The Super 8 portion of the contest starts tomorrow with Australia vs West Indies. The 8 teams that made it to this portion of the tournament are: West Indies, Australia,Sri Lanka, New Zealand, South Africa, England, Ireland and Bangladesh.
Bangladesh and Ireland are the surprise teams to have made it this far replacing the more respected Indian and Pakistani squads who have returned home. Such is life in this game of
glorious uncertainties.
During the Super 8 each team will play 6 games; ie they'll play all of the other teams in the tournament except the other advancing team from their group who they would have already played in the first round.
Of the two teams advancing from each group the team which won the meeting between those two teams takes 2 points into the Super 8. That means that Australia,Sri Lanka , West Indies and New Zealand go into the Super 8 with 2 points while South Africa, Bangladesh, Ireland and England start out with zero.
The 4 top teams at the end of the Super 8 segment make the semi-finals.
This format makes for an interesting round of games.
Two points here from my perspective.
(1) You can safely rule out Bangladesh and Ireland as advancing to the semi-finals. Yes minnows Kenya have advanced in the past but this time I think it will be difficult for either Bangladesh or Ireland to win any other match against the top teams in this tournament.
(2) Because of the squads who've made it and the format of the super 8 New Zealand and Australia have an added advantage points wise in this tournament. How you ask? Well they are the two group winners (starting on 2 points) who have both Bangladesh and Ireland left to play. That means of their 6 remaining games 2 are against so called minnows who they should beat easily so you've got to like their chances of making the semi-finals.
That means the other 4 teams; West Indies, England, Sri Lanka and South Africa are fighting for the other two semi-final spots. Ignoring my loyalties or without factoring in home advantage I'd say the odds on favorites for those two spots areSri Lanka and South Africa. England will have to play masterfully to be in with a chance. Their odds of making it are the greatest of those 4 teams. South Africa starts out with no points so maybe that gives the West Indies a chance
especially if they can pull off an upset win against either South Africa or Australia.
How much will being at home play to the West Indies advantage? I really would not like to speculate right now. They played quite well in Jamaica but never seemed as commanding as
some of the other squads even in their games against Ireland and Zimbabwe. Plus no home side has won the tournament since its inception. Still maybe they'll peak at the right time.
Its going to be a tough campaign. I'd personally like to see the West Indies make it but their backs will be up against it so I think logically the final 4 will be Australia, South Africa, Sri Lanka and New Zealand. Of course this is cricket and logic means squat so we'll see what happens.
Go Windies!
3 comments:
Go Windies..
But at least your being realistic, good breakdown
Today was a beatdown
The problem with the West Indies is that their bowling attack has no one potent enough to force wickets out of nothing. They rely too much on batsmen making mistakes to take a wicket. This is even more exposed in the Test game when batsmen can afford to take their time and get settled.
*sigh* I hope Gayle comes good next game!
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