World Cup 2011 is expected to be the greatest cricketing spectacle ever happened on the planet earth and for the first time in the history of the event, the Indian team has emerged as top favorites though only slightly. If the first two games are any indication, the challenge for the other teams in the tournament is going to be stiff. Despite the celebrated Indian batting not clicking in the first warm up game, India won the game against the defending champions convincingly. What if the the Indian batting would come good. What if the whole Indian batting clicked on the day. Indian team was also without their top strike bowler in that match against Australia and still won quite comfortably in the end. The Aussie looked a pale shadow of the side in the last three editions. The rule that the toss played cannot be ruled out as well. The story could have been different had Australia batted first in the game. As I earlier said somewhere, the toss will play a bigger king-maker than it has done in the past editions of the World Cup tournament.
In a nutshell, The Aussie were beaten by a single Indian bowler who has not been part of active International cricket for a very long time. What is more. Selection of Piyush Chawala was not welcomed by a huge section of media and the cricketing fraternity especially the so called great former Indian captains. I believe, the real test for the Indian team would come when they would bat second. I felt that India should have given them chance to defend a target in the warm up matches so that they get used to doing the same and feel comfortable in the event of having to chase down the target during the course of the tournament. These warm up matches are unofficial and have no bearing on the World Cup. It would have been a great opportunity had India opted to field first rather than field second. Moreover it would have confused the opposition teams as to what the favorite option of the Indian team in the event of winning the toss.
As I am writing these lines, India has scored an ominous 360 with significant contribution from the middle order. McCullum is freeing his arms quite often and we may be up for an intriguing chase if he comes good today. Anyways there is little significance attached to this contest. The matter that is more significant is the capability of the Indian batting line up. If they can consistently score as much as they did today, and get lucky with the toss on crucial occasion of the tournament, India looks settled to win World Cup 2011. The positive is that Dhoni seems to have a sense of history and seems to have realized the importance of batting first on winning the toss, especially in the crucial games of the World Cup.
In a nutshell, The Aussie were beaten by a single Indian bowler who has not been part of active International cricket for a very long time. What is more. Selection of Piyush Chawala was not welcomed by a huge section of media and the cricketing fraternity especially the so called great former Indian captains. I believe, the real test for the Indian team would come when they would bat second. I felt that India should have given them chance to defend a target in the warm up matches so that they get used to doing the same and feel comfortable in the event of having to chase down the target during the course of the tournament. These warm up matches are unofficial and have no bearing on the World Cup. It would have been a great opportunity had India opted to field first rather than field second. Moreover it would have confused the opposition teams as to what the favorite option of the Indian team in the event of winning the toss.
As I am writing these lines, India has scored an ominous 360 with significant contribution from the middle order. McCullum is freeing his arms quite often and we may be up for an intriguing chase if he comes good today. Anyways there is little significance attached to this contest. The matter that is more significant is the capability of the Indian batting line up. If they can consistently score as much as they did today, and get lucky with the toss on crucial occasion of the tournament, India looks settled to win World Cup 2011. The positive is that Dhoni seems to have a sense of history and seems to have realized the importance of batting first on winning the toss, especially in the crucial games of the World Cup.
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