By Sir Richard Hadlee
After a long winless
Australia tour it was
beyond the expectation of Indian fans. But after win against Pakistan, I predicted in my last article that India will win comprehensively against Proteas if they can show the same team effort at MCG. They impressed me with all round performance on Sunday against South Africa. Its was a strong team effort, brilliant individual performance of Dhawan and improved bowling as well as fielding.
After defeating South Africa comprehensively, India has sent a clear message to all teams that they are real contenders for the World Cup. Leading into the World Cup India’s poor performances would have created a lot of concern. It is different story now. Two wins in two games means they have turned their form around with the batsmen and bowlers playing well and from that, confidence grows. The bowlers in particular have found their rhythm and are bowling very good lines and lengths which puts pressure on the batting team – they are now reaping the rewards – wickets. Indian fans now have a lot to look forward to.
The World Cup is now into its second week and already there have been some extraordinary performances. There have been some wonderful hundreds scored by Virat Kohli, ShikharDhawan, Lendl Simmons and David Miller and there has been exceptional bowling performance too.
In Group B,Ireland beating the West Indies was a big surprise but not in the eyes of the Irish, in fact as the song goes ‘Irish eyes are smiling’. They targeted that match as a potential win and thoroughly deserved their success by chasing down 305 to win – this is the third time in World Cup matches they have achieved that feat.
They do not like being called a minnow or an Associate team. They believe they have earned their spot on merit. They have 8 players who play county cricket in England so they have a lot of cricket experience. They have a determination to be part of this event now and in the future. In past tournaments they have knocked over some top rated teams including England and Pakistan. They will have their sights set on a quarter final place – wins over UAE, Zimbabwe and a struggling Pakistan would be enough.
The West Indies bounced back from their loss to Ireland with a convincing win against an underperforming Pakistan team and theyhave their campaign on track. Pakistan may need to win all four remaining matches to qualify. No team can afford to drop five catches and expect to win. As a fielding team they are the worst in the tournament and they also have much do to improve their batting and bowling to be competitive.
It is tough to predict possible quarter finalist at this stage. In Group B India, South Africa, West Indies and Ireland look likely.
In 2019 the ICC will reformat the World Cup which will be staged in England. Only ten teams will contest the trophy with the top eight teams at a certain point of time automatically qualifying. The two bottom ranked teams will have to play in a promotion series with other Associate teams to earn the right to play in the World Cup. Every team will play against each other in a round robin series similar to what happened in the 1992 World Cup. I like this idea because there is no place to hide – there are no very weak teams and you have to beat the best to make the semi-finals. During a tournament like this the cream rises to the top and the two best teams contest the final. That is what WCs is all about – wins as many games as possible to qualify for the semi-finals and then you have to put in two complete performances to become a world champion.