The First round of the ICC cricket world cup has come to an end and it has been a fascinating one month of some closely fought, some one sided cricket matches. To me this one is the biggest cricketing event of all times. I still remember the Kerry Packer cricket series started in Australia, decades ago and its astonishing what an ‘idea’ could do. Cricket world cup gets bigger and bigger.
Before the start of the event, I believed that atleast one of the associate Nations would make it to the quarters. As it turned out none of them managed to do so and here what we have - 8 top teams in the world in the quarter finals. It gotta be an intense contest from here on in.
To start with when Viru Sehwag ‘dismissed’ the first ball of the world cup through extra cover, I was sure that the tournaments’ gonna be a run feast. India was clinical with their batting but the bowling looked as vulnerable as ever and has not improved so far in the tournament. It all comes down to Zak every time and so far he has delivered. But nonetheless India was the second most interesting team of the first round, obviously behind England. My word! Each game England played went down the wire. And I wonder how hell in the world a team can tie to India, beat SA and WI but loose to Ireland and Bangladesh.
Whatever it is, I thoroughly enjoyed these two teams. It was there hard work which made the Group B, the ‘group of death’. And not to forget the Irishmen, it was soothing to watch them compete.
But at the end there were no setbacks and all the top teams qualify for the second round.
In the first group there were quite a few standout individuals. In the bowling dept where there were Roaches, Malingas, Steyns, Afridis and Tahirs , the batting dept saw heroics from the likes of AB De, Watson, Sehwag, Trott, Clarke, Umar Akmal and most unfortunately SRT in the loosing cause. The All-rounders haven’t had a great say so far in the tournament but the baton is carried by Yuvraj Singh who seems to be peaking at the right time… As far as the fielding is concerned I found Mahela as the best of the lot so far. He’s taken grabbed astonishing catches in the slips.
There were lots of funny moments like Suleimann Benn’s running b/w the wickets, Kenyan batsmen commitment, Darren Sammy’s fitting into his side .What I guessed I missed was the Helicopter shot, the dilscoops, the palti hits .. Meanwhile there were a few upar cuts, dussra’s etc… U know what pepsi managed to put together a good ad campaign, but the best one should most definitely be the Zoo Zoo!!!!! No doubt Rajnikant is the best entertainer of the year….
I have watched all the cricket on television and that show after each match ‘Extra Cricket’ is awesome. The strong team of Harsh, Sidhu, Greig, Ganguly, Simon, Symcox has done a wonderful job and analyzed each game superbly.
Hope the next phase of the cup comes out to be much much…much better. And I hope India wins this time around.
“de Ghumke, ghumke ……”
Cheers,
Rohit
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