Sunday 8 April 2007

World Cup Gets An Open Look

It is nice to be proved wrong a few times, especially when your prediction
leaves you mug-faced, yet lights up a world Cup. Bangladesh continued their
giant killing run thanks some much disciplined cricket at the outset. The
key to the minnows’ (can we continue with that term?) success was continuing to
be positive with the bat in spite of wickets falling around them.


Mohd. Ashraful played an innings that was innovative and also laced with
risks but that is the advantage one carries when you are not expected to come
first. His shot selection was exemplary. It looks great when it comes,
and draws some serious flak when it fails, but it was his day, and it turned
out well. The square drive he played was reminiscent of a GRV in his pomp
and majesty.



The slow nature of the wicket helped the cause for Bangladesh. The wicket
was anyway on the slower side and Graeme Smith should have batted first to
make the best of the conditions. Bowling in the slog has been the Proteas’
problem area and the sameness in the attack is not helping them either.
Batsmen get used to it, and if a team can preserve wickets, the last 10 can be a
good hunt.


The Bangla bowlers must be given credit for bowling stump to stump and
holding a tight leash that set the trap. The fielding standards helped a
disciplined attack look better and the two run-outs were special. It was a
win for self-belief and covering the percentages well. The bottom half has
opened up well and the final spot could be anybody's and it is good for the
event that looked going one-way till yesterday.



Team India would have been ideal in the present conditions. The wickets are
slowing down and spinners would have had a large part to play. In the
present scenario Sri Lanka have their brightest chance and look the likeliest
team to upset the Aussie applecart.


The match today has more stakes to it after the upset yesterday. If the
Aussies are to encounter a run chase on slow wicket, Monty Panesar and Paul
Collingwood
could be a handful. The English batting is also showing signs of
improvement -- and I am not going to make predictions here! If England can pull
it off it would give the tournament the much needed fillip.

A total in excess of 250, if England were to bat first, would make interesting
viewing. I wouldn't mind getting up weary-eyed on Monday morning. Take my word, it’ll be worth it.

4 comments:

Indyank said...

krish,

Not only ashraful's knock was innovative...but even whatmore seem to have this habit with the different team that he coaches - "Innovate"

Pls read this:
What More can "whatmore" do to team Bangladesh?

http://indyank.blogspot.com/

Unknown said...

Make the Players EARN their endorsements..

Well, instead of restricting the players to a specific number of endorsements, i guess it would be better to make the players earn it...like they should win 5 man of the match awards to get permission for one endorsement and they shud be paid performance incentive for every match they win. ( only very nominal match fee shud be paid for the matches that we loose) and again the quantum to be paid for winning the matches can be decided depending on the opposition team ( and whether its played home or away). I think linking the endorsements to their continued better performances would be fair enough for the players as well as the fans as it would be performance oriented and we may expect to win more matches (improve the pathetic win percentage, specially for away matches). This way the board can avoid any legal hassels that may arise due to restricting the players to any specific number of contracts and at the same time make the players concentrate on the game...

JeeTverma
Hyderabad

Aurindam said...

No surprises this time.
Australia won.
And comfortably so.
Dunno what els 2 say .... apart frm the fact that...
Aussies are Aussies. Period.

And it was nice 2 c d "minnows" Bangladesh win another 1...!!...Seems they have a dream... the dream 2 win the 2011 WC ...and they are all working hard for it... as a team

Bharad said...

Krish,

Comment on my proposed approach for compensating indian cricketers:

http://bharad.blogspot.com/2007/04/unit-earning-system.html

-Bharad