ICC Cricket World Cup - May/July 2019

[aditya123]

I don't really care who we face in the semi finals to be honest. Honestly, I just don't see anyone beating England. I am having a sinking feeling that we will be bundled out for nothing and England will cruise into the finals.

Same here. I predict three one-sided knock-out games actually. The tournament's been fun with a lot of close games and been live till the end. I can't see any way how we can beat England on current form. We have a king-sized hole in the middle order. You don`t win WCs that way. India needs a batting reinvention after this WC, the same way we did with the bowling post CT17. By that, I mean the approach. We have to risk more and probably lose a few in bilaterals. That is alright. The habit of taking risks while batting might mean we win bilateral series 3-2 and not 4-1. Give younger kids live ODIs in bilaterals. Currently, we hold back a bit too much and you cannot win knockout games with that approach. Remember how we approached the 2007 WT20 semifinals with the bat. Remember how we began the Pak game in 2003 or even the 2011 semis with the bat. The first punch with the bat is vital in big games. Sadly, we show too much fear. The bowling is top notch but the batting has to show they are out to get you.

This is a serious post and not a reverse-jinx!

 

[Gaurav_7]

I don't really care who we face in the semi finals to be honest. Honestly, I just don't see anyone beating England. I am having a sinking feeling that we will be bundled out for nothing and England will cruise into the finals.

This Indian team isn't going down without a fight. England or no England, I am sure we will do well. Whoever it may be, I feel India are gonna do it. We have saved our best for the last stages, I feel. The pitch can be batting friendly but not always the toss is going to favor England. And I am sure everyone knows what Indian batsmen are capable of on batting beauties.

 

[Gaurav_7]

Remember how we approached the 2007 WT20 semifinals with the bat. Remember how we began the Pak game in 2003 or even the 2011 semis with the bat

If I recall correctly, all these matches you mentioned were individual brilliance. In fact WT20 2007 SF against Aus we were reeling after 10 overs. It was only when Yuvraj went berserk and scored a 70 off 30 we could set the target we did in the end. I get what you mean. And you know what? I can sense Rahul and Rohit going for the kill, the first punch you are talking about in the knockouts. We got to believe!

 

[aditya123]

If I recall correctly, all these matches you mentioned were individual brilliance. In fact WT20 2007 SF against Aus we were reeling after 10 overs. It was only when Yuvraj went berserk and scored a 70 off 30 we could set the target we did in the end. I get what you mean. And you know what? I can sense Rahul and Rohit going for the kill, the first punch you are talking about in the knockouts. We got to believe!

The point is someone took on the opposition and did not sit back. I can`t see how we would`ve beaten Pak in the 2003 WC without that counterattack. Also, guys like Rahul and Rohit can play that game. I`m talking of a scenario where we bat second and chasing big. If the lower order doesn't have the firepower, one guy at the top has to try and do that in the powerplay. The let's take it deep approach isn't working in big run chases for us. We saw that in all recent run-chases. It's almost like the bowlers cannot have an off day at all! Dhawan would`ve done that had he been there.

We need to shake things up a little in the batting. Maybe go radically different and play Mayank at the top and KL at 4. If that means dropping DK, so be it.

 

[rishabh9627]

This Indian team isn't going down without a fight. England or no England, I am sure we will do well. Whoever it may be, I feel India are gonna do it. We have saved our best for the last stages, I feel. The pitch can be batting friendly but not always the toss is going to favor England. And I am sure everyone knows what Indian batsmen are capable of on batting beauties.

I'm dearly waiting for Virat to put a batting masterclass in a run chase which we may not want given the WC pressure but if it happens then India are bound to win this cup.
I hope his hundred comes just at the right time.

 

[rishabh9627]

<untjay Manjrekar is being blasted on twitter! I hope his employers take note.

Nasser Hussain meanwhile going overboard and saying only England can beat England! If India play their "A" game they can certainly beat England. And, I am talking about this scenario on the wicket in Birmingham. Give a neutral track and India will paste England 7/10 times!

Well England definitely had luck on that day against India in those first 10 overs
Indian bowlers bowled well but didnt get the wicket
if u see those 10 overs again you will notice how many times the batsmen got lucky
there was a ball hitting straight on the pads of bairstow bowled by shami but fortunately got a tiny inside edge
then there was that roy dismissal which was not referred
it is a game of margins though
on any other day those balls could have been wickets
so definitely england are not unbeatable

 

[rishabh9627]

I have a strong feeling Australia will lose to SA and India will beat SL to top the table. In that case, it will be a Ind v NZ SF and I hope India win that and then thrash England in the final!

U know that is the beauty of SA
Amla and Du plessis have hit their form at just the right time in previous match where they chased 220 odd with 9 wickets remaining against SL who were playing a do or die scenario.
And we just cant forget their seam and spin attack of Rabada and Tahir
Tahir has been known to trouble the Aussies in the past as well.
Rabada can take down any opposition on his day.
SA would love to make a strong statement before bowing out of the tournament by beating the best team in this WC
whereas Australia would know that if they win then they will get to play a weaker side nd will easily move to finals.
So it can be a good contest.

 

[rishabh9627]

I just want to know desperately what @sshole has said that got Jaddu so riled up!

Jaddu - Bits and Pieces player??
seriouslyy??
he is the best f**king fielder india has ever produced
has been the no.1 test bowler along with R.Ashwin in 2017-18
won india that match against england at lords where ishant took a 7fer
his 50 in that match was the most vital contribution
Batted with tail against new zealand in an odi match in Auckland which ended in a tie and made a brilliant 60 odd in a series which had 5 odis and 2 tests and guess what
india lost all the other matches except this one where jadeja played a blinder
ICC should do a doping test on Sanjay Manjarekar before letting him sit in the commentary box

 

[WubbaLubbaDubDub]

Such an arrogant bastard, who has achieved nothing. Seriously BCCI should ban him from doing commentary for all India’s match. He is such a freaking tool. Jadeja has already achieved way more then he could ever imagine.

 

[SiriusBlack]

Are you kidding me? I remember something on the lines of 'it's coming home' as a trending #.

It was pretty much a meme that gained traction after England actually started doing well. Very few people actually took England to be serious contenders.

 

[SiriusBlack]

If I have to decide right now between the three of NZ, Pak and Bangladesh, Bangladesh would be my pick. They have played the best cricket out of those 3 teams throughout the tournament.

I would agree to an extent. Their matches were the most exciting, even in their loss. But their bowlers failed big time, giving the batsmen well above par scores to chase. And their chases fizzled out after Shakib's efforts.

Our bowlers weren't the best but they did show up during the New Zealand game and the second half of the India innings, and both games could easily have gone either way if not for a massive fielding error each. We definitely well in the competition in every game we played (barring maybe the England game) and didn't have to rely on anything crazy to get results.

Nah, I lied, Shakib is crazy tweaking good.

 

[Bevab]

Are you kidding me? I remember something on the lines of 'it's coming home' as a trending #.

As @Simon says, it was pretty much a hashtag for memes that had been running even before the tournament started. People started paying more attention to it only after England did well and it was a lot of the foreigners that saw it as arrogance while the English were never even serious about it.

I mean, they went into the tournament with an inexperienced manager who didn’t deserve the main team job at that time and none of their fabled golden generation players. That they even got to the semis was a source of pride for them.

Now I know that this cricket team is the favourite, but they still deserve to be praised for the way they’ve won two high pressure games convincingly. Morgan and Bayliss plus Fabrace in particular should be receiving a lot more praise for the way they’ve massively improved this team with their tactics and team selection especially since they crashed out of the group stages the last time.

 

[asprin]

And this is why NRR is stupid.

Here's a counter argument - a team who wins 3-4 matches on a trot has an off day against the next opposition. It loses by a big margin. Both teams end up with the same points at the conclusion of the group stage.

If head to head is given preference then you're punishing the first team for being unlucky on that day. But with NRR the team has a chance to correct it over its future matches. With head to head, you don't have that.

 

[Alexei.]

Here's a counter argument - a team who wins 3-4 matches on a trot has an off day against the next opposition. It loses by a big margin. Both teams end up with the same points at the conclusion of the group stage.

If head to head is given preference then you're punishing the first team for being unlucky on that day. But with NRR the team has a chance to correct it over its future matches. With head to head, you don't have that.

Maybe have a tiebreaker stage (teams with equal points play each other) Group Stage and Knockouts.

 

[abhi_jacko]

Maybe have a tiebreaker stage (teams with equal points play each other) Group Stage and Knockouts.

ICC is unwilling to have reserve days for a tournament being held in England. I seriously doubt they would be interested in investing money and resources for something uncertain like tie breakers.

The whole NRR discussion is futile. Trying to fix something that is not broken