We’re nearing the half way stage of the World Cup, and while yesterday’s India – Pakistan match gained the headlines in advance it turned out to be a relatively one sided and ultimately disappointing game, provoking amusement only in the absurd DLS target Pakistant were left with. That’s not a criticism of the system, a target of 136 from 5 overs reflected how far behind Pakistan were effectively enough, but it add to the air of pointlessness around the closing overs. Perhaps, given the frustration that so often applies to cricket’s management of poor weather conditions, praise should be given for getting back out there even in such circumstances, but a feeling of farce persisted nonetheless.
There has been a shortage of tight, exciting games in this tournament, perhaps four or five out of the 23, and the abandonments and rain curtailed games have added to the sense that the competition hasn’t taken off. Adding into that the appearance of a gap between the top four and the rest in the table, and the whole World Cup is in danger of becoming a damp squib for the remainder of the qualifying competition. There will be plenty of told you sos about that, but any tournament requires the teams to be competitive with each other in order to be exciting, and to date that’s been missing – and this is where Dave Richardson deserves the criticism given the rationale for the ten team World Cup.
Today’s game is between the West Indies and Bangladesh, and both will be aiming for 5th place in the table and to be in position in case anyone above slips up. This World Cup needs those in the top four to slip up.
Being Outside Cricket 
Some bad luck – SA not being at the races, rain taking out the India – NZ game means it’s over a week since we had a good contest really.
Today I’m jaded, haven’t watched any of the Bangla-WI match. Judging by the scorecard Bangla were bowling well and it might have been a close game, but it seems Hetmyer has fixed that. I suppose I should be watching, but somehow it’s hard to get excited that some excellent hitting is basically going to make for another game over at the half.
Anyway, as a result of all this jadedness, 16 teams, straight knockout. Semi-finals and Final could each be best of 3 if you want to make some extra $$$$$, but at least more small teams would get a bit of exposure and straight knockout would mean it doesn’t get too boring. And there would be room for rain reserve days.
(Obviously, with 16, a number of the Round of 16 matches will be one-sided, but that’s inevitable if the game is to expand.)
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Hah, excellent jinxing, Rahman gets 2 quick wickets.
I may watch later if work allows.
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Think your sentiment is pretty common Metatone. Even if this game does go the distance, and becomes a thriller (looks like it might, about an hour into Bangladesh’s chase), many people will shrug their shoulders, since they won’t expect either team to qualify for the semis.
A context of irrelevance means that, no one really cares. Other than the players and the few fans who have not given up yet.
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Barring a collapse of epic proportions, Bangladesh will be extremely comfortable winners. Not bad when chasing 322.
Well deserved winners on the day.
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Bloody one sided games! No real contest again today. One team is going to get home with about 50 balls remaining………
Oh wait, Bangladesh are the side winning…….
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It was a great performance it seems, aided by the fact that thanks to work I could only catch a few overs (around over 30 of the Bangla batting).
Seems like our discussion yesterday was borne out, by going hard from the beginning they made sure there wasn’t too much to do in the middle overs and so the WI bowlers found it hard to apply pressure.
Also, some excellent placement of the ball by Shakib and Das in the overs I saw, really smart batting finding gaps, going over the top to empty bits of the field instead of relying on getting a six.
Will be really interesting if conditions at Trent Bridge help the Tigers stay in the game against Aus… but it would need an off day from Starc/Cummins I suspect, which isn’t likely.
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