Monday 21 March 2011

Come to Mumbai

Come to Mumbai and Support Indian team in world cup finals .

I think India will beat Australia in quarters then Pakistan in semis .

whereas other semi final will be between Srilanka & South Africa.

finally Srilanka and India will reach finals .

All the best INDIA.Publish Post

finally knockouts !

This world cup is finally arrived to business end , i.e knockouts .most of the followers I came across are feeling like its been ages since the start of the world cup. mainly due to too many Inconsequential matches.

though there are few surprise victories by Ireland and Bangladesh finally expected 8 nations have reached the knockout stage.

Quarter finals in a ICC world cup were there in 1996 world cup  for the last time. After that in 1999 ICC opted for super six format with carry forward points , same they continued in 2003 edition .In 2007 they changed that in to a super 8 format .


Incidentally 1996 ICC world cup was also hosted by sub-continent ( now Bangladesh added ,then Pakistan also part)

In 1996 Quarter finals were unforgettable and astonishing.

First of all , all winning teams in quarters from the same group.

That means irrespective of their group stage winning positions teams from one group performed well.

1) Srilanka  Vs England                  http://www.espncricinfo.com/ci/engine/current/match/65186.html
2) India Vs Pakistan                       http://www.espncricinfo.com/ci/engine/current/match/65187.html
3) West Indies Vs South Africa      http://stats.espncricinfo.com/ci/engine/match/65188.html
4)  Australia  Vs New Zealand       http://www.espncricinfo.com/ci/engine/current/match/65189.html
 India Vs Pakistan match was unforgettable for mainly 2 reasons 

reason 1 :  Ajay Jadeja smashing Waqar & Co in late over , especially 23 runs of Waqar's over . in those days 280 + score is almost equal to 330 score now .

reason 2 : Stand in Captain Aamer Sohail Vs Venkatesh Prasad .

Aamer was in Terrific form hitting 50 runs in 44 balls , He scored a boundary of Venkatesh Prasad after that , Ball went to point boundary in a flash , immediately after hitting he gestured at bowler to go and collect the ball , in directly he meant that next ball also he would hit there.

Very next ball , Prasad bowled a leg cutter , which came into the left hander sohail, he tried to repeat the same shot and this ball was hitting stumps . And He was gone . subsequently pakistan slipped to losing position from otherwise dominating situation.


West Indies Vs South Africa

No body expected Windies to beat mighty SA , especially after their loss to minnows Kenya and SA was unbeaten in their group matches .

It was Brian Lara who took the game away from the south africa with brilliant century .



in fact many believed that this match forced ICC to think about introducing super six format in 1999.

Australia  Vs New Zealand

It was very high scoring ( by those days standards ) played chennai .

first it was innings of life time by Chris Harris , then brilliant chase by Aussies.

of course there was a match turning drop catch by deepak patel .

  Srilanka  Vs England  

This Match was really entertaining due to superb hitting by Man of the series Sanath Jayasurya


lets hope , this time also quarter finals will be unforgettable and surprising similar to 1996.

A week later from now we can have real results talk about .

all the best for all teams .