Semi-Final

After what has seemed like an eternity of cricket, the CWC has finally reached the semi-finals stage. I can see why many questioned the length of the tournament now as the Super 8 segment stretched on way beyond the tolerance and concentration of the average cricket fan.

The semi-finalists were indeed decided days ago but we were forced to endure a few meaningless games by teams playing for pride but who were really yearning to return home after the odyssey that was CWC 2007.

We predicted correctly way back at the beginning of the Super 8 who the semi finalists would be. Hooray for us! Still one would have thought that the likes of the West Indies would have given one of the other teams a run for their money. However the West Indies team never came close to contending and endured a string of drubbings by the eventual semi-finalists.

So onto the semi-finals.

Match 1: Sri Lanka vs New Zealand. Could be a close match. I think New Zealand has over-achieved this tournament to be honest and I think reality will hit home here as New Zealand should be outclassed by Sri Lanka. In the super 8s Sri Lanka easily won the match up and I expect them to do so again assuming Vass, Malinga and Muralitharan are healthy.

Match 2: Australia vs South Africa. I'm predicting an upset here. Australia has just been too good this tournament brushing aside all opposition. I say the buck stops here. They are due to have a bad day and I think it'll happen on Wednesday.

That means a prediction of Sri Lanka vs South Africa in the finals. Who will win? We'll check back in after the semis.

Semifinalists decided

South Africa's demolition of England has determined the 4 semi-finalists for the series with a full 4 more matches left to be played. Of only academic interest now will be the West Indian games vs England and Bangladesh. Sri Lanka should win handily over Ireland tomorrow as well. The only semi-significant game may be that of New Zealand vs Australia on Friday as the top two teams battle in what may be a snapshot of the final.

Super 8 - bye bye windies

Still 7 more matches left to be played in an extremely lengthy Super 8 phase but by and large the semi-finalist have been determined. Well at least 3 of the four have been anyways.

New Zealand, Australia and Sri Lanka look set to be in the semi finals while South Africa and England battle for the 4th spot.

What about the West Indies you say? Well 4 losses in 4 Super 8 matches have left the home side one from the bottom in the points table. Even supposed minnows Bangladesh appear to be playing better than the Windies at the moment.

So well what can one say about the Windies side who came through their preliminary round unbeaten only to be trashed soundly by superior teams in the Super 8? Well I can make some excuses here:

• We got a bad schedule and ended up playing games against Australia and New Zealand back to back.
• The squad wasn't prepared.
• Big Questions about captaincy or rather the captaincy was poor
• Definitely a lack of strategy was shown in things like taking the power play late in the game against South Africa to not even attempting to slog until too late will watching the run rate skyrocket as we chased a total against New Zealand.
• The team has deficiencies in both its batting and bowling departments.
• We should have batted first vs South Africa
• Questions about squad and team make up like why replace an opening bowling with a batsman who will bat at number 8?

and the list could go on and on.

I just think the team was under prepared and just isn't as good as we would all have liked to think. Talent and potential wise maybe we are up there but performance wise lately we have been playing at or below the minnow level. Why? Well for one the effort given by the team is definitely lagging.

No wonder its reported that a gun was pulled on certain Windies players at a nightclub last week. That fan was probably just as disgusted as most fans are by the lackadaisical approach by our squad not even making the last four games competitive.

Where do we go from here? Well the team goes home after the Super 8. Oh wait they are home so I guess they just go their separate ways and enjoy the money they made while losing. In terms of rebuilding, fans have heard the same mantra chanted by the board and the players for over 10 years now. Instead of rebuilding we seem to be digging a deeper and deeper hole. Hopefully at some point the players and management and WICB will take responsibility for their roles and the Windies can actually become competitive again but for now I wouldn't hold my breath waiting. We're just not a good team. A so it go I guess!

A miracle?

So West Indies lose two in two days going down to the mighty Aussies and the New Zealanders as well.

While I'm barely resisting the urge to follow the Indian fans and burn the entire team in effigy lets just say I'm a little disappointed in their showing. Its one thing to lose its another thing to just not be competitive.

Against the Aussies we never really stayed in the match once we started batting, and I watched as our required run rate climbed and climbed and climbed without any response on our part. At some point we should have made a go at it and hit out. If you're going to go out at least go down swinging I say. Playing timid does not win one day matches. It was almost as if we gave up early and just opted for batting practice or is it that the Aussies are just that good that resistance is futile.

Against the New Zealanders batting first we never really pushed the run rate either. Some players got starts but never really continued on to take those 20s to 40s or convert those 30s and 40s to 50s and 80s and beyond. Then to add to it all we were bowled out for under 180 after having replaced a strike bowler with a genuine batsman for this game. How embarrassing! How do 9 batsmen get out for under 180? How do you expect a bowling squad one mainline bowler short to defend that score on a good wicket? Dwayne Smith is a decent enough medium pacer but do you really want him opening your bowling when you are defending 180?

Mind you the Lendl Simmonds (inexperienced batsman) for Jerome Taylor (opening bowler) switch just boggles me. I still cant see what the justification for that was. Does having 9 batsmen really help the West Indies? We've never been a team to have the batsmen after 6 and 7 contribute greatly to team score. OK occasionally a number 8 will score some runs but that's rare. I don't have the raw stats to back that up but memory says that you'd be hard pressed to find a game where anyone past #7 really got a 50 and put up a resistance.

We need our top 5 batsmen to score runs in order to put up decent scores and win. Bringing in a new batsman at number 8 is neither here nor there towards winning for the Windies. That's just how it always has been.

Then at the end of the game the Captain basically complained about the 15 member squad selected. Damn wave the white flag why don't we. It gets no better from here as we face both Sri Lanka and South Africa. Think I was right to rule the West Indies out of contention for the semis because to get there from here now its going to take a miracle.