Time to make the miracle happen

Cricket is such a crazy game that anything is possible and the shortest format of the game has always been full of surprises. This world cup was just an example to prove it.
     India who started as favourites, have scratched their way into the semis. New Zealand as a team have played the best cricket so far. West indies as expected made sure all their T20 stars are at their best. England being unpredictable as I said before the tournament have made their way into the semis in a much convincing fashion.
     In a high pressure tournament of this calibre, there were moments of joy, frustration, sorrow, panic. It was a great pleasure to watch Afghanistan play at this level and giving some tough time to the top teams. Bangladesh played some good cricket. But they just have to learn how to hold their nerves. With the crop of players they have, they will be a good team in the coming decade.
  
Pakistan and Sri lanka are yet to find their batting stars. They really need to look at the players whom they have to bank on and whom not to. South Africa have been a great team which always misses out on these kind of tournaments. Before the start of world cup, De Velliers was opening the batting and I thought that was a great move because if he stays for six overs, he is definitely going to take the game away from the opposition. Then I really couldn't understand what happened. It felt as if there wasn't a clarity about his role in the team. The small errors they made, cost them the tournament.



      Like I hoped for at the start, Kane Williamson has scripted the storyline perfectly until now. The way he has handled the conditions with the resources he have was admirable. It's not a team with superstars. But it looked as if there is clarity on the role assigned to each player and they were doing it to perfection. They are yet to have a high scoring game. Being an unknown entity, Mitch Santner has bowled really well on the spinning tracks which he is not much used to. He'll be the key against England at the Kotla. Hopefully Kane continues the script like he has so far.


England literally lost to Chris Gayle  in their first match. But the match against south africa must have lifted their morale. The starts they get and the way Root and butler are playing, it shouldn't surprise us that they are in the semifinal after that incredible chase against South Africa. They are playing the same brand of cricket like they did back in 2010. And Root is doing a KP of 2010 here. Though they managed to win, they struggled on a turning track against Afghanistan. They are again going to Delhi to face the kiwis who have won everything with their spinners so far. It's going to be a good battle to watch.



West indies started off on the back of a Gayle special against England. Sammy has made sure that all their individual stars have come to the party. Every team has their own way to go about the game. They play to their strengths. West indies strength have always been the fire power they have in their batting line up. They have played to their strengths do far. They rely on  those big Sixes and boundaries to score runs. If you look at the scorecard against England, Gayle scored 86 runs of 16 balls in boundaries and 14 singles with 18 dot balls. Similarly Samuels scored 32 in 8 balls and 5 singles and 13 dot balls. They tend to struggle when those boundaries doesn't come, like they did against Afghanistan.




India unlike west indies, have played on pitches that were tough to bat on. They was demolished against New Zealand by the spinners. The match against Bangladesh was a great team effort with the genius of MSD. It was the Kohli special against Pakistan and Australia. Indian bowlers have done really well. All five bowlers have stuck to their roles and are doing it to near perfection. It's just the batting which really didn't fire so far except for that one man, Virat Kohli. Every game he keeps improving and raising the bar for others. His work ethic is unbelievably good. But it's high time the openers and the finishers fired. Unless they do well, it is definitely going to be difficult to cross the line from here.


 The game plan of India is exactly opposite to that of the West Indies. They relish on getting those singles and twos and the odd boundary in every over. It has been the game of Virat and it has worked wonders for him and the team. Even in the match against Australia, it's the running between Dhoni and Kohli that put Aussies on the back foot. The key for India against Windies will be not to give easy boundaries and make them run for their runs. That's when they struggle. But for the same reason I believe, the pitch is going to play a huge role. It has been very flat so far. If it remains the same, I am afraid that the bowlers have to play out of their skins to restrict WI.




The tournament so far has been great fun. Of course there were heart breaks as it always tends to happen. It has given us a few moments to cherish. And now it's just the final showdown of the carnival between four different kind of teams. Like the pre tournament ad says, it's time to make the miracle happen. And it'll be interesting to see who's gonna make it happen.