Cricket-Match-Special ... A forum for discussion

Alviro Patterson wrote:

Arthur Crabtree wrote:I think Adi went for England...

I can confirm Sportbloggeradi did not go for England

Although anything can happen in cricket, no way i will tell England will win this WC because England lack consistency to win 3 ODI games in a row. I would go as far as sayign that it is risky to even pick a single player from England in my fantasy league, so no way at least i have the whole England team as favorites.

Even though i will be supporting India, the favorites to win imo are Australia.

There are signs that England could challenge for the World Cup, but they have yet to really demonstrate the cutting edge needed. There are still huge doubts over whether they can win games with their batting rather than their bowling.

It's a huge shame that this side hasn't had more time to play together.

Making_Splinters wrote:There are signs that England could challenge for the World Cup, but they have yet to really demonstrate the cutting edge needed. There are still huge doubts over whether they can win games with their batting rather than their bowling.

It's a huge shame that this side hasn't had more time to play together.

Ballance and Hales could do with some matches under their belt, at best they only have two warm up games against Pakistan and West Indies. Shame they can't get over to South Africa and join up the Lions.

England's quieter pre-tournament schedule could be an advantage if they advance through the knockout stages. Most test nations have played a lot of cricket in the last 2-3 months and the England players will be that bit fresher.

Wow no one chose South Africa.

The Waugh Twins wrote:Wow no one chose South Africa.

Chokers.

There's still time. Support for England is gathering momentum.

Pakistan are my (very) dark horse for this one

Looks like you are not alone GG.

Aidan11 wrote:

The Waugh Twins wrote:Wow no one chose South Africa.

Chokers.

Who? The voters?

The Waugh Twins wrote:

Aidan11 wrote:

The Waugh Twins wrote:Wow no one chose South Africa.

Chokers.

Who? The voters?

Only the ones who pick SA. Of which there are none at this time.

i'm slowly moving towards south Africa

amla and abdv are arguably the best 2 batsmen in the world atm and they have good support as well. bowling wise an attack with steyn, morkel and philander is strong, and tahir is a much better performer in ODIs than tests

I have no idea which country will win the world cup.
Aus, NZ, SA look the biggest three but I know/got a feeling one of them will be knocked out in the quarter-final round possibly because SA could face one of Aus/NZ in quarter final.
India if they win against Pakistan then the game against SA essentially becomes a very important game winner probably tops the group with the loser finishing 2nd and could in theory face Aus/NZ while the team finishing top faces far easier quarter final game.
If india somehow finishes top of the group I suspect they should get to the semis considering they will either face Sri lanka in a turning/dry pitch or England which would have finished 4th and probably struggled because the pitches are too flat and probably india would be favourites in a flat pitch with England favourites if the pitch as pace/bounce or movement.

Group A are quite lucky since they only really have to avoid SA and possibly India if pitches are flat but got 2 very winnable games in Pak, WI/Ireland, placing isn't really that important.
Group B can't really avoid anyone Aus/NZ look very strong, Sri lanka playing in Sydney only india would fancy them in those conditions. England look dangerous, being top could be the difference between semi finalist and quarter final exit.

Depending how the group and quarter final fixtures work out Sa, NZ, Aus, Eng, India, Sri lanka could all make the semis and one big team/favourite could be out in quarter finals.

Probably gonna vote for West indies since I am not confident on india winning the cup and can't really pick any other nations to win it since not sure which country can actually win 3 knock-out games in a row to win the title.
If only Pak, WI were strong this could have been very strong world cup, the last world cup that was probably this strong was 2003 but politics ruined it apart from australia all the other teams were evenly matched.

A bit sad that though group A is the toughest group, it hardly matters as the big four should go through, giving them an advantage in that they get the opportunity of playing WI or Pakistan in the last eight.

If you were picking the results now, you'd have quarters of

AusvWI
NZvPak
SLvInd
EngvSA

Only the third of those looks tough to call.

There's bound to be an upset in the groups.

Dr Robert wrote:There's bound to be an upset in the groups.

Scotland to beat Australia