India has made the right start in the ongoing Cricket World Cup 2011. To chase 370 takes a special effort and needs all the luck-gods to be on your side, at least till the last ball of the 50th over. Luck the Bangladeshi’s had, however Tamim Iqbal, Imrul Kayes and their captain Shakib Al Hasan just couldn’t keep their foot on the gas long enough to go the distance. Inspite of some patchy Indian bowling and fielding 371 proved to be a more daunting opposition to the Bangladeshi’s than the Indian bowlers seemed to be.
It’s all good to say that Bangladesh’s reply of 283 at a decent rate of 5.66 rpo was a good effort and worth a lot of praise – yes it was. However leaking 370 runs on their home pitch, even if it’s against the best side in the tournament is 70 runs too many. The Bangladesh bowlers will have their work cut out if their team has to feature in that Quarter final line up.
Having said that the same goes for M.S. Dhoni and Co. While India may have the best batting line up – most of them in form and itching to pile up the runs, batting by itself is not going to win the Cricket World Cup for India. There will be an odd day when the Indian batting gets just about a par score; will the bowlers then come to the party?
Munaf Patel and Zaheer Khan did a fairly good job. Harbhajan was good but for now let’s just blame the dew for the lack of spin. I don’t see Sreesanth playing the next game unless Ashish Nehra is injured. Is there a case for the 5th bowler to be played if the batting top-order is firing the way it is and the part-timers are going for more than 6 an over?
Now is the time to experiment Captain, once in the Quarter’s its do or die.
Sandeep Ail, 
mach3, and 
Aniruddha are discussing. 
Sandeep Ail 8:04 pm on March 7, 2011 Permalink |
The 8 batsmen theory only holds water if they are firstly playing on a slow and turning pitch like the one against Ireland and if Piyush Chawla continues to bowl like an idiot and Dhoni continues to have amnesia about Ashwin. On a flat batting track, Yuvraj, Pathan, and Raina will be like 20 overs of extra powerplay for the batting side. So even if you score 400 runs the opposition will believe they can chase it. I cannot understand the paranoia of going in with more batsmen… Everytime India has recently score 300 plus runs the top 5 batsmen have done almost all the scoring.. Whatever they do.. if their main spinners are not going to come to the party, its going to be difficult to go the distance.
Aniruddha 11:04 am on March 8, 2011 Permalink |
Ya I mean if you don’t have the confidence that your first 5 batsmen are going to get you through then you are not going to have the confidence with 20 batsmen.
I totally agree with you about Dhoni ignoring Ashwin. I think he should replace Chawla cause he looks more hungry. And if they are going with 8 batsmen I think he should replace Bhajji also cause he definitely looks hungrier than Bhajji.
At this point in the tournament I would say Australia has the best chance to win the cup, then Pakistan, then SA and then India.
mach3 10:58 am on March 9, 2011 Permalink |
If bringing in Raina means that the buggers score 250 in the first 30 overs then I’ll enjoy thoroughly baba.
Sandeep Ail 2:22 pm on March 9, 2011 Permalink |
Don’t think that will happen at Kotla. Kotla is not at 350 – 400 wicket. 300 is possible with some sensible batting