Now that the teams are all miss represented in the earlier posts, let me talk about the pitches.
It seems that the best way to describe them is slow (Barbados), slower (St Lucia)and slowest (Guyana).
Now that bother some people, but having seen the carnage these awkward pitches gave for Zimbabwe and the West Indies I can’t wait to see more of it.
I’m hopeing the top team score for the tournament is 137, and that defending 120 becomes a cake walk.
I can think of nothing better than Paul Collingwood becoming unplayable and Michael clarke bowling his maximum alloted overs. India have clearly made a tactical error by not picking Virat Kohli.
Australia and South Africa have come in with attacks that rely heavily on fast bowling, so that should be interesting.
Of the three best IPL bowlers, two aren’t playing here, in Ojha and Bollinger, if Shaun Tait continues his IPL form, Bollinger’s omission will be painful. And Ojha’s omission hurts as I have just started stalking him and his wonderful flight on twitter.
Now that Zimbabwe have beaten Australia and the world’s best T20 side in their warm ups, they surely need to be warm favourites for the tournament.
Won’t it make the World T20 all worthwhile if Ray Price is bowling the last over to Kieron Pollard in the final.
Then Ray Price could do the talk show circuit, release a single, and sign up for a naked photo shoot.
Although his fame would be short lived, as I think there is a World T20 thingy scheduled for 6 weeks time.
One danger with slow pitches – they might make Jacques Kallis’ strikerate appear about 4 times better than it actually is. Apart from that, it’s all good.
.-= GoodCricketWicket´s last blog ..Oi, statto, NO! =-.
How many posts have you now gone without mentioning Sehwag? I’m considering taking Sehwagology away from here, and branching it into a more rigorous sect…
.-= Rohan´s last blog ..Sitemeter, and the Anatomy of a Blogger =-.
The pitches could be worse: they could be like Delhi in the Champions League last year where generally 100 was more than enough to win the game, except when Sehwag was in the right mood (will that satisfy you, Rohan?)
.-= Paddy´s last blog ..That’s a bit blunt =-.
Pollard was sent late again … why why why … Can someone explain me this ? Is it because they are afraid that if he gets out early whole team will go Crazy or Its hidden technique to hide his hidden talent till he retires from Cricket. The Idle order for him should be number 5. Worlds all greatest (most of them) All rounder play at this position.
Number 5 the most Ideal position for him .. For how long he has to hide from spinners !! Give monster a try .. :Sad
i enjoy watching games on slower trickier pitches much more than the usual concrete tracks, more like cricket less like baseball.
hilditch apologists will point out that harris was very good bowling in the ipl and he can bat a bit better than bollinger, but we have to remember that the reason dougy wasn’t picked to replace Lee was because he played so well in the ipl semi, when will he learn how to get selected into aust team, now he will probably be dropped from all forms of the game. selection for an international tournament requires consistency, and having picked Lee in the first place and MICHAEL FUCKING HUSSEY, picking one of the ipl’s best bowlers would have been appallingly inconsistent.
die hilditch die.
From the first two matches, it seems that you might be right JRod about the top score being 137 – as long as we don’t include the matches against involving Ireland and Afghanistan
.-= The Reverse Sweep´s last blog .."Your guys took one hell of a beating…" – The Sequel =-.
Knowledge eater, like the Mumbai management. the West Indies management believe, and they are probably right, that he can’t play spin.
Smashing Nathan Haurtiz around in one Champion’s League match doesn’t count as being able to play spin I am afraid.
Maybe Pollard just loves number 8. In the IPL final I started to smell a rat but now it’s happened again I wonder if 8 might just be his lucky number. Perhaps he’s carrying a minor injury and he doesn’t want to be used unless he is needed. Maybe he’s just lazy and thinks he’s got a better chance of not having to bat?
Please don’t tell him I said that.
No post about Afghan-fucking-istan? Just wait. You’ll be begging them for a picture of their balls to use as your blog logo.
.-= Mix´s last blog ..Four Paragraphs =-.
the indian selection boggles the mind: no virat, no uthappa. the biggest crime was not taking ojha.
You like Virat better as a bowler, I see.
.-= Rishabh´s last blog ..T20 World Cup Preview – Group C =-.
Shit…is the IPL over? What happened?
.-= Sriram´s last blog ..The Eternal Pied Piper =-.
I have noticed one thing in this year’s World Cup T20. The people who well till now are the ones who have done well in IPL too. Mahela Jayawerdena was good in IPL and good here too. Most of the other Lankans were not upto the mark in IPL and not here too. Dhoni and Vijay were good in IPL and they performed well here too. Overall it is looking that those who were good in IPL are doing well here too and who were out of form in IPL are here too. Last year it was quite different but this year IPL seems to have been the precursor to the world cup. I agree the Ojha would be missed but Jadeja would do a decent job hopefully. Anyways T20 is the most unpredictable form of cricket and hence, I dont rate it high.
.-= Afghanistan Cricket´s last blog ..South Africa wary of Afghanistan cricket team =-.
Good music is better than good cricket. It just fucking is. Enoy it.
“I’m hoping the top team score for the tournament is 137, “
More like 173 ^^
Also, quicks are taking wickets. Some teams might go phewwww.
.-= Wes´s last blog ..Of guts and glory: Kiwis bag first victory =-.
World T what?
Is anyone else getting the diaglogue box saying:
to setup @anywhere please provide a client ID
everytime they load CWB?
Admin person, feel free to delete this post if it’s just my stupid machine.
lol! Nehra got hit in the box and first thing I thought about was your wicked reaction to it :D
Poor Nehra wont have Jr Nehras anymore.
@Wes
Or more like 186
WTF Suresh “The Middling the Ball” Raina or Suresh “The Gapfinder” Raina is doing …
If Raina continues the bats like this then he is going to steal all glory from other great Indian Left handers Gangu and Yuvi
he is going to make another cricinfo article, that Carrib. pitches are actually Flat for Indians and other subcontinent teams and very tricky and slow for The Non-subcontinent
And could someone tell Indian Team that they suppose to be tired .. wtf. are they doing !! hahaha
@knowledge_eater
It shouldn’t come as a surprise what Raina did. I thought he was one of the very few Indian batsman (apart from Dhoni and Rohit Sharma) in decent form coming into the WC. Glad he handled the fast bowlers pretty well!
@Yawn
What about The South Indian Hero Vijay .. i think he is allright I guess ..
The problem with Indians is funny/complicted, if people think that they have to take more spinners or slow bowlers against them then there is big Issue of them playing so well against spinners
And if the take more fast bowlers then you have players who can play really well against fast bowlers once they are Settled.
I think to win against India you need to Outbat them .. because at this point, I don’t see any other team Outbowling them, unless they sucide themselves while batting.
Its still too early but i am going to make prediction now
India is C1 and they will be playing B2 D2 A1 (Srilanks, Westindies and Aussies/pakistan)
Srilanka is certain as a B2, I don’t see WI beating England, since the lieks of line-up poms have, and I think Aussies are more likely to win against pakistan due to Pakistan’s bowling blunders ..
So, I think unless Lankans and WIndies find their batting, Chances of them winnings are slim in Super8 (I hope Poms beat WI, so both India and Poms avoid each other)
So, I will say India have to loose from here before going in to Semi final and I think it looks like India win all of the Super 8 matches .. then i think it will be either Nz, Aus, or Pak against them in semi finals.
let’s see we will know more after Pak vs Aus.
Hi
Can you please put a link to my blog on your ‘cricket blogs’ page:
http://shortthirdman.wordpress.com/
There’s a link to your website on my blog.
I’m writing this here as I wasn’t able to e-mail you. So you don’t have to approve this comment, but just put up a link on your ‘cricket blogs’ page.
Thanks
@Rohan: Sehwag mentioned in The World T20 thingy (chapter 2)
You guys actually keep track of that eh?!
Whoaw..!!
knowledge eater, the “super eights” groups are based on pre-tournament seedings, not the first round results – the first round matches really are completely irrelevant unless a minnow gets an upset. India is C2, Australia will be A2 if they beat Bang. Wait a minute -the others in group F are probably SL and WI – you’ve got it right somehow anyway, apart from including Pak as a possibility.
.-= Jonathan´s last blog ..The real deal? =-.
Almost entirely happy so far, but hoping muchly for an upset tonight.
.-= Wes´s last blog ..Yes Yes A Thousand Times Yes!!!! =-.