The knockouts are here. It may have taken a month to eliminate six teams in the preliminary league. By the end of Saturday, only four teams will be left in the World Cup. The ‘butterflies in the stomach’ feeling won’t be confined to the players and teams. The spectators, who have brought such colour to the competition, have also marked the event with their sense of nationalism, which could, however, be severely tested in the days to come as do-or-die takes over from derring-do.
I had asked Mike Coward, a very wise and seasoned journalist from Australia to make his predictions two months ago and he had said, “I can pick the semifinalists. India, Australia and New Zealand will be there and so too South Africa, but maybe at the expense of Sri Lanka.”
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The forecast appears chillingly perfect now when we are aware of the quarter final line-up. The event has been fairly predictable up to this point, with only England falling out prematurely thanks to the team management’s obsession with figures and computer analysis rather than instinctive dependence on game skills. From here on, it won’t only be a test of game skills but also of nerve. Teams holding on to their nerves by getting rid of the collywobbles at action time will be the ones going the farthest.
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Of the qualifiers, India and New Zealand have been the most impressive, although it could be said Team India got here without experiencing the nerve-shredding moments in the chase that New Zealand suffered against Australia. There has been a real look of a team performance to India, purring along nicely with their bowlers hitting an ideal length in Australia and the batsmen’s collective doing enough to get out of any situation, and mostly performing in an evenly spectacular attacking style.
With Raina and Dhoni coming to the party, things are ready to explode as it were, what with India boasting of the best double spin resource plus the seam attack spearheaded by the admirable Mohammed Shami.
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New Zealand have been led by the awesome Brendon McCullum, who has been quite the captain courageous of the cup, especially in recovering from that blow to the elbow from Mitchell Johnson after which he batted on and got stuck into the same bowler with such vengeance. He has injected an attacking characteristic that has never been seen before in the cricket of the Kiwis.
The major hosts, Australia, are not unbeaten and even had a match washed out but they have a very powerful batting lineup besides boasting of the leading wicket-taker Mitchell Starc who has been the bowler of the World Cup thus far with 16 wickets. They have the redoubtable Glenn Maxwell, who has matched the innovative ability of AB de Villiers and then a series of lower order hitters who can seal a game in the death.
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‘AB’ has taken the World Cup by storm, hitting the most sixes and registering a strike rate close enough to 150 off 100 balls despite which his team has been unable to shed the tag of serial chokers as they blew up twice in the chase in the preliminaries. If Amla steadies the ship and builds a platform, there are enough strikers to bring a furrow to any captain’s brow.
(Photo: AP)
The Sri Lankans have been quite consistent thanks to the consistent brilliance of stalwart Kumar Sangakkara whose batting exploits seem to have inspired others in the lineup too.
With Herath back to up the spin component, they can be a handful for the South Africans, especially if they bat first and put a total on the board. Who knows if the Proteas will ever shed their “choke” syndrome?
The mercurial Pakistanis have raised the level of their cricket just in time but not quickly enough to have been able to avoid tournament favourite Australia in the last eight. They would have to be firing on all cylinders to test Michael Clarke’s team in Australian conditions even though Pakistan have the strike bowling to worry anyone if the quicks stick to an aggressive game plan.
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Bangladesh have shown what passion can help achieve in sport. Their batting has been a revelation while the quicks have stepped up to the task with an attacking outlook. They are not to be underestimated on their biggest night out even if their run scoring capacity never seems to exceed the 300-run mark, which could be just about par for any team batting first in the knockouts.
The Windies are to be feared when their new ball bowlers begin striking a length. Of course, their trump card is Chris Gayle who can belt any team out of the tournament with a gigantic score. The Kiwis can hope to match them with cleverness and movement rather than pace and a batting lineup that is so aggressive in intent it can even decimate the once feared Caribbean pace attack.
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The time to savour some great cricket with the added suspense of the knockouts is here. The 50-over game is unrecognisable from the one the West Indies won way back in 1975 when white clothes, red ball and a slips-and-gully cordon for the new ball was de rigueur. The exploits of the likes of De Villiers, Gayle, Shikhar Dhawan and Maxwell have helped change the very nature of the game with the sky being the scoring limit now. And then there is the guile of swinging the white ball which practitioners like Tim Southee, Trent Boult and Shami have perfected.
Fasten your couch belts, put on thimbles on the fingers to spare the nails and just settle down for great Cup action.
