Friday, January 26, 2007

WC'07 semi finalists: a revised prediction

I was just reviewing my July-2006 prediction of World Cup 2007 semi-finalists. It went:

"Semis: Australia, Sri Lanka, India and Pakistan (in that order)"



I feel the need for a few alterations. After India's dwindling ODI fortunes of late they are no more the 2nd team on my list. They have slipped to a wobbly fourth slot, and are now facing serious threat from West Indies for that position.
However I see the Indians nose ahead of the Windies in the round of Super Eight. They may struggle to win the clash against the home side but a few higher ranked teams are likely to suffer in their hands.

Inspite of that 4-0 battering at the hands of South Africa in recent ODIs India are certain to do better than South Africa on West Indian tracks. That is, unless
1) the pitches are batting beauties instead of the slow and low turners we saw in 2005; and / or
2) left arm spinner Paul Harris, the latest South African slow bowling find, indeed turns into "Lord Harris" within the coming month or two. (Ravi Shastri had quipped as such when the Indians played Harris with too much caution)

So my revised order for semi-finalists is:

"Semis: Australia, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and India (in that order)"

5 comments:

Homer said...

Angshu,

I have been a reader of your fine blog ( and your articles on the CricInfo website) for a while now, and this is the only instance where I beg to differ with your prediction :)

India, IMHO, will not proceed beyond the Super 8's for the simple reason that this team needs tailor made tracks for their batting to click. Anything remotely inimical to batting and the Indian lineup folds like a pack of cards.

I would even venture to say that New Zealand will be the surprise package in the tourney,taking the fourth spot in the WC.

And SL will be the team to watch out for, as the wickets in the Windies will be ideally suited to their slow and slower bowlers :0

Cheers

chumly said...

Still waiting for games to be shown on TV in the States or USA.

angshu said...

Maybe Homer...but then I was an Indian fan while making this post

Homer said...

:)

n!Kk! said...

Hehehe....your predictions are quite surprising because both India and Pakistan are not even making it to the super 8.

Well...India might if Bermuda beat Bangladesh...but come on, we know that's never going to happen.