracle.

South Africa’s big event jinx is not over, they never looked good as a team in this event there batting line up looked very strong on paper but other than Smith and AB none of the other batsmen could make any material contribution in the batting  Gibbs, Duminy , Boucher, and kallis all of them only contributed in 20′s, nobody tried to stay on the wicket and form a partnership their batting lacked planning and at times it seemed as if they are still going through an IPL hangover. Their bowling was highly uncharacteristic, it was their own home grounds and they were practicing on these grounds for the this event for the past two months, the way Steyn and Parnell bowled looked as if they were completely out of gas, South African pace bowlers are renowned for the relentless attack and continous aggression but in this tournament they looked to flat. Parnell is over rated he bowled well in T20 cup but looked like an average bowler in this tournament. South Africa depend too much on Smith’s batting other will have to share the burden, I think not playing Amla and continuing with JP Duminy was a mistake.

Sri Lanka was the other favorite they started the tournament with a bang when they convincingly defeated  South Africa in the first match, but then they lost to both England and New Zealand. SriLanka before this tournament were struggling with their lower middle order, the inclusion of Samaraweera, Kandamby and Angelo kind of fixed that problem, but Sangakara and Jayasuriya failed miserably in this tournament.

I think Sangakara talks too much he needs to focus on his performance, he is always criticising his players but the fact is that his own performance has thorughly sucked in this tournament. Jayawardne did score some runs but he can no longer finish a match on his own he needs support.

I think it’s time for jayasuriya to retire he is just disgracing himself, Sri Lanka has found some good young players, they need to get rid of Jayasuriya and they also need to replace Malinga.

It’s been a very successful tournament so far, with the exception of West Indies all teams played good cricket, the variety of conditions offered by different venues tested the teams in different ways. The organizers made sure that only the best team wins.

After a 6-1 drubbing by Australia nobody gave any chance to England and yet they are the first team to qualify for the Semi final. India which was considered favorite and the team to beat alongwith South Africa lost against Pakistan, its match against Australia later today will determine their fate, India will have to win against both Ausralia and West Indies with a reasonable margin in order to qualify for the Semi finals.

In today’s India can only win because of it’s batting against Australia, it’s going to rain in the afternoon so the toss will be cruical, India will be under a lot of pressure as they face win or go home situation.

2 Comments
Sep28

India’s chances rest with Mishra and Harbhajan

by wasim on September 28th, 2009 at 2:05 pm
Posted In: Cricket, Cricket Australia, Cricket, Cricket India, Cricket, Cricket Pakistan

India is facing a win or go home situation in their match against Australia today. The pitch is assisting spinners and both Harbhajan and Mishra are extracting spin, the current crop of Australian players get too edgy against the spinners  and do not know how to work the ball for singles they like to play big shots.

Australia will depend on Ricky Ponting to play a big innings. He will have to play the role of a sheppard he will have to guide the young players against Harbhajan and Mishra.

Dhoni opted for five bowlers he will have to use part timers again to bowl the remaining overs of Ishaant who has been straying too much with his line and length. A lot also depend on how the Australian spinners will bowl on this pitch  as usually in the second innings it is hard to grip the ball, Indian batsmen will take full advantage of it. they struggled a bit against Afridi and Ajmal but the inexperienced Australian spinners won’t bother them much.

Australia will have to score around 300 to put pressure on India and then their pacers will have to bowl aggressively at the Young Indian players.

I have a feeling that India will win this match.

9 Comments
Sep28

India’s chances almost washed out.

by wasim on September 28th, 2009 at 5:39 pm
Posted In: Cricket, Cricket Australia, Cricket, Cricket India, Cricket, Cricket Pakistan

The cut off time is 21.25. It is raining heavily. There are huge puddles in the ground and it doesn’t look like the match between India and Australia will resume.

In case of a wash out Pakistan will make it to the semis but they will have to beat Australia if they want to play Semi final at Centurion where the conditions suit them. Pakistan will not like to face England at Wanderers as the conditions at Wanderers Stadium ideally suit the English team.

It will be hard for India to qualify for Semis even if Australia loses to Pakistan
Australia’s current NRR  =1.000 and India’s current NRR = -1.080. India will have to win from West Indies with a huge margin and Australia will have to lose from Pakistan with a considerable margin.

India’s match against West Indies is at Wanderers, the West Indian team has played  all of it’s matches at that venue their bowling becomes quite handful in those conditions that makes it even tougher for India to beat them with a considerable margin. The Odds are stacked up against the Indian team most likely they will also crash out.

The wash out of todays match has made the game between Pakistan and Australia much more interesting it will be a semi final like situation and the outcome of that match will have many implications.

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