What a thriller to end the Super 8 stage of the World Cup! Despite it being an inconsequential match as the semifinalists were already decided, the West Indies and England played with such intensity that it has made people look forward to the next week’s semis and final with more anticipation than say a few days back.
Ponting’s team are quite obviously out to prove that their losses in the Tri-Series at home and in the Chappell-Hadlee Trophy were just a few bad days that any team can have, and the manner in which they have gone about showing that they are still the kings has been truly awesome. They have won all their games in a canter, hardly breaking into a sweat and made teams feel that they belong to another league altogether. So dominant has their top order been that the lower middle-order batsmen like Hussey and Watson have hardly had a long stint out in the middle. Hayden and Ponting in particular have batted in a sublime manner, making the lack of big runs from Adam Gilchrist seem no problem at all. It is not just the runs that they are scoring, but it’s the frenetic pace at which they are scoring them that is sending shivers down the spines of opposition bowlers. New Zealand were smarter than the Sri Lankans by making an injury excuse to shield Shane Bond and Jacob Oram from the Australian batsmen in their Super 8 encounter. Don’t forget, this is Stephen Fleming’s third World Cup as skipper of his team, and so he knows how confidence is such an important part of a bowler’s armory, especially in one-day cricket, where the odds are stacked against the bowler. He had also seen the flak that the Sri Lankan skipper received for resting two of his main bowlers, Chaminda Vaas and Muralitharan, for the game against Australia. So Fleming took the injury excuse to do exactly what the inexperienced Jayawardene had done.
Not that Jayawardene is going to lose any sleep over the criticism, for the decision was taken in the best interests of the side.
Both New Zealand and Sri Lanka will be happy that they are not meeting the Aussies till the finals, for as in any sport, there is always a chance that a team can have a bad day. The Kiwis had the worse of their game against the Aussies, while the Lankans were slightly better, but all that will go out of the window when the teams square up in the semifinals. The Kiwis will need to counter the threat from Murali, as the Lankans will have to be at their best against Bond’s opening spell. Both teams have a pretty sound lineup and the only area that the Kiwis hold the edge is in the fielding, but not by much.
The other semifinal between Australia and South Africa is a repeat of the 1999 one, where the Proteas made a mess of the game and ended up tying it and allowed the Aussies to go through to the finals because they had won their Super 6 encounter earlier. The South Africans will invariably want to forget that and instead remember their magnificent chase of the record target of 434 that the Aussies had set them and which they got to win the one-day series last year.
That is one reason the South Africans are not falling for the ‘chokers’ dig that the Aussies are having at them. It will be a psychological battle all right and the one that’s stronger will come through on top. Just imagine the confidence level of the Proteas if they beat the Aussies in the semifinals. What the Super 8 stage of the World Cup showed was that the best four teams are in the semifinals. There was hope that the Windies will break the jinx that no home team has won the World Cup, but that was not to be. England as always were hyped up by their media after they won the Tri-Series in Australia, but they were no match for most of the sides. The lack of form of their captain hampered them as one batting place was used up, and though Vaughan showed what he is capable in the last game against the West Indies, his lack of fitness was evident in that innings.
The other two teams, Bangladesh and Ireland, were not expected to be there, but they showed that with a bit more competition, they can surprise a lot more teams. Bangladesh beat the No. 1 ranked team on the day, South Africa, in their Super 8 game and Ireland in turn beat Bangladesh, which showed the progress that they have made. Sure, against Australia, both teams were wiped off, but then even New Zealand, Sri Lanka and South Africa, the other semifinalists got thrashed by Australia in their matches, so there was no shame in losing to the world champs. Hopefully they will have picked up more than a point or two from their games against better teams, and will use that experience to further the game in their countries.
Now only three matches remain to decide who lays their hands on the World Cup. The experts will no doubt be putting their money on Australia to complete a hat trick of World Cup wins. But they would do well to cast their minds back to 1983, when the champion team of that era, the West Indies, were similarly poised to do the ‘trick’. India, the dark horses, stopped them. Who will be the dark horses this time, or will there be a dark horse at all?
