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