Another consideration is that the condition of the pitch and ball change as the match progresses.
When the ball is new, it’s hard and shiny… it zips down faster, swings around in the air (bit like a curve ball), and bounces higher. This gives an advantage to the bowler, and most teams will use their pace bowlers with a newer ball (as speed it the key to getting the best out of the ball).
However, after several overs the ball has been battered around a fair amount. It loses its shine and hardness, and becomes slower and softer. This gives the batsman an advantage. Bowlers then switch to spin bowling, as the roughed up surface gives the ball added grip on the wicket, allowing for often prodigious changes of direction after it bounces.
During the day the pitch will often dry out, as morning dew evaporates, and this too can alter the behaviour of the ball.
A good batsman will often “wait out” the times when the bowler has the advantage, and then make hay with the softer ball.
NB. this is more relevent in test cricket where you have more time to build an innings, and where the ball will be replaced 4-5 times during the match.
A steady victory for New Zealand, who are shaping up to be a real force to be reckoned with!! The West Indies will have to pull something really special out of the bag to stay in the hunt - I’m just hoping they won’t do it against South Africa
The Kiwis are right in the cup, actually - they one team which knows how to get up the Aussie’s noses. Australia will, of course, crush them as is Australia’s wont, but for me the cup is alive as long as the Kiwis are in it.
As a kiwi fan, I do like where we are at the moment. The recent run of injuries is a concern, but we seem to have discovered a real (Aussie-like) ruthlessness recently, just disposing of lesser teams in a real clinical style.
That said, we don’t have the class across the board that the Aussies and Sth Africans do. Our top order is still the biggest concern, there’s some class there but it’s generally either too raw (Fulton and Taylor) or too inconsistent (Fleming and Marshall.)
Our middle order is sound though, we’re a very well balanced team, and we have two world-class bowlers in Bond & Vettori. We should make the semis comfortably (along with Aussie, Sth Africa and Sri Lanka), but it’s still hard to pick against an Aussie victory over Sth Africa in the final.
The top 2 teams of each group make it into the “Super 8” of the cricket world cup. And the game played between the two teams counts as the first game of the Super 8. Even the run rate between the 2 teams in the 1st round game carries through. Thus, each team only plays 6 matches in the Super 8, since they’ve already, in effect, played one of the teams. The possibility exists that the team that finished in 1st place in the group (by points) could have actually lost to the 2nd place team in the group. Does this mean that the 2nd place team in the group carries forward the victory and the 2 points into the Super 8?
I noticed that when the team that bats first (Team A) wins the game, the notation is that “Team A wons by XX runs”. If Team B, which bats second wins, the notation is that “Team B won by Y wickets”. This makes sense because team B doesn’t have the opportunity to win by a large number of runs since the game is over once they’ve surpassed Team A’s total. But what is the notation if Team B actually had more outs (wickets) than Team A? For example Team A could have had 200 runs on 6 wickets due to low scoring production. Meanwhile Team B scored 201, but had 8 wickets. Would the notation be “Team B won by -2 wickets”?
Nope, they’d have won by two wickets; the margin of victory is the number of wickets the victors have remaining (10 being all out), not the difference between their losses and their opponents’.
And to your earlier question, I believe that yes, the result carried through would indeed be the one between the two qualifying teams, so the second-placed team would carry through the points.
The true folly of this year’s format has now become plain; the semi-finalists are now all but nailed-on certs (Australia, South Africa, New Zealand and Sri Lanka), but there are still a full two weeks of pointless daily fixtures that must be played to confirm this. Lame.
Man, it was a nail-biter tonight though. But why does no-one talk of dropping Vaughan? His captaincy really isn’t worth us batting a tailender at number 2, and that’s what he is at the moment. Strauss, anyone? Of course, that would then expose our laughable situation regarding the vice captaincy. Plus it’s too late anyway. Hey ho.
You win by x number of wickets based upon you having x number of wickets “in hand”. It’s not compared to your opponents wickets, just how many out of your 10 you have left
In your example above, presuming you mean Team B had lost 8 wickets, Team B wins by 2 wickets.
Thanks guys. It doesn’t seem fair that a team that won its group would have to carry through a loss into the Final 8. On the other hand, it’s still an unlikely scenario.
…well done Bangladesh! Yet another surprise victory for underdogs…
So about mid-way through the comp, what is everybody’s prediction for the semi finals? My money is still on Australia, New Zealand, Sri Lanka and South Africa…sadly the West Indies have dropped off the pace
…not if we have anything to say about it! Seriously, the Kiwi’s have had a great build up to the cup: with Fleming and the batsmen hitting form just in time, Bond is bowling better than he has in years, the spin twins of Vetorri and Patel are taking wickets, and the guys who were injured or bowling poorly pre cup (Oram and Styris) are coming along well. Coupled with the fact that New Zealand beat Australia three nil in their last encounter (chasing down over three hundred runs twice! ) I would venture to say the Aussies are very beatable. The Aussies play such fantastic mind games that they can beat nine out of ten teams before they even walk onto the field. The trick is to not let them get into your head: once you do that, beating them is more than possible.
Exactly - hence the wink after my post. The Kiwis are the one team which has never taken any crap from the Aussies - the South Africans are beaten before they get on the pitch against us most times and the English cower like dogs when we come around - but the Kiwis are scrappy little buggers that show us no respect. The other thing the Kiwis do have is a great brains trust behind a fine captain.
So why dont we just throw the two big dogs in a cage and get it over with?
…can’t wait! We play Ireland tonight: and we don’t play Australia until the 20th… I still think Sri Lanka have a good chance: both Malinga and Murilai both have the potential to rip through a side…
Well, except for that triangular series thingy the other month, old chap. You win enough, don’t get over-selective with the memories or it make you look like the kind of unsporting cove who crows excessively when he wins and forgets his losses far too conveniently. :dubious:
Team Pts Pld W T L NR RF OF RA OB NRR
New Zealand 8 4 4 0 0 0 830 159.4 694 200 +1.73
Australia 8 4 4 0 0 0 1053 161.1 864 172 +1.51
Sri Lanka 6 4 3 0 1 0 1057 196 747 194.2 +1.55
South Africa 6 5 3 0 2 0 1211 229.5 1285 235 -0.2
England 2 4 1 0 3 0 955 200 911 188.2 -0.06
West Indies 2 5 1 0 4 0 1065 238.1 1349 237.2 -1.21
Bangladesh 2 4 1 0 3 0 641 168 778 139.1 -1.77
Ireland 0 4 0 0 4 0 700 183 884 169.4 -1.39
England still has an outside chance with games to come against Bangladesh, South Africa and the West Indies. Bangladesh could also finish on eight points. New Zealand’s final three games are against Sri Lanka, South Africa and Australia so I can’ t see the Black Caps as staying on top for too long. My final standings (for what it’s worth).
Australia 12 points (dropping one game against either NZ or Sri Lanka).
Sri Lanka 10 points (dropping a game versus NZ or Aus)
NZ 10 points (1 win against Aus, SL or SA) lower net rr than SL).
SA 8 or 10 points (possibly losing to NZ) lowest net rr of final four.
If NZ lose all their remaining games but still qualify first we’re likely to have a semifinal against the AUssies on ANZAC day!
And not a moment too soon - after our loss against the Tigers, I was begining to wonder if we would once again wither and fade in a world cup… Having said that, we still made too many mistakes - AB de Villiers was lucky not to be run out twice in the same over!!!
