VIRAT 2016

Don’t know for how many people the 2016 went lucky or not, but for one man it was definitely the most productive year in international cricket and that is Virat Kohli. A total of 2595 runs at an average of 86.50 spread over 37 matches and 41 innings, he aggravated more runs than any batsman in 2016 and is the 2^nd Indian with most runs in a calendar year behind Rahul Dravid’s tally of 2626 in 1999.

They say at the age of 27-28 sports players hit their prime form and that has been the same with Virat Kohli. He started the year with scoring 381 @ 76.20 in the Australian ODI series and ended the year with 655 @ 109.16 in the England Test series. Let us have a go by looking at those numbers he amazed and scaled in this year.

Australian ODI series:

5 matches, 5 innings, 0 Not-Outs, 381 runs, 2x100s, 2x50s, HS 117, Avg 76.20 (91,59,117,106,8)

The start of the year where Virat continued his form which he had like in the previous Australian Tour. In the first match when he was out on 91, Wasim Akram asked him on missing the century to which he replied that he would score 2 of them by the end of the series and he did it in the 3^rd and 4^th matches but all the efforts went in vain as India lost both the matches. Though he finished second in the run-charts behind Rohit Sharma, it was the beginning of what we were to witness for the rest of the year.

Australian T20 series:

3 matches, 3 innings, 2 Not-Outs, 199 runs, 3x50s, HS 90*, Avg 199.00 

(90*,59*,50)

The T20 series that continued probably brought the best out of Kohli in Australia as he was dismissed only once throughout the series, and being the chief architect for the 3-0 clean sweep in Australia. His love affair with Adelaide continued as he brought up his highest T20 score in the ground and continued it 59* and 50 in the series and was also the MoS.

Asia Cup 2016:

5 matches, 4 innings, 2 Not-Outs, 153 runs, 1x50, HS 56*, Avg 76.50

(7,49,56*,41*)

A small-break was that Kohli needed to recharge for the Asia Cup and played a crucial knock against Arch-rivals Pakistan in a green top against an in-form Md. Amir. After that he played 2 more important knocks against the SL and BAN in the final and India won the Asia Cup 2016 and took forward the form and momentum into the T20 World Cup.

T20 World Cup 2016:

5 matches, 5 innings, 3 Not-Outs, 273 runs, 3x50s, HS 89*, Avg 136.50 

(23,55*24,82*,89*)

If the 2003 World Cup belonged to Sachin, this World Cup belonged to Kohli. He could probably do nothing wrong and showcased two one-man shows against Pakistan and Australia. He started with an average show against the Kiwis, back to his best against Pakistan, average again vs Bangladesh and against Australia when we needed a win, he was just flowing and was that one-wicket which Australia would have been happy to get on the path of victory. He stood between Australia and victory pulled it off and placed India in the Semi-finals. In the semi-finals against West-Indies he almost did everything to pull off a win, even coming to bowl and taking a wicket. He was the MoS for the second consecutive time in the T20 World Cup.

West-Indies Test series:

4 matches, 4 innings, 0 Not-Outs, 251 runs, 1x100, HS 200, Avg 62.75

(200,44,3,4)

His first overseas tour as a full-time captain and he brought it up in style by notching up his maiden 200 against the West Indies (maiden in FC also). Apart from that he had a below-par outing with the bat and the change in batting order with him playing at 1 drop did not help much as he accumulated only 51 runs from the rest 3 innings.

West-Indies T20 series:

2 matches, 1 inning, 0 Not-Outs, 16 runs, HS 16, Avg 16 

(16)

A not-so forgettable match for the Indian fans but a normal outing for him as he perished to the asking rate.

New Zealand Test series:

3 matches, 6 innings, 0 Not-Outs, 309 runs, 1x100, HS 211, Avg 51.50

(9,18,9,45,211,17)

A series full of historical landmarks. India’s 500^th Test and 250^th Home Test and all. Having started poorly and New Zealand bowlers aiming to take his wicket using the short-ball strategy, he fell for it early in the series but came back strongly in the 3^rd test scoring a double hundred and a 365-run stand with the deputy Rahane.

New Zealand ODI series:

5 matches, 5 innings, 2 Not-Outs, 358 runs, 1x100, 2x50s, HS 154*, Avg 119.33 (85*,9,154*,45,65)

Cometh the limited overs, cometh the form. Again, was at his free-flowing best in the coloured jersey and the two poor outings only resulted in Indian losses while in the other 3 where he scored twice he made sure he was there till the end to finish the match and ensured an Indian win.

England Test series:

5 matches, 8 innings, 2 Not-Outs, 655 runs, 2x100s, 2x50s, HS 235, Avg 109.16 (40,49*,167,81,62,6*,235,15)

Perfectly answered series to those who were waiting to criticize him for his past failure in England series. Carried the form he had in the one-day into the tests and scored runs consistently and notched up centuries and half-centuries. Scored 81 runs when team around him were failing (81/204). Scored a 235 the highest ever by a Indian skipper in the Wankhede test and proved that the the year 2016 belonged to him by topping the run charts and finishing the year as the Top 2 player in all formats of the game and the only player to average 50+ in all forms of international cricket.

IPL 2016:

16 matches, 16 innings, 4 Not-Outs, 973 runs, 4x100s, 7x50s, HS 113, Avg 81.08 (75,79,33,80,100*,14,52,108*,20,7,109,75*,113,54*,0,54)

Apart from amassing 2595 international runs, he also had a dream-run in the IPL 2016, aggregating 973 runs in 16 matches, the most by any player across seasons, the second best being 200+ runs apart (733 by Gayle and M Hussey). He scored 4 100s, the most by any player in a single tournament, single-handedly took RCB to the play-offs where the digital board aptly said “RCB KOHLI-FIED TO THE PLAYOFFS” and the only thing he missed again in the kitty was the tournament cup as RCB lost in the finals by 8 runs to SRH.

As Captain (INDIA): Played 12 Won 9 Draw 3 Lost 0

As an Indian Captain, also he had one of the best years not losing a single match in the calendar year though only was a close encounter in which he stayed till the end and pulled off a draw (vs ENG, Rajkot). Also in the process, he took India to the No.1 Rank in the Test Matches and India stayed there till the year end. Twice he took some brave decisions of declaring on the last day against WI and bundling them for 108 and just more than a day against ENG in Chennai and dismissing them for 207. Wonder if he repeats his stats when he becomes the visiting captain after the long-home series.

And to those who wonder seeing these stats, there is another thing for you guys… He missed 9 of India’s International fixtures. 3 T20s vs SL, 3 ODIs vs ZIM and 3 T20s vs ZIM… Wondering where these numbers would have ended up if he were a part of those fixtures also…

With this rich vein of form, let us wait and watch what happens in 2017… whether he continues to amaze us or have a dip just like all the players have once in their career…

Guha Karthikeyan S T

THE CHEPAUK TEST: #MyDebut

                           

Every Cricket Fan’s big desire is to watch a cricket match at the stadium supporting his home team. Well, I had to wait 22 years 11 months and 12 days to that. Yes, on the 16^th of December I made my official debut as a spectator in the match between India and England, the 5^th test of the Anthony de’Mello trophy. So what if the series was done and dusted in Wankhede, with India taking an unassailable 3-0 lead? The crowd came out, after the city being hit by a cyclone few days prior to the match.

                                

Credit has to be given to Mr.N. Srinivasan & Co. for making the match come to Chennai after 3+ years and taking all steps to make sure the match happens be it against political problems or cyclone problems. The match turned out be like yet another Chennai test providing the crowd and also the record books some amazing entries. So, how about seeing what happened day by day?

Day 1: English skipper Alastair Cook won the toss, inviting India to field. The duo of Cook and Jennings start the proceedings and on the very first ball a Mishra mis-field resulted in Cook crossing 11,000 test runs. The start was very quiet thanks to some hostile spell from Ishant Sharma whose first spell read 5-4-1-1. Ishant sent Jennings and Jaddu sent Cook and by Lunch it was 68/2. What followed that was an English counter-attack where Root kept sweeping the ball and rotating the strike with Ali and a good partnership was building up and then Jadeja removed Root through a DRS decision.

 Root scored an amazing 88 and the Chennai crowd known for its historical nature applauded his effort as he returned to the pavilion. Then it was all Ali. He was like the baton had been passed from Root to him as notched up his century and Bairstow was unlucky to be out on 49. Taking the new ball did not work in favour of India as it ended up leaking more runs towards the end of the day as England closed Day 1 on 284/4.

Day 2: The day started on a positive note for India as Ashwin removed Stokes which was interestingly his only scalp of the match in his home-town. And Ishant removed Buttler and Yadav bounced out Ali, England were at 321/7. When the crowd expected India to bundle out England out below 400, Debutant Dawson and Rashid had other ideas. They made runs and added 108 runs in 40 overs and in the process completed their respective half-centuries and the partnership ended with Rashid edging to Parthiv. Broad contributed with 19 and Ball scored 12 and Dawson remained unbeaten on 66 and England finished their innings at 477.

India were given 20 overs to play and Parthiv and Rahul partnering for the first time played safe and ended the Day on 60/0. The Chennai crowd got some entertainment in the form of Buttler as he was targeted by the crowd for reasons and started to mimic him and if Cook sent him to the other side of the field, chants of “WE WANT BUTTLER” filled the stadium and he was brought back to same side.

Day 3: Day 3 started on a positive note as Rahul and Parthiv continued what they left on Day 2 with Parthiv unleashing cover-drives and Rahul driving and sweeping the ball. Both brought up their respective 50s and Parthiv was undone by a leading edge of Moeen Ali. He scored 71, his highest score in test cricket. Pujara joined with Rahul and India at Lunch were 173/1. Pujara steered a Stokes delivery to slip and what? One would have expected the crowd to go silent, but we had other ideas as everyone knew the next to bat was the Indian skipper Virat Kohli. It was a cheer Pujara was accustomed to in the early phases of his career when he would come out to bat before Sachin Tendulkar. Virat Kohli, started carefully and K L Rahul completed his 4^th test hundred. Cook’s plan for Kohli seemed to work this time as he chipped out.

The Super Sunday crowd who were expecting a Kohli special yet again, were not disappointed as K L Rahul took the English bowlers for 4s and 6s. He and his Karnataka captain Karun Nair were busy sweeping and reverse sweeping the spinners and when everyone expected Rahul could do nothing wrong, he chased a wide-off delivery only for it to take an edge and find Buttler to be out on 199. Local boy Vijay kept a check on the wickets and India closed Day 3 on 391/4. Buttler was not spared by the Super Sunday crowd as he also joined the entertainment making some moves and playing shadow-football with Root and also not to forget the loud roar when Root threw the ball at Rahul. He had to apologise twice.

Day 4: Probably the day everyone thought of giving a miss considering it was a Monday, Chennai was not like that, the main reason being India were batting. Those who gave a miss were left cursing their stars why on the earth they did so… Why? You’ll know at the end of the paragraph… Vijay did not last long as he was trapped LBW off Dawson. The departure of Vijay brought in another Local-boy probably the Local-superstar R Ashwin. Ashwin made up for his poor outing with the ball as he and Nair made another big partnership frustrating the England attack. Nair completed his 200 and Ashwin brought up his fifty and yet again the ball had to find Buttler who broke all 150+ run partnerships… Jadeja joined Nair and they started to accelerate… The crowd were desperate for an Indian declaration, but there were no hints of that from Kohli as he nodded saying a NO when the crowd along with the English fans were asking “DECLARE!!!” Probably at the time what myself and the other friends felt was Kohli was going to give Cook yet another fine for slow-over rate as Cook &Co. were seen wasting time between balls and overs so that if at all they bat, they would face only less overs.

Nair and Jadeja were just busy hitting the ball and Cook was left scratching his head for ideas. A perfect field and a short ball? A forehand tennis smash for 4 as Nasser commented “That’s a 15-0 in tennis” and an upper cut for 4 and again the same for 6 even when a Long Stop was moved in. Jadeja brought up his 50 and Karun brought up his 300 while the Chepauk crowd forgot about the declaration and were enjoying their batting, the declaration happened giving India only 5 overs to bowl which the English openers survived and ended Day 4 on 12/0. Wait what’s India’s score?? It was 759/7d, their highest in the format and a lead of 282 runs. I think you probably would have found the answer for the question at the beginning of the paragraph.

Day 5: Only 2/4 innings completed and only 5 overs in the 3^rd innings bowled. Ask any fan, he would say if India doesn’t pick up early wickets the match was heading for a draw. As they said it was happening in the first session. Sharp catches were dropped, Cook and Jennings slowly moved towards their respective 50s and also in the process of not losing the wicket to give India an early advantage and England moved steadily to 97/0 at Lunch. Now if any fan who left were left ruing their chances of missing the rest of the play and some who came in were in for a glimpse of a thriller. Jadeja came in and he took out Cook, Jennings, Root and caught Bairstow and England were 167/4 at Tea. The scorecard was inviting the crowds and they soon became the 12^th man of Team India and Virat was giving the signals just like in the Kolkata Test.

After Tea it was like a landslide after a small resistance. Moeen Ali scored 44 and Stokes scored 23 and then again the wrecker-in-charge of the day Jadeja stuck twice in 2 overs and Mishra struck the only wicket of the day that did not have Jadeja to be involved which was disturbing the woodwork of Dawson. New Ball this time worked in favour of India as it brought Rashid’s wicket off the very first ball as he found Jadeja at point. Jadeja then came and cleaned the tail of Broad and Ball in 4 deliveries to hand India a thrilling victory with 30 minutes and only 8 overs of play left. Buttler was left standing at the other end with 6 off 50 balls. India won the match and series 4-0 the most they did against England.

Karun Nair converts his maiden 100 to a 300, the first Indian and second in the world, Jaddu gets his best figures and his maiden 10 wicket haul, KL Rahul gets 199, India pulling off a victory within 2 sessions, India rack up their highest total 759-7, and lifting the series trophy, all these happening in front of your eyes which happens to be your first match… Truly nothing can get special for a spectator like this…

Looking forward for another experience like this… but just wondering as I type when will be the next international match in Chennai???

Oh wait.... The ticket to my experience.. without which I would have not seen anything....

- Guha Karthikeyan S T

A Look @ MCC’s recommendations

Every normal cricket fan knows about the ICC. But who frames the rules by which the games should be played? It is the MCC, Marylebone Cricket Club when puts its recommendations and sooner or later it becomes a law. So, the outcome of the latest MCC meeting is doing some rounds and what are they?

Sending off (red card system like in football) in cricket:

Remember this occasion… Well now, what if I told you are going to see many like that in the coming future??? Yes you guessed it right… Red Cards are going to be introduced in cricket…This is done in order for cricket to maintain its tag line “GENTLEMAN’S GAME”. There have been so many unwanted spats in the history like Warne-Samuels, Lillee-Miandad, McGrath-Sarwan… The fact that it is to be implemented from the lower-grades makes the young players to respect and play within the laws of the game. In international level, it is to reduce the physical violence as several umpires reported that they consider leaving the arena as they were threatened by some players… But the red-card system can be extended to verbal-spats… “Now, respect the game Aussies…”

Regulating bat-thickness and edge-thickness:

                                 

Edge: <= 40mm
Spine: <= 67mm

All worried faces when you saw your opponent batsman’s mishit going for a 6 please note… happier days have come… with the new recommendation on the regulation of bat thickness, those players who used excessive sized bats are going to face the problem of timing… and mishits shall remain as mishits and are bound to land in a fielder’s hand… Finally, some good measure to ensure the balance of game between bat and ball…

Ball-tampering law:

                              

The Faf du Plessis saga which was doing some rounds… and players including his rival captain SPD Smith came in his support…  As far as that there is no modification to the existing law but the ICC will act upon such players when they have proofs of ball-tampering…

Four-day or five-day Tests?

As always, a main topic of discussion… the 5-day match should exist as a part of the tradition and changing it will affect the game which has a lot of history and would bring down the quality of test cricket…and also, we have seen some great matches which produced results on the 5^th day in the past 18 months…

Cricket in Olympics:

                                  

Nearest possibility is in 2024, and the ICC have asked all members to come on board quickly and make a move… and also cricket will become more global with countries like China taking part… Just tell them cricket is in Olympics and then look… they train hard and bring-in their best team in the Olympics and may be pull an upset against the regular nations…

Legalisation of catches of Helmets:

The other topic which was doing some discussion is deeming a catch legal when caught off the fielder’s helmets when they wear it. It should be considered as same as taken off a wicket keeper’s pads, and balls caught in grilles be considered like ball trapped in keeper’s pad, sweaters and pockets of fielders…

All of these are the proposals by the committee which would come in effect from Oct-1-2017 if subjected to approval from ICC….



- Guha Karthikeyan S T

DECISION REVIEW SYSTEM

The news which was hitting the headlines 1-2 weeks back was the India’s use of the DRS i.e., the Decision Review System, which India had accepted to use after a long time in a bilateral series. The reason why India did not use the DRS previously was the Hawk eye prediction which was prone to manual errors. Now that the efficiency of the system is increased using Ultra Edge and Ball tracking, which the ICC proposed in a meeting with the BCCI officials, they accepted.

So, how this DRS works?

First when the batting team or the bowling team have asked for a review making the ‘T’ symbol

Majority scenarios where DRS is used is for close-catches and LBW appeals.

The first thing the TV umpire checks is for the front-foot no-ball and when it is not a no-ball he goes on with the next procedures.

After that he checks whether the ball has taken an edge or not for the catch or the LBW mode of dismissal

1) A edge of the bat (or) edge of bat first and then pad or any other gear of the batsman for a catch review.
2) A edge of anything but bat which is followed/not followed by the edge of the bat for a LBW review.

The edges in the on-going series is checked using Ultra-Edge only whereas in other parts of the world Hotspot is also used in combination.

                                               

 
                                                   

Once there is an edge confirmed in liking to the appeal, the umpire goes on for the next process…

3)If the review is for a catch he checks whether the catch is completed correctly and the fielder has not grassed the ball in the process.
4) If the review is for LBW, then the following procedures take place
                4.1) The ball needs to be pitched in-line to the stumps (or) outside the off-stump… it should not pitch outside the leg-stump…
                4.2) The ball needs to have impact in-line if the batsman attempts a shot (or) outside off-stump area is included if the batsman is not offering a shot…
                4.3) The ball needs to hit the stumps after the impact (or) at least >50% of the ball must be clipping the stumps after impact…

Now, combining the conditions,

Batsman is OUT LBW and he reviews,
If No-ball he is not out and TV Umpire does not go with the further process
Not a no-ball:
Any one of the conditions 2, 4.1, 4.2, 4.3 needs to be false to overturn the decision.

                               

Batsman is NOT-OUT and the fielding team reviews for LBW,
If No-ball he is not out and TV Umpire does not go with the further process
Not a no-ball:
All of the conditions 2, 4.1, 4.2, 4.3 needs to be true to overturn the decision.

                            

Batsman is NOT-OUT and the fielding team reviews for a close catch,
If No-ball he is not out and TV Umpire does not go with the further process
Not a no-ball:
Condition 1 needs to be true &
The TV umpires checks for a fair-catch completion to overturn the decision.

Batsman is OUT Caught and he reviews,
If No-ball he is not out and TV Umpire does not go with the further process
Not a no-ball:
Condition 1 needs to be false (or)
The fielder should have grassed the ball at some point of time to overturn the decision

Now, there exists something called as the UMPIRE’S CALL in the DRS, which is nothing but

For an OUT decision given by umpire, his call is taken for the consideration
a) if >50% of the ball is clipping the stumps.
b) if >50% of the ball’s impact is within the line-of-stumps (in-line) and batsman offers a shot.

For an NOT-OUT decision given by umpire, his call is taken for the consideration
a) if >50% of the ball is missing the stumps.
b) if >50% of the ball’s impact is outside off-stump and batsman offers a shot.

                               

For the run-out and stumping reviews, the umpire needs to check whether the batsman is safe when the stumps and bails are disturbed and at least one of the bails is removed from the set.

S.T. Guha Karthikeyan

ARE No.1 REALLY No.1??

The recently conclude Jat Paints Cup between Australia and Sri Lanka and the Investec Test series between Pakistan and England have opened up a much debatable topic… Are Australia or any other team who reach the that spot in the rankings table, really worth of that?

Cricket is a challenging game. And of that, Test Cricket is the most challenging. And to reach the No.1 spot in the ranking table means you have great talent and are a great force to be reckoned with. That was evident from the Australia of the late 90s and early 00s. They were a force, batsmen were playing ODI type batting and bowlers were busy taking wickets and they had 2 stretches of 16 consecutive wins to go with that. But now no team in recent times has been able to match to that superiority and the dominance they showed in world cricket for almost a decade.

In the present day, a stretch of 2-3 home series will give you a chance to rise up in the table the reverse of that would also give you the reverse. Australia who came in as the No.1 side and also with the stat that Sri Lanka have beaten Australia just once in their test career span and crumbled in the Asian tracks and just gave 3 more wins easily (excluding the 3^rd test 1^st innings).

From the start of 2013, out of 33 series between the top 7 teams, (India, Australia, England, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, New Zealand and South Africa) 6 series have been won by the touring team and 7 series have ended in a draw. That leaves the rest 20 series which have been won by the host team. And the 6 winners were like AUS in NZL and RSA, IND in SL, PAK in SL, like that where the conditions for the touring team was more or like their home conditions.

Till the last decade or so, there was enough space in the Future Tour Programme so that each touring team played 2-3 practice games before they took on the Host nation. Now the tour games are almost not being held with the exception of England and Australia giving teams some 1-2 tour games. The tour games would play great importance in helping the players to get adopted to the conditions and get knowledge of the pitch conditions.

Without the tour games, the visitors feel alien to the conditions and before they adapt to the conditions the hosts would have clinched the series or gained an upper hand in the series. With that advantage the hosts win the series to rise up in the table and the visitors go down.

So this may give the teams an idea in the future that to maintain the No.1 spot they need to organise more and more home series instead of playing overseas tours. A Part of that may be due to the ICC system of rankings and points allocation procedure.

To change this scenario, a slight modification in the rating allocation can be done as follows:-

+5 points: Away win against HR side

+4 points: Home win against HR side

+3 points: Away win against LR side

+2 points: Draw against HR side (with 3/4 innings completed)

+1 point:  Home win against LR side

0 points: Washout or drawn matches with only 1-2 innings completed

-1 point:   Away loss against HR side

-2 points: Draw against LR side (with 3/4 innings completed)

-3 points: Home loss against HR side

-4 points: Away loss against LR side

-5 points: Home loss against LR side

Bonus:
+1 point: Innings victories against HR side.
+2 points: Series win against HR side.

Penalty:
-1 point: Innings loss against LR side
-2 points: Series loss against LR side

HR: Higher Ranked

LR: Lower Ranked

Rating points to be halved by the cut-off date...

If the ICC decides and implement this scenario, the teams would be more concentrated on winning and keeping their spot even home or away and ICC should intimate all boards to keep tour games as a mandatory for all the tours. If these can be implemented, then we can have a great duel on the pitch instead of the boring one-sided encounters.

Stat Source: http://www.espncricinfo.com/ci/engine/series/index.html

- Guha Karthikeyan

IS HARMANPREET KAUR & DHAKA PREMIER LEAGUE, a comma (or) a full stop?

           

                                

A lot of media speculation was around when the BCCI granted permission for the Indian Player Harmanpreet Kaur to play for the Sydney Thunder franchise in the upcoming WBBL-2. This was a bit surprising as in the past BCCI had not allowed its players to play in the foreign leagues. The main reason was the Indian players signed an IPL contract which had one of the conditions stating this….

Well, that seems to be broken soon as the BCCI has allowed some Indian players to play in the Dhaka Premier League held in Bangladesh and 22 of the 36 overseas players are Indians. And they have also played some good knocks.

So the main question would be will this continue in the future or is that all the BCCI has allowed for its players. Considering the form of the Indian Players in the foreign soil and the form of the foreign players on the Indian soil, the move should continue and more and more players should be allowed to play in these foreign leagues, get to know the conditions well by playing there and add some valuable inputs when they go on national duty which the foreign players were doing these many years. An evident example would be when Lendl Simmons accepted in public that he was called up to play the semi-final since he was a Mumbai-Indian. So the management can allow some players, not all to play in the overseas leagues and pick them when India tours them and make wonders in the foreign soil instead of holding on to the tag of “TIGERS AT HOME, LAMB READY FOR SLAUGHTER ABROAD” which would more or less happen if the BCCI thinks otherwise considering the pitch and conditions in the other countries, which are different from the ones in India.

Clause Source: http://www.espncricinfo.com/india/content/story/570934.html

Stats Source: http://espn.go.com/cricket/story/_/id/16538231/indians-dominate-overseas-presence-dhaka-premier-league-2016

S.T. Guha Karthikeyan

THE KNOCK-OUTs ARE UP

                   

               It has been 3 weeks since the mega event started and now we are at the closing stages of the tournament and we have the 4 teams who have reached the knock-out stages of the cup. Much to the expectation pre-tournament, the Saffers (South Africa) are out of the competition and as mentioned in the previous blog, England with that surprise, have now come to the semi-finals. The 4 semi-finalists are

·        New Zealand                                                                               

·         England

·         West Indies

·         India

                                                         

Now how have these teams done so far and what they have in them to go all the way???

NEW ZEALAND:

         

Kane Williamson (capt.), Corey Anderson, Trent Boult, Grant Elliott, Martin Guptill, Adam Milne, Mitchell McClenaghan, Nathan McCullum, Colin Munro, Henry Nicholls, Luke Ronchi, Mitchell Santner, Ish Sodhi, Tim Southee and Ross Taylor

                The Kiwis. The Black Caps are looking strong even with Southee-Boult yet to play in this tournament. They have won all 4 on trot. Their batting has so far put a large total only once but it is all about their bowling. They are defending almost any target their batsmen give them, be it 180 against Pakistan or 126 against India, they have done it all. Considering the fire power of the teams which qualified from the other group, their batsmen if they replicate the innings against Pakistan, they can win their first World Cup. (They have already won a Champions Trophy)

ENGLAND:

         

Eoin Morgan (capt.); Moeen Ali; Sam Billings; Jos Buttler; Liam Dawson; Steven Finn; Alex Hales; Chris Jordan; Adil Rashid; Joe Root; Jason Roy; Ben Stokes; Reece Topley; James Vince and David Willey.

                The Poms. They have used that surprise of the new player to whom the opposition did not have much experience facing them and they have done some good job. The last time they went to the semis, they won the cup from which they can take some more confidence from that. Roy, Root, Buttler have shown some good knocks and the batsmen were racking up huge totals while the bowlers were taken apart in two matches and fared better in the other two.  If the bowlers can do what their counter-parts do… they can go for the final and have a shot at the cup.

WEST INDIES:

                        

Darren Sammy (capt.); Samuel Badree; Sulieman Benn; Carlos Brathwaite; Dwayne Bravo; Johnson Charles; Andre Fletcher; Chris Gayle; Jason Holder; Ashley Nurse; Denesh Ramdin; Andre Russell; Marlon Samuels; Lendl Simmons and Jerome Taylor.

                The Caribbean’s. As expected the party boys have lit up the tournament and qualified to the semis. They have just suffered a minor hiccup against Afghanistan and the other teams will be looking on to that match to take some flaws from that. Gayle, Fletcher, Samuels have all lit up the stage with their power hitting while Bravo and Russell have showcased some good bowling. Firing in unison, they are going good and they would be a team to beat if any of the other teams wants to keep their hands on the cup.

INDIA:

                        

Mahendra Singh Dhoni (capt.); Ravichandran Ashwin; Jasprit Bumrah; Shikhar Dhawan; Ravindra Jadeja; Virat Kohli; Pawan Negi; Ashish Nehra; Hardik Pandya; Ajinkya Rahane; Suresh Raina; Mohammed Shami; Rohit Sharma; Harbhajan Singh and Yuvraj Singh (Manish Pandey).

                The Home team. No tournament gets interesting without the host team putting up some good show. After the initial hiccup against New Zealand, they have come back well to win against Pakistan to win big, win Bangladesh in a thriller and win the Aussies in a close encounter. 2 of the 3 wins were largely due to some one-man show from Virat Kohli. The openers have not clicked yet so far and need to do so if India has any hopes on winning the championship and same is the case with middle order. One player clicks per match. The bowlers are bowling with some discipline with the form they are having in 2016 (India has the best economy rate in 2016). The openers and middle order need to click in unison and the team needs to click as a unit if they want to lift the trophy in Kolkata on 3^rd night.

                So, which team will win the 2 semis NZL vs ENG (Delhi) and WIN vs IND (Mumbai) and advance to the final and lift the trophy?? Just One week…Tune on to your TV-sets and don’t miss the action!!!!!

                                     

-S.T. Guha Karthikeyan