Who can topple the Australian Applecart? – III

Countdown To ICC Cricket World Cup 2007

India

Presently India to cricket is what Brazil is to Football (Soccer in US). But unfortunately this is only in terms of passion and fan following. We still have a long way to go before we can claim that in terms of results. So as always a whole nation is slowly but surely going to be in the grips of World Cup mania. But what about the team they are supporting? Are they worthy of such adulation? Only time will tell.

The Indian team is just back from the tough tour of South Africa where they received a drubbing in the one dayers played there. Probably because of this there isn’t much anticipation for the world cup unlike in earlier years.

India has a very talented and experienced team as far as batting is concerned. The Holy trinity (Tendulkar, Dravid and Ganguly) of Indian cricket are back. With the experience of having played almost 1000 one dayers between them and having scored a combined tally of more than 33000 runs they are sure to give nightmares any bowling attack in the world. They are supported by an explosive MS Dhoni and Sehwag and the batting does look ominous.

Impressive though the batting line up might be on paper, it is not without chink. The main core of the lineup is ageing. Sehwag’s form is questionable. And even when he is in his best form he is not very reliable. He is like this lottery ticket that when it hits it will always give you jackpots or go bust. More than any other batsmen in the Indian team, his would be the performance that everyone will be watching with great interest. Robin Uthappa is still to find his feet in international cricket. It would be unfair to expect too much from someone so early in his career. Yuvraj is just recovered from an injury and will take time to get back into his groove.

The weakest link in Indian cricket would be the bowling attack. Even with the presence of Kumble and Harbhajan it would be surprising if any team where to be intimidated by our bowling attack. Barring an ageing Kumble there is no other bowler whom we can term as a genuine match winner. Even though Zheer Khan has been on god form lately he is supported by a higly inconsistent Agarkar. With Sreeanth and Munaf not coming up the ranks in ODI as they were expected, India will surely miss Pathan and his abitliy to take early wickets. India desperately needs Pathan to get the balance of their right.

However it is not all gloom for the Indian prospects. The pitches would not be fast and bouncy and hence the batsmen’s techniques will not be exposed unlike the ones in South Africa or Australia. This will be a big help for players like Sehwag who can then just thrust their front foot forward and bludgeon through the line of the ball. The pitch would be assisting the slower bowlers rather than the pace bowlers, and since India has plenty of options when it comes to slow bowling this would not be too much of concern. Yuvraj, Sehwag, and Tendulkar can all turn their arms over if need arise and can provide additional options to Dravid.

Personally I would love nothing more than seeing India win the tournament. Even though my heart desires this, I must say that we would be hard pressed to even get into the Semi-Finals. There are other teams far better than us whom we will have to overcome if we are to reach there. Based on their current form no sane person would bet on that happening. By hey, stranger things are known to have happened in cricket. Remember 1983?

So how can Australia be beaten?

So far we have been looking at the various teams other than Australia who has a chance of winning the world cup. Let’s now see what should be the best way to beat Australia.

The first thing to do would be to go into the field with the belief that you can beat Australia. You have to be aggressive all the time and come hard at them. This Australian team’s bowling can collapse when subjected to adequate pressure. The only way to beat Australia would be to out-bat them. Since their bowling is their weak point you have to get after them in a sensible manner all through the innings to make them suffer.

The second thing to do would be to take all your chances and not take the foot off the gas pedal at any point. A team like Australia will never give you a second chance and will make you pay for any lapses that may happen. Remember Gibbs dropped catch of Steve Waugh in the 1999 edition of the tournament?
Readers are welcome to add their own suggestions.

It would take a tremendous effort for any team to stop the Australian juggernaut and prevent them from winning the title for a third consecutive time. That team will have to really play out of their skins to beat the champions. But that is the beauty of sport isn’t it? For what greater joy is there in sport than to see Goliath felled by David.

Who can topple the Australian Applecart? - II

Countdown To ICC Cricket World Cup 2007

West Indies

The West Indies are hosting the World Cup for the first time. Expect them to come at their opponents with renewed vigor and pride. Not to mention the advantage of playing at home. They have good young side revolving around the experienced players. They have proved that on their day they can be as good any in the game by reaching the final of the last champions trophy and winning the edition previous to that.

Their strength is undoubtedly their batting. Led by the indomitable Brian Lara they have enough experience with Chanderpaul, Sarwan and Gayle in the ranks. Add to that the talented Samuels and Bravo and the West Indies have a potent mix of youth and experience.

Their short coming though is undoubtedly their bowling. There is no one in the West Indies side whom you can rely on as a match winner. They are all capable enough bowlers but they will find it tough to stem the tide when it goes against them. They lack quality experience in this department even though Bradshaw, Taylor and Edwards have been around for some time.

Their major advantage would be that they are playing at home and this should motivate the side more than anything. They are an altogether different side when playing at home as illustrated by the drubbing they dished out to India last year. However they may not have the consistency that is required in tournaments like this for them to get into the semifinal stages of the competition. West Indies were so pathetic at one time that now inconsistency seems sort of an improvement. I seriously doubt them getting past the Super Eight stage.

Pakistan

All the subcontinent teams have a good chance this time of doing well in the competition. The pitch being the major factor for this. The pitches in West Indies do not have the bounce and speed to terrorize the batsmen from the subcontinent.

In the case of Pakistan it all depends on the mood that they are in on any given day. One day they can beat Australia and the next day they can lose to Bangladesh. Whichever side turns up on the field, you will never get bored with seeing their antics on and off the field. It will be a wonder if Pakistan goes through a 2 month tournament without running into some sort of controversy or the other. If they can keep their focus they will be a tough team to beat, which unfortunately for them never happens.

There has never been a dearth of talent in the Pakistan team. If they have ever lacked anything it always was discipline and focus. However this time under the calm Inzamam and the calculating Woolmer they might just change this. The team contains a set of explosive talented players with none other than Shoaib Akthar being most explosive of them all. Pakistan has a good bowling attack with a potent pace battery of Akhtar and Asif, supported by the wily leg spin of Danish Kaneria. After Australia theirs is the best bowling attack and can cause trouble to the rest provided they maintaint their form and fitness.

Their batting too has a nice blend of experience and youth with Inzamam himself leading the way. The gentle giant would do well to keep an eye on his running between the wickets as his opponent for sure will try their best to exploit chink in his armor. Yousuf is in the form of his life. Both he and Younis Khan will have a major role to play Pakistan are to do well in the competition. But the man who could influence Pakistan’s fate more than anybody else would be Shahid Afridi. If he gets going the opposition might as well start packing.

The major concern for Pakistan would be their fielding. If they can plug this gap in their game they could well be the champions of this World Cup. They are the team to watch out for as they should be reaching the Semi-Finals and is one of the favorites in my book to go all the way.

Sri Lanka

The best fielding side from the subcontinent however has more to their game than just fielding. They have some of the most exciting player in world cricket at the moment led by the youthful and exuberant Jayawardene.

Their batting line-up is one of the best. They have abundance of experience in Jayasurya and Attapattu. Adding to it is the solidity of Jaywardene and flair of Sangakkara. Without a doubt batting is their strong point and if Jayasuriya is in his elements then it will be tough for any team against them.

Bowling is the weak link in their line up. This is not withstanding the fact that they have a magician in their ranks called Muralitharan. But unlike in test matches, in One Dayers a bowler gets to bowl only 10 overs in an innings. This enables the opposition to play him out by adopting a low risk approach. He is given excellent support by Vaas. The veteran medium pace bowler is miserly when it comes to giving runs and it is tough to get runs off him without taking a lot of risks. The support bowling is the concern. They are not as world class as these two. But if Mahroof, Fernando and Malinga can give these guys some support it would help Sri Lanka in reaching the finals.

The main advantage for Sri Lanka though would be the pitches in West Indies. It would be so similar to the ones in Sri Lanka that they would be forgiven for thinking that are playing at home. I believe Sri Lanka will have to play really bad to not win the cup. This is their best chance to win the cup away from home.


To be continued...

Who can topple the Australian applecart? - I

Countdown to ICC Cricekt World Cup 2007

If you ask anyone in the cricket world, who the favorite is to win the world cup this time around, 90% of the time you would get the answer as Australia. If at all anyone gives a different answer it could be because: his judgment is clouded by patriotism, the person drunk or he is just about insane.

So it would seem that we are going into a two month long exercise so futile that we might a well give the cup to Australia now itself, right? Wrong. For if it was not for the off chance that David can defeat Goliath why would anyone be watching sport. The greatest USP of any sport let alone cricket is its unpredictability. Any team/sportsman can have a superlative day and anyone can have an off day. On a day when the biggest underdogs, by a combination of factors, begin to play out of their skin is the day when miracles happen. It requires just one magical moment to topple the biggest of them all. Remember Kapil Dev’s catch to get rid of Vivian Richards in the 1983 World Cup Final?

So let’s examine the underdogs and see who among them have the best chance to get past the Aussies.

South Africa

To many neutral observers South Africa seems to be the side most capable of getting it past Australia. This is supported by the remarkable successful 438 run chase that these guys mounted on the Aussies last year.

However South Africa will have to prove that it was not just a remarkable flash in the pan. If at all anything it is their batting that looks brittle. On those days when either Kallis or Boucher is having an off day South Africa would struggle to stem the rot of a collapse. However Ashwell Prince may just turn out to be the answer for that if he can cement his place in the one day side. The wild card would be Gibbs. If he is on song nothing else would matter as he can be destructive as hell. However he tends to press the self destruct button more often than not. Smith is a capable enough captain. However one just gets the feeling that he is a bit lost when the opposition is on top and gets frustrated a bit too quickly. Not to mention that he leads one of the most one dimensional bowling attacks in world cricket.

But the reason I feel South Africa wont mount a big enough challenge for Australia is not because what was said earlier. It is because of their dislike for pitches which take them out of their comfort zone. They somehow convey the feeling that they do not like playing in pitches which are not having a bit of bounce and pace in them. This current South African team starts cribbing about the pitch unlike Hansie Cronje’s men used to. Cornje’s men would simply get on with the job and had won matches all over the world in all sorts of conditions. This could be because South Africa rely a bit too heavily on their pace attack which will be blunted in the slow and low bounce tracks around the world. As these are the kind of tracks that can be expected in the West Indies, I very much doubt if they have the fire power to beat Australia, a team that has just won the Champions trophy in the subcontinent. I expect the South Africans to reach the semi-finals beyond which would be difficult.

England

England is a team in disarray at the moment. Gone are the momentum and the confidence they had built following their ashes triumph of 2006. Injuries and bad form have hit them hard, more than any other side in world cricket. The ashes have been surrendered rather meekly and their one day form for the past year is nothing great to write home about.

The main problem with England is that they seem to have lost quality bowlers who can win matches. Flintoff has just started bowling and will need a bit more match practice to get back to the form of old. Harmisson has quit one dayers. The rest of the bowling line up does not inspire enough confidence in one to say that they would cause problems for any of the other quality sides in world cricket.

Their batting too seems to be filled with concerns. Nobody knows what the problem with Trescothick is. Strauss is out of form and Flintoff has become reliable. But their major worry would be the injuries to Vaughan and Peterson. Without these stars back in form and fitness it would be difficult for the English team go far in the tournament. If Vaughan's injury is not healed in time can cause trouble in the captaincy department as well.

Although things are looking bleak the discovery of Ed Joyce and the spinning option in Panesar should give the English team some hope. And unless things change quite dramatically it is hard to imagine the English team going past the Super Eight stage of the tournament.

New Zealand

New Zealand is a team that I have always admired. They always seem to do extremely well even in the absence of superstars in their team. Their qualities are their resilience, determination and hard work. But they always have one thing lacking, a bit of flair. It is very difficult to win a big tournament unless you have this quality as well. The only time a New Zealand team looked like winning the world cup was when Martin Crowe led the side with some inspired captaincy and panache in 1992.

Having said that, the current Kiwi team, do have some quality players who can really turn it on when they get into the mood. Shane Bond is deadly on his day with his ability to generate good amount of pace. The only worry is the alarming regularity with which he picks up injuries. If he can stay injury free and if he gets some support from the other end New Zealand could go far in this tournament.

The Kiwis have an experienced and capable batting line up. The development of Oram into one of the big hitters in the game is a tremendous boost to their prospects in the world cup. Led by Stephen Fleming, widely acknowledge to be the best captain in the world the kiwis will give a tough fight to any team that come across them in the tournament. However they will have to play really well to book a semifinal berth in this world cup.

To be continued....