ICC CRICKET WORLD CUP
**NOTICE**
*****THIS POST WAS WRITTEN WAY EARLIER BEFORE THIS DAY ITS POSTED ON.
DUE TO TECHNICAL DIFFICULTIES & INTERNET PROBLEMS IT IS POSTED ON THIS DAY THE 25 MARCH 2011. IT WAS WRITTEN AS A WORD DOCUMENT ON THE 23 MARCH 2011 & KEPT IN MY MEMORY STICK, SO SOME EVENTS HAVE ALREADY PAST, SINCERE APOLOGIES****
Now the Cricket World Cup has started, the group stages are done. We moving in to the
knockout stages, the quarterfinals, semi’s & the ultimate final. I think all the teams that were expected to be in the knockout stages have made it. I honestly think Bangi’s (Bangladesh) should have at least made it to the quarterfinals, those fans in Dhaka really need something to cheer them up, they have really backed up their team & fill those stadiums. It felt sad when South Africa crashed them like that, a 206 runs loss, EISH!!!
England was lucky to get thru, that game against West Indies was something to comeback like that, and did that against South Africa & made a comeback of note. Who ever is their fielding coach & bowling coach must be doing some really good damn job. They are the under dog, and might upset many.
This how the two groups finished like in the 2011 ICC Cricket World Cup
GROUP A
| TEAMS | PLAYED | WIN | POINTS | N.R.R |
| Pakistan | 6 | 5 | 10 | 0.758 |
| Sri Lanka | 6 | 4 | 9 | 2.582 |
| Australia | 6 | 4 | 9 | 1.123 |
| New Zealand | 6 | 4 | 8 | 1.135 |
| Zimbabwe | 6 | 2 | 4 | 0.030 |
| Canada | 6 | 1 | 2 | -1.987 |
| Kenya | 6 | 0 | 0 | -3.042 |
GROUP B
| TEAMS | PLAYED | WIN | POINTS | N.R.R |
| South Africa | 6 | 5 | 10 | 2.026 |
| India | 6 | 4 | 9 | 0.900 |
| England | 6 | 3 | 7 | 0.072 |
| West Indies | 6 | 3 | 6 | 1.066 |
| Bangladesh | 6 | 3 | 6 | -1.361 |
| Ireland | 6 | 2 | 4 | -0.696 |
| Netherlands | 6 | 0 | 0 | -2.045 |
(Those in red didn’t make it)
The quarterfinals look like this
23 March 2011
Pakistan vs West Indies - Venue: Dhaka
Pakistan are my favorites’ to win this game. They bowling is superb, with Umar Gul & Shahid Afridi. They have 30 wickets between them in this World Cup alone, proves that they can restrict batting sides runs & targets. Afridi (Bang bang Afridi) has not perform that well with the bat, which he is affectively known for.
Pakistan was the last team to beat Australia in a World Cup in the 1999 World Cup, before their 34-match unbeaten run in the World Cup & now they were the ones who broke that unbeaten runs of the Aus.
The Windies on the other hand also have a good bowling side, with the likes of Ravi Rampaul, Kemar Roach & Suleiman Benn. Their batting is also not that good, with the game against England in mind; they lost it with their batting, after Ravi Rampaul destroyed the Indians batsmen.
My winner is Pakistan
** Pakistan ended up winning the game with 10 wickets against Windies .
Here is the score card
Pakistan vs West Indies – 1st Quarter-Final
Played at Shere Bangla National Stadium, Mirpur, 23 Mar 2011
Toss - West Indies won the toss and elected to bat
Result – Pakistan beat West Indies by 10 wickets
| West Indies Innings | R | B | 4s | 6s | SR | ||
| Devon Smith | lbw b Mohammad Hafeez | 7 | 14 | 1 | 0 | 50.00 | |
| Chris Gayle | c S Afridi b U Gul | 8 | 9 | 2 | 0 | 88.88 | |
| Ramnaresh Sarwan | c U Akmal b S Afridi | 24 | 68 | 2 | 0 | 35.29 | |
| Darren Bravo | lbw b Mohammad Hafeez | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0.00 | |
| Shivnarine Chanderpaul | Not Out | 44 | 106 | 0 | 1 | 41.50 | |
| Kieron Pollard | c K Akmal b S Afridi | 1 | 7 | 0 | 0 | 14.28 | |
| Devon Thomas (W) | lbw b Shahid Afridi | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0.00 | |
| Darren Sammy (C) | lbw b Saeed Ajmal | 1 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 33.33 | |
| Devendra Bishoo | b Saeed Ajmal | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0.00 | |
| Kemar Roach | c Y Khan b A Razzaq | 16 | 43 | 2 | 0 | 37.20 | |
| Ravi Rampaul | b Shahid Afridi | 0 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 0.00 | |
| Extras | (b 0,lb 2,w 7, nb 2) | 11 | |||||
| Total | (All Out; 43.3 overs) | 112 | (2.57 runs per over) | ||||
Fall of wickets (West Indies):
1-14 (Gayle, 2.5 ov), 2-16 (Smith, 5.1 ov), 3-16 (Bravo, 5.4 ov), 4-58 (Sarwan, 24.1 ov), 5-69 (Pollard, 26.4 ov), 6-69 (Thomas, 26.5 ov), 7-71 (Sammy, 27.2 ov), 8-71 (Bishoo, 27.5 ov), 9-111 (Roach, 42.2 ov), 10-112 (Rampaul, 43.3 ov)
| Bowling | O | M | R | W | Econ | |
| Umar Gul | 7 | 1 | 13 | 1 | 1.85 | |
| Mohammad Hafeez | 10 | 3 | 16 | 2 | 1.60 | (w 2) |
| Wahab Riaz | 6 | 0 | 29 | 0 | 4.83 | (nb 1 w 2) |
| Shahid Afridi | 9.3 | 1 | 30 | 4 | 3.15 | (w 1) |
| Saeed Ajmal | 8 | 1 | 18 | 2 | 2.25 | (w 1) |
| Abdul Razzaq | 3 | 1 | 4 | 1 | 1.33 | (w 1) |
Powerplay: 1-10, 11-15 (Bowling)
24 March 2011
Australia vs Indians – Venue Ahmedabad
Arguably the match of the tournament; Indians are the host & the No:1 side in ODI’s while Australia won 3 consecutive last World Cups & known to give their all in ICC tournaments & have a the best team. Tickets for that match have already been sold hours after going to sale.
Dhoni vs Ponting, Yuvraj vs Watson, Haddin vs Sehwag that’s the batting battle that will go down & not forget the Lil Maestro Sachin Tendulkar.
The bowling : Zaheer Khan vs Mitch’y Johnson & Munaf Patel vs Brett Lee.
It will be an epic game, but I think Indians will take it.
**Again as I predicted Indians won the game,Now setting up an old Asian Clash against the Pakis...
25 March 2011
South Africa vs New Zealand – Venue Dhaka
With Brandon McCallum & Ross Taylor in this form, this game will be a tight game. But I know South Africa will make it thru easily. Black Caps captain Daniel Vettori nursing and injury & not sure if he will make it to the starting 11, Black Caps don’t pose much threat to the on song Proteas. AB De Villiers is on such good form & had a good rest for missing 2 games, Hashim Amla & JP Duminy are also providing heavily with the bat.
The bowlers, Dale Steyn, Morne Morkel, Robbie Peterson, Imran Tahir, Lonwabo Tsotsobe, with that kind line up you can destroy any batting side. And the fact that they have manage to take all ten wickets in all the group matches they have played so far, show’s that bowlers are contributing heavily too.
Tsotsob’s finally got a chance to play in the World Cup, after traveling with the Protea’s in the 2007 World Cup & didn’t play, has finally got to bowl a ball & got 3 wickets & the man of the match against Bangi’s. Robbie P has also been in & out of the Proteas side for years, is impressing taking 14 wickets in the group stages at an average of 10 & run rate /over 3.78.
Proteas are taking this game and moving to the semi’s.
26 March 2011
Sri Lanka vs England - Venue: Colombo
Tough match to predict. Sri Lanka has a better performance rate in this World Cup than England. England with their bowling power to upset many batting sides are a force to be reckon with. Having upset the Proteas & the Windies with their ability to defend their low totals, they are the dark horse’s and might upset the Lankan’s. Sri Lanka batting is on point, Kumar Sangakkara leading the top batsmen after the group stages with average of 121 7 strike rate of 89,his gonna torment those English. Dilshan & Tharanga will also help pile up runs for the Sri Lankans. Murali Muralitharan playing in his final World Cup, is still be able to spin that ball & deceive batsmen and get them out.
The English have Andrew Strauss & Trott, if they get going the middle & lower batsmen have less task on their hands, coz the middle order has been failing to support what the opening batsmen have done.
Winner: Sri Lanka
Semi-Finals
(if my predicted teams win, this how the semis will look)
29 March 2011
South Africa vs Sri Lanka – Venue: Colombo
Sri Lanka playing at home, they will be the favourites to win this match. The Proteas having gotten this far, this will be time to shake off their knockout stage hiccups in ICC events and make to the finals, PLEASSSEEE PROTEAS DO MAKE THIS TIME!!!!!
30 March 2011
Pakistan vs India _- Venue: Mohali
The old Asian rivals. Pakistan will want to dominate this match & give their fans who were & their country were strip off from been part of the co-host of this World Cup, will want to bring some pride to their country, Indians with their massive supporters & 2 South Africans in the coaching dept. ( Bowling coach Eric Simons & Head coach Gary Kirsten) wont take that lying down.
Winner: Indians
2 April 2011
FINAL
South Africa vs India – Venue: Mumbai
This is the ultimate, winner takes all.
Proteas!!!!
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