Australia played an ODI which MSD would have been proud of. Very, actually. Now, all they need is to repeat this on Sunday to regain the trophy that they last held in West Indies.
In the end, India was put in its place. 7-0 and 70 wickets not withstanding, India was just a bit under-cooked, especially today. Bad toss to lose. Worse batting to bowl to. Worst bowling to face. Result: 95 run loss!
Steven Smith was amazing. Every time he has batted in this world cup - or for that matter this whole season, he seemed be batting on a separate pitch against a significantly inferior bowling. Captains lose their plot; bowlers lose their line/length/pace/control; fielders forget to field; spectators forget to close their mouths! There, your daily dose of hyperbole!
Tail-piece: Twitterati are having a field day that Virat Kohli's heartthrob Anushka went all the way to Sydney to support him for that "1" run! Talk about cruelty on our heroes!
G-Section:
Look who has hit the jackpot with the correct margin guess! Rambo!!! Swept it all away to reach the top!
Guesses for the finals are welcome!
150 credits at stake!
You deserve a lottery like Rambo ;-)
Australia vs New Zealand @ Melbourne by 1100 SGT 29th March Sunday
And the default entry shall be:
Australia wins by 1-30 runs / 4-5 wickets / Australia takes more wickets / 8-11 sixers
Q-Section:
Those funny spellings are from one of the most famous documents of the world - The US Declaration of Independence. The most stylish signer of them all was John Hancock.
Now John Hancock Financial (just named after the big man and not related to him - is 'eponymous' the word that I am looking for, Jeeves?) has a motto of "the future is yours".
Raghav gets the full 3. AngelAsh gets 2 as I had to guide her a bit and Siva* gets 1 as he went upto the declaration.
Good show, guys!
Q27 will be published on Saturday before the Finals.
Guesses to the usual place.
(The usual place is my email address/FB PM/Whatsapp; details of ranges etc., are at http://sribees.blogspot.sg/2015/02/gq-15-here-we-come.html)
1 comment:
This is how an ordinary team was made to look good. The format of WC was not challenging. All the eight test playing nation barring England got the sense of achievement on cost of minor. The real fight was in group B where there was some contention for 4th place between England and Bangladesh. Minor hiccups were there in India's group but the sanity prevailed in the end. As for Indian team performance, except for the performance against against SA and PAK nothing is worth mentioning. Beating UAE, Ireland, Zim shouldn't be considered big thing. Even in those matches the team faltered to some level against Zim and Ireland. Although all 10 wkts were claimed but at what cost how many runs. WI almost defended paltry score with there ordinary attack. Pak tend to lose rather than other teams beating them. We got free ticket to reach SF. Even in QF team like Bangladesh for sometime made things difficult for our batting. The point is except for match against SA which India won, the other performance cannot be considered of significance. However, still Indian team was among the best 4 teams. But the team was not good enough to lift the cup. It might have by fluke because it only needed them to win two matches of with real test SF and F.
The problem lies in the current format of WC. The best format was 1983, 1987 or 1992. In 1983 the team had to fight with Aus at group level to qualify for Semis. Similarly in 1987, it was between Aus, India and NZL to fight out for 2 semis birth. Now with 9 test playing nation if there are best eight teams divided into two group playing each other twice that will be cracker of the WC and it will test each teams real potential. Rather than just beating pulps out of minors and feeling great about it. Having said that it would be even better to have the format like the one in 1992 where each team plays other once and top four qualifies for semis. This would be best format as it will judge the teams completely leaving nothing to imagination. And the semis must be changed to defender and eliminator format of IPL. It make sense as any team topping the table should not be eliminated just because of one bad day at office. The top four teams should get automatic entry to world cup and rest of the teams including minors must play separate tournament before world cup to fill other four places.
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