Sunday, February 20, 2011

World cup yet to start unofficially

I was just having a A Tic In The Mind's Eye when I was forced to turn my attention towards nothing other than cricket which is now going through its all time high with the game's most favored event in progress. However, though the 10th edition of the ICC cricket world cup is officially declared open with a match already gone by, unofficially the world cup is yet to begin with the tournament's first serious game set to be played on 26th of this month which is still a week to go from here onwards. For Indian fans, the day is extended by yet another day when they play England on 27th.

That Saturday would be the day when two strong sub continent rivals namely Sri Lanka and Pakistan will fight it out in Colombo. Before that, there is a match between Australia and New Zealand though which supports a tough competition, betters will always have their say on no other team but Australia. It was in 1999 that New Zealand last beat Australia in a world cup match and since then let alone New Zealand, no other team has even managed to save their ten wickets or restrict Australia to a score of less than 300 (if the 2007 world cup is considered).

And, leaving that match, other matches include India taking on Bangladesh which is past with India winning the match by 87 runs at Dhaka. And then there is the match between Kenya and New Zealand, something which should have been their 2nd meeting had the 2003 debacle not taken place. And then other matches include Sri Lanka versus Canada and Pakistan vs Kenya. On the same lines, Australia will be taking on Zimbabwe and England the Netherlands. Another uninteresting encounter will be South Africa versus West Indies which would be a cakewalk for South Africa with the West Indies being best to Bangladesh or the other way round.

The winners of all the aforementioned matches would obviously be India, Australia, Pakistan, New Zealand (if not for their match against Australia) and Sri Lanka. The West Indies will have to wait until the end of this month when it would be 9 days since the world cup would have begun officially to have a taste of their first win in this world cup. As mentioned earlier, West Indies have a greater chance to lose their first game scheduled against the Proteas. The 1st match for the West Indies where they are bound to win is against Netherlands scheduled on 28th February. Perhaps! they will be the last to taste their first victory in this world cup.

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