Pata
03-25-2007, 09:07 PM
By Colin E. Croft
Sunday Chronicle, Guyana
BANGLADESH has been the fly in the ointment in Group ‘B’ of the ICC CWC 2007, a group that featured a few enterprising Test teams; India and Sri Lanka, along with recent Test achievers Bangladesh.
With that emphatic win against India in the teams’ first game, it was obvious that the ‘Boys from Dacca’, the Bangladeshis, were on a mission or maybe several missions. The first was to embarrass their more illustrious neighbours; the second to try to enhance their own chances of moving up to the Super 8 round.
They have achieved both. By the time you read this, the last straw will have come when Bangladesh would have, presumably, beaten Bermuda today, as the finale of Group ‘B’.
The Bangladeshis would have made their own destiny. Bangladeshis are celebrating!
On Friday, India played Sri Lanka in a game that was the clash of Group ‘B’. Having lost to Bangladesh, and having demolished Bermuda by getting 413 then bowling them out for 156, India created two distinct records.
Firstly, the 413 was the highest score in a World Cup game. Then the margin of victory, 257, was the largest in any World Cup. However, the win against Bermuda, while full of many runs, was not convincing.
I believed, and said so, that Sri Lanka, despite the fact that they only made 321 against Bermuda, looked more organised and focused than the Indians. The result on Friday last confirmed what I had been saying continually. Cricket is not played on paper. The batting line-ups of both India and Sri Lanka could make your mouth drool.
If both teams had batted well, then there probably would have been a very good possibility that we could have had a game of over 600 runs for the 100 overs. With the Queen’s Park Oval pitches already becoming slower and more consistent in bounce, many expected at least 500 runs overall.
Bowlers, though, are sometimes men incensed. They also showed last Friday that not all could go the way of the batsmen. It was a tremendous game and now that Sri Lanka have qualified for the Super 8, they are the “sleeping favorites”!
Sanath Jayasuriya has just scored his 24th One-day International century while Upal Tharanga is as good a foil opener for Jaya as any could be.
Between them, they could make any bowler weep. In the game against India, Tharanga played the innings of his young life, scoring only about two runs per over while he was at the crease, but, effectively, he kept the Sri Lankans in the game until help came from Chamara Silva and Tillekeratne Dilshan, who put on a match-winning partnership of 83 for the 5th wicket. Ironically, they both fell with the score at 216, but by then the Lankans had passed the danger zone.
Sri Lanka’s middle order batsmen are also quite good. The classic Mahela Jayawardene normally comes at No.3. What he lacks in slash, he makes up in class. What a great and text-book batsman he has become!
The wicketkeeper batsman Kumar Sangakkara could be, arguably, Sri Lanka’s best batsman. He has poise and production while almost always scoring heavily. If he fails, which is not normal, then Chamara Silva, one of the young guns for Sri Lanka’s future, normally fills the breach admirably. The ‘everything man’, Russell Arnold, then comes at No.6, along with Tillekeratne Dilshan, at No.7, or vice verse, with either Ferveez Maharoof or Dilhara Fernando, at No.8, to fill the all-rounder spots. What a line-up!
Even the bowlers in Sri Lanka’s team can bat, to a point -- Chaminda Vaas and Muttiah Muralitheran being the best of the Sri Lankan tail-enders, followed by Lasith Malinga.
Pound for pound, if the game between India and Sri Lanka had been a boxing match, it would have been quite bloody, since India’s batting line-up was also quite extensive, expansive and powerful and have already made runs like rain everywhere.
Sri Lanka, on the other hand, did not stand down, but fought fire with slashing fire, and won!
The names in India’s batting lineup are like cricketing poetry. Few would want to be reminded that Sachin Tendulkar is probably one of the best batsmen that the world has ever seen. The ball from Dilhara Fernando that rocked his leg stump was all of 91 mph!
Virender Sehwag, while a bit off batting colour, was also starting to find his feet. Sourav Ganguly, the No.3, the flawed genius, had come back with a bang, but the game against Sri Lanka last Friday may have been his Waterloo. He looked seriously out of sorts.
Yuvraj Singh is a fitter and more focused left-hander these days. Much has been expected of him, but, to date, not much has been delivered.
‘The Rock’, Rahul Dravid, the captain, has been almost like Gibraltar. Dravid is almost always there to the rescue whenever the rest of the batting stars fail. On Friday, he tried very hard indeed, but simply could not make it work. No-one else helped! Not even wicketkeeper Mahendra Singh Dhoni could help out. He too seemed flat in his batting.
While I thought that the Indians had a weakness when it came to that clash, with their bowling, the Sri Lankans had a longer and better equipped batting line-up, while India seemed to have the better batsmen. But, like I have said, the game is played on the field.
From a bowling perspective, I have also suggested in the past that Sri Lanka had a better and more balanced attack. Coach Tom Moody has made them so.
After all, they have the ageing but still competent Chaminda Vaas, the explosive Lasith Malinga and the very useful all-rounder, Ferveez Maharoof, to carry the fast bowling responsibilities.
The still very wily Muttiah Muralitharan, Man-of-the-Match against the Indians, and the sometimes very tricky Sanath Jayasuriya are always the spinners to watch for the Lankans, but both Russel Arnold and Tillekeratne Dilshan are very useful off-spinners too. Sri Lanka’s bowling is very good indeed!
India depended so much on their batting that even with some fast bowling options, they could not effect a win.
The much improved Zaheer Khan, the always agile Ajit Agarkar, and Munaf Patel, who is in the same class as Ferveez Maharoof, really tried hard, but were let down badly by their batsmen. Ball for ball, perhaps the Indians had as good a fast bowling attack as Sri Lanka, but Sri Lanka may have used theirs in a better way.
The spin department for India, is always less competent than that of the Sri Lankans, even with Anil Kumble or Harbhajan Singh, whichever is selected; both quite competent; but both Virender Sehwag and Sachin Tendulkar, as good batsmen that they are, are not comparable bowlers to the Sri Lankan spinners.
Quite simply, Muttiah Muralitheran is probably better than any other three spin bowlers anywhere in the world, combined.
I had suggested that Sri Lanka would have beaten India, all things being equal, so I was not surprised that it did happen.
Please also remember that India were playing for their life in the CWC 2007 and yet played so very badly, the blame perhaps set on the backs of their supposedly masterful batsmen. Quite simply, India’s batting stars; Rahul Dravid excluded, let them down when they played against the Sri Lankans.
India, like Pakistan, are on their way home. What happens now to the team and their leaders, Rahul Dravid and Greg Chappell, is anyone’s guess. I simply hope that they remain safe.
The other qualifiers for the Super 8 are perhaps as expected, except that the wonderfully mercurial Irishmen are now starting to believe their own fantasy.
They may have lost to the West Indies in their last game in their group, thus allowing the West Indies to also progress to the Super 8, but the Irish were not overawed.
I look to see them do exactly as they have done to the Pakistanis in the first round: shock some other supposedly superior team. The Irish have nothing to lose except perhaps their real jobs!
South Africa and Australia were always going to be too tough for their minnow opponents. While Australia have not been as clinical as their recent cricket suggests, do not make the mistake of not taking them seriously.
They are very serious about trying with their might to defend their title. South Africa, on the other hand, is just starting to simmer.
New Zealand, the ‘Black Caps’, are probably the other very dark horse. They have, quietly, like the mannerisms of the country, sneaked into the Super 8 without much fanfare.
Stephen Fleming has, like Sri Lanka, a very oiled cricketing machine. They too, like both Bangladesh and Ireland, can surprise many as the real tough cricket starts.
England is the only team that one cannot fathom now.
While Brian Lara and the West Indies have come good so far, and, like New Zealand, have looked very efficient indeed in winning all of their games, England have become the team that is unpredictable.
As things are, the semi-finalists are hard to identify!
Finally, I must say that I am one who thought that the ICC CWC 2007 should continue, despite the death of my friend and real cricketing associate, Robert ‘Bob’ Woolmer. He would have wanted the tournament to continue.
Alas, I am very sad for so many reasons about his now confirmed murder. Boy, we really did not need this in the Caribbean!
Bob had been a great innovator of the game, with his theories and his coaching too.
Remember the ‘ear piece’ fiasco with Hansie Cronje, the disgraced former captain of South Africa? Bob would try anything and I stress, “legally”, to get his team to win. That is the sort of man he was. He will be missed by all, for his cricket and his person!
Sunday Chronicle, Guyana
BANGLADESH has been the fly in the ointment in Group ‘B’ of the ICC CWC 2007, a group that featured a few enterprising Test teams; India and Sri Lanka, along with recent Test achievers Bangladesh.
With that emphatic win against India in the teams’ first game, it was obvious that the ‘Boys from Dacca’, the Bangladeshis, were on a mission or maybe several missions. The first was to embarrass their more illustrious neighbours; the second to try to enhance their own chances of moving up to the Super 8 round.
They have achieved both. By the time you read this, the last straw will have come when Bangladesh would have, presumably, beaten Bermuda today, as the finale of Group ‘B’.
The Bangladeshis would have made their own destiny. Bangladeshis are celebrating!
On Friday, India played Sri Lanka in a game that was the clash of Group ‘B’. Having lost to Bangladesh, and having demolished Bermuda by getting 413 then bowling them out for 156, India created two distinct records.
Firstly, the 413 was the highest score in a World Cup game. Then the margin of victory, 257, was the largest in any World Cup. However, the win against Bermuda, while full of many runs, was not convincing.
I believed, and said so, that Sri Lanka, despite the fact that they only made 321 against Bermuda, looked more organised and focused than the Indians. The result on Friday last confirmed what I had been saying continually. Cricket is not played on paper. The batting line-ups of both India and Sri Lanka could make your mouth drool.
If both teams had batted well, then there probably would have been a very good possibility that we could have had a game of over 600 runs for the 100 overs. With the Queen’s Park Oval pitches already becoming slower and more consistent in bounce, many expected at least 500 runs overall.
Bowlers, though, are sometimes men incensed. They also showed last Friday that not all could go the way of the batsmen. It was a tremendous game and now that Sri Lanka have qualified for the Super 8, they are the “sleeping favorites”!
Sanath Jayasuriya has just scored his 24th One-day International century while Upal Tharanga is as good a foil opener for Jaya as any could be.
Between them, they could make any bowler weep. In the game against India, Tharanga played the innings of his young life, scoring only about two runs per over while he was at the crease, but, effectively, he kept the Sri Lankans in the game until help came from Chamara Silva and Tillekeratne Dilshan, who put on a match-winning partnership of 83 for the 5th wicket. Ironically, they both fell with the score at 216, but by then the Lankans had passed the danger zone.
Sri Lanka’s middle order batsmen are also quite good. The classic Mahela Jayawardene normally comes at No.3. What he lacks in slash, he makes up in class. What a great and text-book batsman he has become!
The wicketkeeper batsman Kumar Sangakkara could be, arguably, Sri Lanka’s best batsman. He has poise and production while almost always scoring heavily. If he fails, which is not normal, then Chamara Silva, one of the young guns for Sri Lanka’s future, normally fills the breach admirably. The ‘everything man’, Russell Arnold, then comes at No.6, along with Tillekeratne Dilshan, at No.7, or vice verse, with either Ferveez Maharoof or Dilhara Fernando, at No.8, to fill the all-rounder spots. What a line-up!
Even the bowlers in Sri Lanka’s team can bat, to a point -- Chaminda Vaas and Muttiah Muralitheran being the best of the Sri Lankan tail-enders, followed by Lasith Malinga.
Pound for pound, if the game between India and Sri Lanka had been a boxing match, it would have been quite bloody, since India’s batting line-up was also quite extensive, expansive and powerful and have already made runs like rain everywhere.
Sri Lanka, on the other hand, did not stand down, but fought fire with slashing fire, and won!
The names in India’s batting lineup are like cricketing poetry. Few would want to be reminded that Sachin Tendulkar is probably one of the best batsmen that the world has ever seen. The ball from Dilhara Fernando that rocked his leg stump was all of 91 mph!
Virender Sehwag, while a bit off batting colour, was also starting to find his feet. Sourav Ganguly, the No.3, the flawed genius, had come back with a bang, but the game against Sri Lanka last Friday may have been his Waterloo. He looked seriously out of sorts.
Yuvraj Singh is a fitter and more focused left-hander these days. Much has been expected of him, but, to date, not much has been delivered.
‘The Rock’, Rahul Dravid, the captain, has been almost like Gibraltar. Dravid is almost always there to the rescue whenever the rest of the batting stars fail. On Friday, he tried very hard indeed, but simply could not make it work. No-one else helped! Not even wicketkeeper Mahendra Singh Dhoni could help out. He too seemed flat in his batting.
While I thought that the Indians had a weakness when it came to that clash, with their bowling, the Sri Lankans had a longer and better equipped batting line-up, while India seemed to have the better batsmen. But, like I have said, the game is played on the field.
From a bowling perspective, I have also suggested in the past that Sri Lanka had a better and more balanced attack. Coach Tom Moody has made them so.
After all, they have the ageing but still competent Chaminda Vaas, the explosive Lasith Malinga and the very useful all-rounder, Ferveez Maharoof, to carry the fast bowling responsibilities.
The still very wily Muttiah Muralitharan, Man-of-the-Match against the Indians, and the sometimes very tricky Sanath Jayasuriya are always the spinners to watch for the Lankans, but both Russel Arnold and Tillekeratne Dilshan are very useful off-spinners too. Sri Lanka’s bowling is very good indeed!
India depended so much on their batting that even with some fast bowling options, they could not effect a win.
The much improved Zaheer Khan, the always agile Ajit Agarkar, and Munaf Patel, who is in the same class as Ferveez Maharoof, really tried hard, but were let down badly by their batsmen. Ball for ball, perhaps the Indians had as good a fast bowling attack as Sri Lanka, but Sri Lanka may have used theirs in a better way.
The spin department for India, is always less competent than that of the Sri Lankans, even with Anil Kumble or Harbhajan Singh, whichever is selected; both quite competent; but both Virender Sehwag and Sachin Tendulkar, as good batsmen that they are, are not comparable bowlers to the Sri Lankan spinners.
Quite simply, Muttiah Muralitheran is probably better than any other three spin bowlers anywhere in the world, combined.
I had suggested that Sri Lanka would have beaten India, all things being equal, so I was not surprised that it did happen.
Please also remember that India were playing for their life in the CWC 2007 and yet played so very badly, the blame perhaps set on the backs of their supposedly masterful batsmen. Quite simply, India’s batting stars; Rahul Dravid excluded, let them down when they played against the Sri Lankans.
India, like Pakistan, are on their way home. What happens now to the team and their leaders, Rahul Dravid and Greg Chappell, is anyone’s guess. I simply hope that they remain safe.
The other qualifiers for the Super 8 are perhaps as expected, except that the wonderfully mercurial Irishmen are now starting to believe their own fantasy.
They may have lost to the West Indies in their last game in their group, thus allowing the West Indies to also progress to the Super 8, but the Irish were not overawed.
I look to see them do exactly as they have done to the Pakistanis in the first round: shock some other supposedly superior team. The Irish have nothing to lose except perhaps their real jobs!
South Africa and Australia were always going to be too tough for their minnow opponents. While Australia have not been as clinical as their recent cricket suggests, do not make the mistake of not taking them seriously.
They are very serious about trying with their might to defend their title. South Africa, on the other hand, is just starting to simmer.
New Zealand, the ‘Black Caps’, are probably the other very dark horse. They have, quietly, like the mannerisms of the country, sneaked into the Super 8 without much fanfare.
Stephen Fleming has, like Sri Lanka, a very oiled cricketing machine. They too, like both Bangladesh and Ireland, can surprise many as the real tough cricket starts.
England is the only team that one cannot fathom now.
While Brian Lara and the West Indies have come good so far, and, like New Zealand, have looked very efficient indeed in winning all of their games, England have become the team that is unpredictable.
As things are, the semi-finalists are hard to identify!
Finally, I must say that I am one who thought that the ICC CWC 2007 should continue, despite the death of my friend and real cricketing associate, Robert ‘Bob’ Woolmer. He would have wanted the tournament to continue.
Alas, I am very sad for so many reasons about his now confirmed murder. Boy, we really did not need this in the Caribbean!
Bob had been a great innovator of the game, with his theories and his coaching too.
Remember the ‘ear piece’ fiasco with Hansie Cronje, the disgraced former captain of South Africa? Bob would try anything and I stress, “legally”, to get his team to win. That is the sort of man he was. He will be missed by all, for his cricket and his person!