Any thoughts on the format change for this tournament?
Personally I think that the 10 team RR means you take a lot of the flukey and weather-related results out of the equation, the best 4 teams should find themselves in the semi-finals.
You also should have a lot of evenly balanced match-ups and the big guns can’t avoid each other in the early stages (OK, I realise the first two games are perhaps not backing me up here). One downside I suppose is the lack of opportunity for massive shock results (Ireland anyone?).
But overall I’m in favour, There is a balance to be had between quality and quantity and this feels about right to me.
Re: the tournament format - I can see a major drawback being a significant number of dead games towards the back end of the group stage. I also don’t especially like the marginalisation of the smaller nations; the ICC should be trying to grow the game - instead they appear to be contracting it. As ever with the Cricket World Cup, it’s also too bloody long. The reason the Champions Trophy and World T20 are good is because they’re done in three weeks. Combine the length with the potential for pointless matches and I think I would have looked for an alternative format.
On the plus side it is likely the best teams will get through as a result of the large group, so you’d think the winner is probably going to be a worthy one. If the idea is to find the best team, then fair enough I suppose, but I’d argue that the World Rankings are meant to tell you who the best side is - a World Cup is about having an enjoyable tournament with pressurised matches, imo.
Also lost to the Windies by 10 wickets in the opening game. Need to keep my spirits up somehow.
(People forget that Pakistan were so bad in the early part of that tournament was because for the early part, the team was walking wounded. Waqar and Saeed Anwar were ruled out, Imran, Javed and Wasim were all playing with and missing games through injury. Plus bad luck in games we should have won, the rain rule taking away all our overs versus SA, incidently, the reason no Pakistani has any sympathy for the Saffers re the Semi Final, and a batting collapse versu India. Once everything got going, well we were great.
Here we are merely abysmal.).
Pakistan also got slammed in their first match of the Champions Trophy 2 years ago - losing by 120+ runs in a rain affected game versus India. And that all worked out in the end.
Well, I’m glad they limited the number of teams in this world cup to prevent there being too many one-sided games!
NZ thrashed SL today by ten wickets, after bowling them out for 136.
Afghanistan are currently having a bit of a comeback, being now 134/5 after being 77/5, but it’s still looking like Australia’s to lose from here. AFG can bowl though, so if they can get up into the higher 200s it might put some pressure on.
West Indies quite good with the emphasis on “quite”. Australia looked okay against Afghanistan but I think there are some pretenders in the the side in the bowling attack. Front line bowlers are excellent but then Coulter-Nile and Zampa- not for mine. I believe the batting is pretty iffy as well alhough the return of Smith and Warner will help.
Just as an aside I see both Seymour Nurse and Bruce Yardley passed away earlier this year. Both very good Test players.
Game on today! Bangladesh have reached 330 against South Africa, who were bowled out for just over 200 by England in the competition opener. SA will be thinking they are favourites to chase them down, but it’s a lot of runs.
And Bangladesh hold on for the win, as SA fall 20 runs short and give themselves a great view of Last Chance Saloon only 5 games into the tournament. Of course, they were missing Amla and Steyn and lost Ngidi part way through.
Old-fashioned sort of game - Bangladesh stood up well to the South African short stuff early on, looked good for 350 at one point, then fell away only to slog 50 off the last 4.
SA could never quite get on top against the Bangladesh spinners and left themselves with too much to do.
I don’t think either of these teams will make it to the semi-finals, but they may well upset someone along the way.
I for one am glad that South Africa are trying something different in this world cup. Instead of choking at a critical moment they are going to lose right from the start. Makes things a lot less stressful for their supporters.
Yes, that is true, but this ground is small and the pitch is known for being favourable for batsmen, so that is colouring the thinking on what is par here. The two biggest ODI scores ever have been put up on this ground within the last couple of years.
Pakistan have played very well. As I write, Root and Buttler are at the crease (157/4). I think this match is going to be decided by this partnership. If Pakistan can get Buttler in particular soon, they will probably win.
A period of calm and pressure from Pakistan. Root and Buttler being restricted to singles mainly but I think England have a mature line up that can live with that for few overs and bide their time until pressing “destroy” mode.
Root gets out for 107. England need to score off Shadab or they’re not going to get this. But Root was also looking to do this and made the error. It’s a fine balance. 248/5 with 67 deliveries remaining.
I think, as it stands at 5 down, England should still be the favourites, but this will set them back. Another wicket will definitely tilt the balance, but Buttler is still in and set.