For the moment, England are safe, but not quite.
My personal theory is that if they qualify for the quarterfinals, they will reach the finals. They've gone through too much crap during this tournament.
While a lot of people compare this to how Pakistan played in 1992, I'm thinking more of how Australia was in 1999. Erratic in the beginning and then suddenly playing like a team possessed. England already has the tie and now it's up to them to redo what they did in the Ashes.
However, despite winning this match, they haven't qualified as yet.
They depend a lot on Bangladesh's game agains South Africa and since England is full of South Africans, the Barmy Army will have no hangups going to Dhaka to cheer the South Africans for a day. It's not going to match up with 60,000 Bangladeshis, but it'll be a fairly loud crowd.
Bangladesh need to beat South Africa. They've done it before. And in a World Cup. So South Africa, who have played really good cricket so far, will be on their guard. They will have the returning Imran Tahir and AB de Villiers at their disposal, so this makes the task tougher for Bangladesh.
So going by what the tables look right now, our quarterfinal encounters would look like this (this means that Bangladesh don't qualify)
1) Australia Vs West Indies
2) New Zealand Vs England
3) Pakistan Vs India
4) Sri Lanka Vs South Africa
While the first game looks pretty one sided, I don't think so. West Indies have played good cricket and Australia has struggled. Having said that, they've known to be cock teases in previous World Cup events and come out of nowhere to destroy their opposition.
While the third game is full of emotion for every Indian and Pakistani cricket fan, I'm more excited to see game 2 and game 4 because the teams have played good ODI cricket against each other and we're all set for some great games.
Now, for whatever it's worth, if Bangladesh manages to qualify, we could see a Bangladeshi semifinal. Remember, they did beat NZ 4-0 recently.
So now that the initial foreplay's over, next week's all set for the big orgy. Let's hope it's not one-sided!
My personal theory is that if they qualify for the quarterfinals, they will reach the finals. They've gone through too much crap during this tournament.
While a lot of people compare this to how Pakistan played in 1992, I'm thinking more of how Australia was in 1999. Erratic in the beginning and then suddenly playing like a team possessed. England already has the tie and now it's up to them to redo what they did in the Ashes.
However, despite winning this match, they haven't qualified as yet.
They depend a lot on Bangladesh's game agains South Africa and since England is full of South Africans, the Barmy Army will have no hangups going to Dhaka to cheer the South Africans for a day. It's not going to match up with 60,000 Bangladeshis, but it'll be a fairly loud crowd.
Bangladesh need to beat South Africa. They've done it before. And in a World Cup. So South Africa, who have played really good cricket so far, will be on their guard. They will have the returning Imran Tahir and AB de Villiers at their disposal, so this makes the task tougher for Bangladesh.
So going by what the tables look right now, our quarterfinal encounters would look like this (this means that Bangladesh don't qualify)
1) Australia Vs West Indies
2) New Zealand Vs England
3) Pakistan Vs India
4) Sri Lanka Vs South Africa
While the first game looks pretty one sided, I don't think so. West Indies have played good cricket and Australia has struggled. Having said that, they've known to be cock teases in previous World Cup events and come out of nowhere to destroy their opposition.
While the third game is full of emotion for every Indian and Pakistani cricket fan, I'm more excited to see game 2 and game 4 because the teams have played good ODI cricket against each other and we're all set for some great games.
Now, for whatever it's worth, if Bangladesh manages to qualify, we could see a Bangladeshi semifinal. Remember, they did beat NZ 4-0 recently.
So now that the initial foreplay's over, next week's all set for the big orgy. Let's hope it's not one-sided!
How did you come up with Pak vs Ind game in the quarters .. I believe that can happen only if Pak beat Aus and Ind lose to WI and NZ beat SL. Is that your assumption?
ReplyDeleteIt was an assumption. I wrote this piece four days ago.
ReplyDelete