World Cup Predictions

[Rik]

Granted, the West Indies did play well. Why won't anyone give them some credit? India were beaten by good cricket from the WI.

I give them credit. They seem to have finally turned the corner due to the young players performing and also learning to live without Lara. When he comes back they can only get stronger.

 

[warrioryohannan]

When these records are 4-5 from 10 - those teams are pretty equal, and you can't say either team is better than the other!

What you can't say is that England had a good run!



[/QUOTE] 19 wins and 13 losses is not that good a year. Granted it's better than Englands, but then again we didn't have the chance to play the great West Indian side or New Zealand![/QUOTE]

Before the NZ series, the record wasn't that bad. Also WI and NZ are a good side and i do believe that they are better than England!


[/QUOTE] Is that the same pitches that NZ had to play or did they change them between innings? [/QUOTE]

Huh?? what is that suppose to mean? I NEVER said that NZ won the matches coz of doctored pitches, but one can't deny that fact that NZ had home advantage just like India had home advantage when they played against Australia in the last series!

 

[warrioryohannan]

India should stop blaming the pitches for there losses in New Zealand If they need to blame somone it should be there own curators for not pre-paring pitches that teach batsman to play on green tops.

As Marc said New Zealand had to play on the same pitches.

What excuses are you talking about??? I have myself stated that some weakness in the team were revealed in that series and as such i don't think that India are fav's for WC, but one cannot deny the fact that the pitches in NZ were NOT of international standard something to which Flemming (the NZ captain) Hadlee the selection Chairman and NZ cricket bosses do agree with.

NZ were the better team and won the series, however in SA the pitches won't be as horrible as the one faced in NZ (if we can trust Bacher's words) as such i do expect a much better performance by Indian batsmen!

 

[warrioryohannan]

Excuse me I was talking about the fact that England have won 3 matches against Sri Lanka who are slightly tougher OD opponents than NZ and actually...England have set competitive scores in all but one of their matches, whilst India haven't even passed 200 in 7 ODIs...

LOL! so he is selective when he talks about England's good run
.Even if we do consider the matches that England played against the mighty SL team we have to keep in mind that Lanka is going through a very bad time and to say that SL are tougher than NZ is actually hilarious!!



[/QUOTE] I'm sorry but I'm going to have to laugh at you as if you think a team struggling to pass 200 is having a better run up to the World Cup than a team which has regularly passed 200 and set competitive scores and are in the VB Finals against Australia...

[/QUOTE]


Why do you always have to make a clown of urself???
Comparing the two series is dumb and ridiculous.The two series were played on totally different turf, even NZ weren't able to pile up 200 easily on their own soil!
If piling up runs is all it takes (regardless of the pitches and results) to become a serios contender then India and WI were regularly scoring runs in excess of 300 in India !!!

And England is in the tri nation final
:O :O Big deal, they do manage to get into finals but rarely wins a final!

 

[Ringua]

England are in the same pool in which Australia, India and Pakistan are present.England have a rubbish record against Australia and i don't think that England can win a oneday against them in near future.Against Pak they also have a very poor record while against India they have been losing lately (last 2 matches went to India, last one was a nightmare for England).

In all fairness i don't see how England can easily progress to the super six.One possibility can be that Pakistan plays absolute crap cricket ( very much likely) and England goes through to the super six with Aus and India.

I think the pool will end up like

1 Aus 2 India 3 England.

Mind you, England would not do much in super six and wouldn't make it to the semis!

 

[Ringua]

Excuse me I was talking about the fact that England have won 3 matches against Sri Lanka who are slightly tougher OD opponents than NZ

Bull****! Sri Lanka are totally screwed up right now, its only while playing in Sub-continent and with a FIT MURALI when they can be considered as tougher than New Zealand. Also Sri Lanka can't perform in Australia for various reasons, they get to play on pitches which they don't like.They get to play either without Murali over there, or with a Murali who is near breaking down in response to constant abuses from the crowd, ex cricketers and the media.

In short if you think that winning 3 matches against Sri Lanka is an achievement, then maybe somone have set low standard for England!

 

[vandemataram]

Bull****! Sri Lanka are totally screwed up right now, its only while playing in Sub-continent and with a FIT MURALI when they can be considered as tougher than New Zealand. Also Sri Lanka can't perform in Australia for various reasons, they get to play on pitches which they don't like.They get to play either without Murali over there, or with a Murali who is near breaking down in response to constant abuses from the crowd, ex cricketers and the media.

In short if you think that winning 3 matches against Sri Lanka is an achievement, then maybe somone have set low standard for England!

If we look at the last 5 matches that India played with lanka,then it shows India winning three of them in a row and next two were not completed because of rain (even though India were going great guns in them.)

Maybe winning against SL is now the criteria

 

[marc71178]

What excuses are you talking about???

Hmm, try where you said:

they performed badly towards the end in NZ but that was more to do with the pitch

If that's not a excuse, what is?

 

[marc71178]

What you can't say is that England had a good run!

I'm not trying to.

England only really played 4 teams in 2002 - did very well in India, lost narrowly to New Zealand, have been very good against SL, not so good at home against India and lost badly against Australia.

There's not enough there to base a good run on, same as you can't say they have an inferior record against most nations based on the last 10 being 4-5 - that actually shows the 2 to be very tight.

 

[marc71178]

Before the NZ series, the record wasn't that bad.

So now you want to talk about a good record in 2002 if you ignore the last month or 2? In that case I'd like to introduce England's games in Zimbabwe in late 2001 into the record since we're in the habit of changing the frame of reference.

Also WI and NZ are a good side and i do believe that they are better than England!

Well, we will have to wait until the Super Six to have any hope of seeing if that's true or not. Fair enough NZ beat us 3-2 last year, but that's hardly enough to say which is better in a game as random as ODI.

 

[marc71178]

And England is in the tri nation final
:O :O Big deal, they do manage to get into finals but rarely wins a final!

Coming from an Indian fan that's a little ironic - how many finals in a row did you lose before that Lord's game?

 

[marc71178]

In all fairness i don't see how England can easily progress to the super six.One possibility can be that Pakistan plays absolute crap cricket ( very much likely) and England goes through to the super six with Aus and India.

Whoever qualifies for the Super Six from that Group alongside Australia is not at all certain - it could easily come down to the games between the 3 nations - and I'd not like to put money on the outcome of those!

 

[Cloete]

The funniest thing is that every1 who has posted in here from england not predicted that england will not win or even get to the final. whereas every1 from india has said that they will either get to the final or win. yet they have the cheek to state all sorts of facts and figures and then declare that they are being fair!! the indians regard their team MUCH MUCH too highly. And I have to say India have 1 of the worst bowling attacks in the world. I would dearly love to see the indian team perform absolutely shockingly at the world cup. but knowing wat the indian supporters are like their still going to state that their the 3rd best team in the world.

 

[masterblaster]

Hey Andrew, not all Indian supporters are like that. We have anilramavarma, aussie_beater, vishnureddy, reuben and myself who are quite fair, partial and INTELLIGENT. Unlike others.

 

[Don Ricardo]

The funniest thing is that every1 who has posted in here from england not predicted that england will not win or even get to the final. whereas every1 from india has said that they will either get to the final or win. yet they have the cheek to state all sorts of facts and figures and then declare that they are being fair!! the indians regard their team MUCH MUCH too highly. And I have to say India have 1 of the worst bowling attacks in the world. I would dearly love to see the indian team perform absolutely shockingly at the world cup. but knowing wat the indian supporters are like their still going to state that their the 3rd best team in the world.

I have to agree with u there mate, india have been way over- hyped by some people on this forum
Their batsmen (apart from tendulkar) are overrated due to playing a large proportion of matches on pitches with little bounce on the subcontinent, and have flawed techniques against short pitched bowling. Their reliance on tendulkar to bat them to victory single handedly is also disturbing
Their fielding is often very slack and their wicketkeeper... well they dont even have a proper keeper, just a batsman with gloves on trying to pull off some sort of charade
Their pace bowling is pedestrian by international standards and their spinners only seem to be able to produce on the dustbowls they play on at home. I would be surprised if Australia didnt rack up 300+ against this attack and they will be hard pressed to get past an improving english side and the sublime forces of Australia and Pakistan to make it through from the group

 

[Bazza]

against India they have been losing lately

Hmm... P 10 W 4 L 5

Obviously India are a dead cert to beat us.

 

[Bazza]

Bull****! Sri Lanka are totally screwed up right now, its only while playing in Sub-continent and with a FIT MURALI when they can be considered as tougher than New Zealand. Also Sri Lanka can't perform in Australia for various reasons

Well SL are rated 4th in the world for ODIs, comapred with NZ who are 8th. That's quite a significant difference. (Incidentally India, WC favourites and all round dominators are ranked 5th).


Sri Lanka can't perform in Australia. Nor can any subcontinental side. Why? Two main reasons would be strength of opponent and difference in conditions between subcontinent and Australia. Which country is most like Australia in terms of conditions? South Africa. That is why no subcontinental side has a shot at this years WC, and I've been saying it until I am blue in the face, but still nobody listens... :rolleyes:

 

[marc71178]

Well SL are rated 4th in the world for ODIs, comapred with NZ who are 8th. That's quite a significant difference. (Incidentally India, WC favourites and all round dominators are ranked 5th).

Incidentally Eng, Ind and WI are all on the same ranking - SL are a long way ahead, NZ slightly behind - so which is the stronger of those 2?

If Eng win one of the finals games, they would be ranked 5th on their own going into the World Cup.

 

[QuickFire]

India will definitely win 2-3 matches if not the world cup.

 

[Cloete]

Hey Andrew, not all Indian supporters are like that. We have anilramavarma, aussie_beater, vishnureddy, reuben and myself who are quite fair, partial and INTELLIGENT. Unlike others.

Yes. i tend to agree with u there. as well as aditya and sriram k. well i wouldn't agree with u on aussie_beater and vishnureddy however. but it is rather enfuriating(sp?) seeing so many posts about india doing this and that. and then they rank new zealand so highly b-coz they lost to them! i am from australia and think that australia and south africa have probably an equal chance of winning. i could quite easily rave on and on and on about the aussies winning the world cup. but i don't. however having said that about india if the world cup was played in the subcontinent then i would really expect to see india do well.