CRICKET WORLD CUP PART 3

                                     

                               Over the course of the first month of the world cup, we saw 14 teams contesting for the top 4 spots in the group to keep them alive for the next 2 weeks and this week we had the quarter-finals of the World Cup. The 4 matches played at Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide and Wellington gave us some interesting encounters. If South Africa dominated Sri Lanka with the ball and played the quickest knock-out match in the World Cup history, the New Zealanders, mainly Martin Guptill produced what was one sensational knock in the 4 matches. He tore apart the West Indian attack and broke Gayle’s record in front of him. What these quarter-finals produced, in a small note,

1^st MATCH: SOUTH AFRICA vs. SRI LANKA, Sydney Cricket Ground:

                           

                The very first quarter-final saw the clash of two strong batting line-ups in Sri Lanka and South Africa. Having won the toss and choosing to bat first, the Lankan batsmen had no clue to a fired up Steyn and Abbott. Sangakkara, the leading run-scorer of the tournament was made to work hard for his runs (he made 45 runs off 96 deliveries) while the other batsmen apart from Thiramanne could not make their count and they ended up with 133 on the board which South Africa barring the loss of Hashim Amla chased it down without any problems. This was a great match for South Africa as they finally broke their knock-out hoodoo and at where it began 23 years ago. This match also saw the retirements of the 2 legends of Sri Lanka, Sangakkara and Jayawardene and indeed they were honoured as the South African team did not walk out of the field before these 2 did.

2^nd MATCH: INDIA vs. BANGLADESH, Melbourne Cricket Ground:

                    

                With the amount of supporters these 2 teams had, the big G was the perfect ground to host the India-Bangladesh encounter. In front of the 90,000 attendance MS won the toss and chose to bat first. India had a good start with the openers putting up their second 50+ partnership of the tournament and then when the slower bowlers were introduced, India had to hold fort instead of running away with runs and went for the surge later in the innings and posted 302 on the board. The Bangladesh batsmen started well but lost wickets at crucial junctures and were bundled out for 193. This match sparked off several conterversies like the Rubel given a no-ball when he had Rohit caught at deep (Rohit added more 47 in 16 balls) of a perfect delivery and some doubts raised over Dhawan’s catch of Mahmudullah at the boundary.

3^rd MATCH:  PAKISTAN vs. AUSTRALIA, Adelaide Oval:

                           

                If the SL-RSA match was the clash of the 2 teams with the strong batting line-ups, this was the clash of the 2 strong bowling line-ups. Having already played in a chase that went in vain against India, Misbah chose to bat after winning the toss. The match lived up to the match of the 2 big bowling line-ups as Pakistan were made to work hard for their runs against a quality Aussie attack and managed to put up only 213 on the board. On the other half of the match, Wahab Riaz was steaming in with a great spell of fast-bowling as Aussies found it tough to counter him. At the end with fifties from Smith and Watson, Australia went past the target before the batting power-play could be taken. This match witnessed the last ODI for Pakistan greats Misbah, Afridi and Younis Khan.

4^th MATCH: NEW ZEALAND vs. WEST INDIES, Westpac Stadium (Wellington):

                      

                                The last quarter-final was the match that entertained the hosts and had the spectators happy for their money. Known mostly as the ‘Cake-tin’, NZL won the toss and as like all the captains of the previous matches opted to bat first. With McCullum sent back soon, Guptill with partnership from other batsmen put up an amazing knock and notched up the second double hundred of the tournament raking up 237 runs against his name and the Kiwis had 393 on the board. The West Indies batsmen were aided by an aggressive knock from Gayle only it to be ended soon after he notched up his 50. Although they were scoring at the asking rate, they did not have wickets in hand.  They were all-out for 250 and 80 overs of that match produced 643 runs and as many as 31 sixes were hit during the course of the match with Guptill hitting the longest six of the tournament (110 m).

Now, over this week 8 became 4… which 2 among the 4 will play at the MCG next Sunday???

Let’s Wait and Watch….

-S.T. Guha Karthikeyan.