South Africa and India are to play 5 ODIs each before the World Cup.
Australia and England 7 each, Pakistan and NZ -- 5 each. West Indies depend on the mercy of the SL board if they are to play any more games before he world cup.
BD and Zim would play their last game before the world cup. And who cares about the other teams.
What about SL ? Well they would play mind games and their fat arse ex captain Arjun Ranatunga would go all over the talk shows saying that his country is favorites for the world cup cos they have Sanga, Mahila and Malinga.
Bhaat the Fuck!!!!
Before the world cup begins, the focus would be on 3 key Test series:
1. India vs South Africa.
2. Ashes
3. Pakistan vs New Zealand.
England wont win the world cup cos for them Ashes is the world, if they would win the Ashes they would be content. Australia is in the disarray. If they lose the Ashes, they are going to blank England 7-0 in the ODIs. India is on the winning streak of 6 ODIs in row in completed games. But they are back in the country where they last won an ODI good 7 years back -- the semifinal win against Kenya. They last played a series in 2006 when they lost 0-4.
Sorry, they last won a ODI in 2009 beating the West Indies in ill fated CT. Saffers have played few ODIs this year and they won against Pakistan, West Indies, Zimbabwe and lost to India 1-2. They hold the record now for conceeding max runs in ODIs in an individual innings.
IMO there would be tough competition between 5 teams for the 4 semi final slots.
1. Australia
2. South Africa
3. India
4. England / Pakistan
Pakistan cos they are unpredictable lads and its ages we last heard of joker called Ijaz Butt speak or do anything lampoonic...So if they play well and steer clear of any unwanted controversy, they can reach semis and they would then have to give a walkover to the other semifinalist as they wont like to play in India in the finals. They wont be allowed to play due to the ongoing freeze in the bilateral relations.
2 Perspectives:
Chandler, this time round, the World Cup's format is like it was in 1996. The Group stage round robin will be followed by Quarterfinals, Semifinals and then the Finals.
So once the 8 quarterfinalists are decided, then even though we may have our favourites for the semifinals, it might easily change with an upset.
Imagine if someone like Ireland can upset a team or two to reach the QF... then it's a lottery game for them! Who knows they might even reach the semis with another upset!
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ICC Cricket World Cup 2011
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