Cricket Blog

West Indies finished their tour to England on a high by winning the 3 match one-day series. Leading by example, Chris Gayle scored a sedate 82 that took 126 balls. However, it was this very innings that laid the foundation for the West Indies’ 293. At 108-3, with Devon Smith, Shivnarine Chanderpaul and Marlon Samuels all out, Gayle had a big 85 run partnership with Ricardo Morton. Both of them played contrasting innings. Whereas Gayle was trying to stay till the end, Morton was busy blasting the bowling to all parts. It was like watching two sides of the coin at the same time. But I think the defining innings was played by Dwayne Bravo. He came in with the score at 193-4 in 42 overs. It was like he came, he saw, he conquered. Bravo smashed 42 from only 24 balls to help the Windies blast 96 runs in the last 8 overs.

What was surprising was the fact that Monty Panesar did not bowl his 10 overs. He got only 6 overs for 28 runs which was paltry as compared to how much the seamers were thrashed for. Chris Broad, in particular, was in for some treatment. His 9 overs cost 71 runs and he was wicketless. Anderson and Plunkett were the only bowlers to get wickets. Both completed their 10 overs and went in excess of 5 runs an over. Anderson got 2 and Plunkett managed to snag 3 wickets.

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Here is the official list of the teams and players as per ICC rankings. I will try to keep this updated as regularly as possible. However the latest and most updated rankings can be found here.

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1. New Zealand

They have always been the underdogs in any world cup that they played. And this one is not going to be any different. New Zealand has never had any “STAR” players in their team, and this squad holds no surprises as well. OK, a lot would disagree with me here, so I will mention Shane Bond as a STAR player. Although New Zealand does have a lot of bits and pieces players. And this is where the Kiwis excel in. Where they lag in star power, they more than make up for in players who do their jobs day-in and day-out. McMillan, Vettori, Oram, Styris and Fulton to name a few. Its always a collective effort for the Kiwis and thats what really works for them.

2. England

The country that created cricket has never won a World Cup. To a stranger this would be almost unbelievable, but to the cricket followers this should not come as a surprise. England has never had an invincible ODI squad and this one holds no surprises either. However, after defeating the Aussies with a depleted attack, England must surely be soaring high in confidence. The key to the English performance will be Flintoff and Pieterson. These two can rip apart any team when its their day. The rest of the team will have to play around these two guys.

3. West Indies

Last but not least, the host nation. And who else but Brian Lara will hold the key to the West Indian campaign in this World Cup. I believe that West Indies have a terrific squad who will definitely spring a few surprises and might make it to the semi-finals. They have had a far better one day record in 2006 and playing at home might just give that little bit of edge. Chanderpaul, Gayle and Sarwan need to support Lara in the batting. The bowling is very inexperienced and will be the weakness for West Indies.

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