India Vs England Match Review

          The match started with lot of drama as Sehwag gave two near catch chances during the first over. Sehwag got out soon but after giving a small dynamite innings. Sachin and Gambhir took over from there and built a very strong platform for Indian team. Bowlers seemed powerless against these two batsmen. Both of them played quality cricket shots and an important point to highlight here is that none of these players tried anything unnecessary or played extra carefully. Sachin went after Swan and medium paced bowlers and did not allow them to settle. We don’t know why but during bowling English pace bowlers seemed reluctant to try yorkers or more quantity of good length deliveries. Instead they stuck with slow bouncers and short pitched deliveries which later on proved to be a very expensive stretegy. In my opinion they should not have over done the slow bouncer cause there is no fun of such delivery if the batsman is pre expecting it. English team was average in the field, and lack of variation and intelligent bowling enabled Indian team to give a steep target of 338 runs which had put a lot of pressure on English batsmen. 

          The question was were the English batsmen upto the task and they replied in a beautiful maner. The initial partnership between Strauss and Peterson was worth watching. The idea of bringing Peterson up in the batting order is really paying off for England. Strauss and Bell built up a great partnership after loss of Peterson due to a lucky catch and Trott. Bell got very lucky during his innings as he was saved from an LBW because of the point of impact of ball with the pad was more than 2.5 meters down the pitch (a rule which seriously needs review after the hawk eye). Nevertheless Strauss led his teamm to a point where victory seemed iminent. When England took power play we thought that the match was over but some exceptional bowling by Zaheer Khan turned the tables and English middle batting order completely collapsed. However Dhoni during last 3 overs was left with less experienced bowlers as Zaheer and Harbajan had complated their quota of 10 overs. There was a lot of drama during last 3 overs and the match ended in a tie. Indian fielding at the moments when it mattered most was pathetic. They seriously need to keep themselves composed under pressure. Chawla could have created problems but he remained nervous during his bowling and bowled too mush shorter length deliveries. The bottom line is that it was a brilliant match full of nerve breaking drama and fans of both the teams were satisfied in the end.

Pakistan Vs Srilanka Match Review

          It was over all a very interesting match. Pakistan won the toss and decided to bat first. The pitch seemed very good for batting and in-spite of loosing one wicket Pakistani openers were able to give the team a good start. Pakistani team stumbled into trouble when a misunderstanding led to run out, which was very annoying to watch. The team needs to work on their running between the wickets. Soon after Akmal threw his wicket by loosing his patience playing a totally unnecessary shot. Srilankan team should have got a clue from here and should have put pressure on Pakistani team by bringing fielders inside the circle to stop the singles. However they were more keen to stop the boundaries and allowed the middle order batsmen to take singles and build up a partnership. This partnership gave Pakistan a platform to launch their onslaught in last 10 overs. In the end Pakistan gave Srilanka a target of 278 runs. In our opinion Srilanka should have payed little more attention on stopping the singles during the Pakistani innings which may have restricted Pakistani team to a total may be less than 250. Target of 278 runs was some what difficult achieve on the given pitch.

          Srilankan team started brilliantly and was in total control of the game till Afridi came for bowling. Soon Srilankan team found themselves in trouble. Sangakara and Chamarasilva tried to give stability to team’s innings and at one time it appeared that they were on top of the game, but as soon as they started to accelerate the wickets started to fall and soon defeat was inevitable for Srilanka. It is worth mentioning that Pakistani team at this stage dropped their guard and therefore the match went to a close victory. The fielding of Pakistani team in last 10 overs was pathetic. The bowling discipline apart from Afridi also needs improvement. The team gave a total of 26 extras which is very high for an international team these days.

Ireland Vs Bangladesh match Review

          Bangladesh won the toss and decided to bat first, may be because of bitter experience of match against India. The start of Bangladesh innings was good in-spite of two early wickets falling. They managed to maintain good run rate and we thought that they will be able to score close to 300 runs. However after Tamim fell the runs started to dry out. The credit also goes to Irish bowling who kept their calm in-spite of thrashing by Tamim and were able to gain a foot hold and strike back at Bangladesh. The Bengali team was not  able to consolidate on the start given to them. No partnership was able to stand for long and Bangladesh team was able to achieve a total of 205 runs only, which in our opinion was 50 runs less than what should have been the target. When Irish cam to bat the target in front of them was not that steep and the only thing they had to do was to keep their calm and play sensibly. At the initial stage of the match Stirling threw his wicket due to poor foot work. The Bengali bowlers did put up a good fight and no Irish partnership was able to develop in the early stages of the match. The Bengali team showed a lot of energy in the field as well. The Bengali victory was seriously threatened when O'brian and Botha formed one last stand however they were not up to the Bengali bowling and the Irish team perished falling 32 runs short. We, during Irish batting felt serious issues with their foot work and team coach really needs to work on this matter if the Irish team want to have any chances of staying in the competition. In the end it was a close match and was really fun to watch.

Australia Vs New Zealand match Review

          Basically a disappointment.  The match started after rain and the pitch was grassy, both made the conditions ideal for pace bowling and Australian team which basically relies on its pace bowling, after winning the toss very wisely asked New Zealand to bat first. New Zealand team was unable to form any partnership and wickets kept on falling at regular intervals. Australian bowlers were outstanding with their line and length. The Aussie strategy also payed off as Sun came out and the pitch started to dry off  near the end of New Zealand innings. When Aussies came to bat the conditions were comparatively comfortable for batting. The Kiwi bowling strategy to pitch the ball up as we mentioned in our review of their match against Kenya failed and created no problem whatsoever for Aussies who were comfortably able to finish the match in 34th over.

South Africa Vs West Indies Match Review

          An intresting match to watch. South Africa won the toss and decided to give West Indies a chance to bat first. South Africa like many other teams in this world cup employed the strategy of bowling with a spinner during the first power play, which instantly payed off and they managed to get Gayle out. Smith and Bravo took over from there and built up a descent partnership, however after the partnership was broken the West Indian team failed to produce good partnerships and as a result West Indian team was not even able to complete their quota of 50 overs and were all out at 222 runs. South African team showed very good bowling discipline and field, their choice to emphasis more on spinners than pace bowlers was very reasonable. The major problem during the West Indian batting was their consistency and it was noted that after each of the two partnerships which held their ground for a little while there were two or three consecutive wickets going down which was disappointing.

          When South Africa came to bat, Smith appeared to be out of touch and Amla and Kallis fell at under 20 runs. It appeared at that stage that the match will be a very close one, however AB de Villiers was outstanding on the pitch it seemed as he was batting on some other pitch. De Villiers and Smith  comfortably took South Africa to a winning position. One point to mention here that South Africa did not utilize their batting Power Play, which in our opinion they should have taken at 30th over to finish the match early and win with better Net Run Rate. There was a bit of Drama as rain came over but in the end De Villiars managed his century and South Africa won the match.

Pakistan Vs Kenya Match Review

          This can be termed as a warm up match for Pakistan cricket team who has been through a lot of drama recently. Pakistan won the toss and decided to bat first, they had a typical Pakistani start as wickets start to fall at the very beginning of their innings. The openers seemed to play very carefully but there is no fun in being cautious and defensive if you cannot save your wicket. The middle order however performed pretty well and there were number of partnerships to stabilize Pakistani innings followed by a lot of fire power in the end. Over the time we have witnessed when Pakistan team is going well its a treat to watch their last 10 overs. It is worth mentioning here that in the 5 overs of batting power play Pakistan cricket team scored 70 runs. Kenyan team however was average in the field and pathetic in bowling dicipline. The bowling performance of Kenyans was not worthy of an international team. They gave over 40 valuable runs in wide balls which in itself  is a world record. 

          Pakistani bowlers especially spinners performed very well and they bowled Kenya out at 112 runs. No one from Kenyan side except Obyua was able to stand his ground for long, wickets kept on falling with Pakistani captain leading the bowling attack with 5 wickets and match was an easy win for Pakistan crickert team.

England Vs Netherlands Match Review

          This was a worth watching match with a lot of Drama. Netherlands won the toss and decided to bat first. We soon found out that Netherlands have a very stable batting order. They batted sensibly especially RN ten Doeschae who was immaculate in both batting and bowling. The England did not show much spark in their bowling except for Swan who bowled exceedingly well. It was very amusing to see English players field like rookies and especially during the last stages of the match where fielders seemed to have no clue of where they should be and were strolling in ground like a loose heard. It was a poor show of command and control and an example of weak captaincy on part of Strauss. One of the reasons in our opinion for such preposterous behaviour by English team was that they did not expected the Dutch team to perform so well and were not mentally prepared for such onslaught. Nevertheless the Dutch team surprised everyone by their batting and at the end of their batting innings we thought that they might even win the match. 

          When the English came to bat they seemed much more composed and started like professionals, may be because the Dutch bowling was not nearly as good as their batting. It was a good change to see Peterson opening for English. Andrew Strauss showed his class while batting. The Dutch in the field were also brilliant but what they lacked was a good bowling attack. They mostly have medium pacers with almost same style of bowling which created no difficulty whatsoever for English batsmen, on the contrary it allowed them to settle. Moreover during later portion of their bowling inning Dutch seemed less keen to restrict singles which is almost never a good idea. The bowlers did not ball according to their field placement, it was amusing to see bowlers bowling on the leg side with fielders on off side. Weak bowling on part of Dutch and English batting depth in our opinion cost Dutch the match.

Australia Vs Zimbabwe Match Review

          This match was probably the best of  matches yet played in this world cup. We saw tremendous effort put in by the Zimbabwean side during both phases of the match. The Zimbabwean team opted to attack with spinners which payed off therefore they restricted Australian side to an achievable target. The Aussies batted first and started extra cautiously which was unnecessary. They achieved their 100 runs by 26th over which is very late considering the pace of batting these days. Moreover the Aussie batsmen save Ponting seemed reluctant to play spinners and at one stage it was felt that they may not even reach 250. . A lot of credit goes to the captaincy of Zimbabwean captain who managed his team very well against one of the best teams of world. The Zimbabwean on the whole performed very energetically in the field. It was however disappointing to see Aussies go extra defensive against spinners. Their wickets kept on falling at regular interval in-spite of such careful strategy. This kind of strategy may not work against better bowling sides.

           When it comes to Aussie bowling they just proved the their captain's statement which he had made before the world cup. They showed us what a good pace bowling attack can do no matter what the pitch conditions are. Zimbabwean team struggled with their batting. There were some immaculate shots played  and individual players put up a good fight but overall not partnership stood long enough to make a difference. The Aussies in the field were outstanding.  It was treat for eyes to see the fielding of both the teams. Overall it was a technically sound match which exceeded our expectations though the results were pre-expected. One last thing which is worth mentioning here is that unlike the previous matches there were a lot of not out decisions changed during the review which shows the importance of introduction of this rule to one day internationals.

Srilanka Vs Canada Match Review

          This match was pretty much same as the two matches played before, Canada won the toss and gave Srilanka chance to bat first. The Canadian bowling attack got a set back due to Onside,(who was bowling particularly well) getting an injury in the initial stages of the match. The field placement of Canadian team was much better than the Bangladesh. However the spinners and pace bowlers failed to create any difficulty for Srilanken batsmen. Sangakara and Jayawardane both played a superb and sensible innings till last 10 overs. Sangakara got unlucky at 92 and got out. Jayawardane however made the fastest century by any Srilankan in the world cup consuming merely 80 balls. Previously the record was held by Jayasuria with a century of 85 balls. We however think that the batting power play was taken very late. Srilankan side should have taken power play latest by 40th over or may have followed Indian strategy of taking power play early at 30th over. Furthermore the way Srilankan batting collapsed later on was also a poor show on Srilankan's part. We know that this generally happens in last overs of the game but the way batsmen got out was very disappointing. Weak bowling of Canadian team was very evident throughout the match. During this match we also saw what a good bowling attack can do as Srilankan team unlike Indians was able to create a lot of trouble for Canadian batsmen and bowled them all out by 122. Cheema however is worth mentioning here who  despite of his colleagues falling around him played a good knock. The guy has shown some talent and we wish to see more of him in future. The bottom line is that this again was a one sided match and results were pre-expected. One point however is worth mentioning which is that Canadian captain was too quick to ask for review on Umpires decisions which was quite amusing to watch.

          Overall only  three matches have been played in the world cup. The fielding standard of even the experienced teams has not been up to the mark which is very irritating. This kind of fielding standards during the knock out matches can leave the team fans heart broken.

New Zealand Vs Kenya Match Review

          This match was pretty much one sided. The match did not progress enough to mention anything of importance. The Kenyan captain decided to bat first after winning the toss. The initial 10 overs went normal till Bennett started to rip through Kenyan batting order. An interesting thing to mention here is that New Zealand pace bowlers kept pitching the ball to a fuller length, a strategy that might not work against good batting order. Another unusual strategy employed by New Zealand team was to use spinner in the first power play,  it will be interesting to see them employing same tactics against more experienced teams. Kenyan batsmen however seemed powerless and were bowled all out by a very small total, which New Zealand achieved without any difficulty. The result of the match was same as expected before the beginning of the match, however such low scoring match was a disappointment.

India Vs Bangladesh Match Review

          The first match of the ICC world cup was between India and Bangladesh. The Bangladesh captain won the toss and gave India a chance to bat first  mainly because of two reasons. Firstly in the region of sub continent the dew starts to fall after sunset and due to this ¨dew factor¨ the bowlers, especially spinners get big disadvantage. The ball starts to skid instead of spinning and lesser the movement of the ball is the easier it is for the batsman to play it. Secondly the track record of the ground on which the match was played favors the team batting second. However the plan went wrong because Indian side was able to secure a very high total of 372 runs, which put a lot of pressure on Bangla side. The Bangla team was seen out of spirit from just after the first power play. The bowlers did not ball according to field and further more the fielders seemed more keen to stop boundaries and pay less attention towards the singles. This strategy failed because the score kept increasing without any difficulty with singles and occasional boundaries. The scenario created by the Bangla team helped the Indian partnerships to grow initially and blast their way to 370 in final stages of their innings. A drop catch of Sehwag in his initial portion of innings cost Bangladesh the complete match. We however are not undermining the batting capability of Indian players who bated sensibly and superbly throughout the innings. We saw Sehwag play unlike his usual self in this match because he generally does not play with this much of patience. Kohli supported Sehwag pretty well and secured his own century. Lack of experience on the part of bowlers was evident in the Bangla bowling.

          The Bangla batsmen started dynamically especially against Sreesanth. There, for the moment it was felt as if Bangla batsmen are up to the target. However soon enough the inability of Bangla batsmen to play swing and spin became evident. Having said that Bangla batting order put up a very good fight but the target was too steep. 

           The Bangla team need to work on field placement and  batting against swing. Indian team has a weak bowling line up which may trouble them against more experienced teams.

Live Streaming of Warm UP matches

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Stay Tuned Folks

      3 days to go in starting of ICC world cup 2011. We will be putting our reviews of all the matches. Our initial intentions were to review the warm up matches as well but that was dropped because there is not huge amount of stress during these matches. Though the results of these matches are interesting but nevertheless not important. We however have established few facts regarding this world cup, which are that it will be a high scoring world cup and the lime light will be on spinners and medium paced bowlers. Hope to see you guys soon and witness a great world cup.

Pkaistan Loses an All Rounder

          Pakistan also loses its important all rounder Sohail Tanvir to an injury. Sohail not only had played an important role in Pakistani bowling but also contributed in making valuable runs for the Pakistani team. The new comer Junaid Khan how ever will Debut in world cup.

Inda Bowling

          India loses their star bowler Parveen Kumar to an injury. He is being replaced by Sreesanth who is more experienced than Parveen but on the other hand has an bowling economy of over 6. The replacement may be expensive for India.

Englands Batting Replacement

          England loses its Eion Morgan (who has fractured his finger on left hand) to an injury. The batsman will be replaced by Ravi Bopara. The stats of are not very much apart but may still cause a set back to English team.

Aussies First Batting Set Back

          Due to injury problems Mike Hussey has now been dropped out of Aussie world cup squad and has been replaced by Callum Ferguson. Ferguson rather new to world of cricket has batting avg. of 44 which is quiet impressive and has secured five 50s in 28 matches.  Mike Hussey was supposed to be available by second or third match in the world cup. This puts a good deal of pressure on Aussie batting order especially on the new comer Callum Ferguson.