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Cricket XXV - The long runup to the World Cup


Stubby

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Tried by going through the email invitation ,could not join . Made a new account and joined the league it joined to the league i had created . At my third attemt changed the country to England instead of India and now i have successfully joined . Apparently , they have different servers for India ,England and other countries which is weird . Anyways team name fu-cricinfo .


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Australia, New Zealand and South Africa are probably the top 3 for this world cup. NZ have really come into form, I will be extremely surprised if NZ don't get to the semi finals at least, I think though that South Africa and/or Australia might prove their undoing, still they have the talent to cause an upset. South Africa will be playing in Australia (one of their favourite away destinations, similar to SA) and are in a fairly easy group. I can't see West Indies or India beating South Africa. Pakistan are unpredictable so there might be an upset there, but I'll still bet on SA winning. SA should get through the group stages unbeaten.



SL really really need Dilshan/Sangakkara/Jayawardene to be in top form, a lot of their new players are to inconsistent and bowling wise they will rely a lot on Herath and Malinga. India will struggle, their batting line up, while talented is vulnerable to bounce and swing, and Indian bowling is mediocre. Pakistan have solved their batting woes, but their new bowlers are a bit weak, if Pakistan still had Umar Gul and the like, they would be a very strong contender.


England are the real dark horses, full of talent but they are inconsistent and they rely a bit too much on Bell and Moeen Ali. If guys like Root and Bopara find form then England will do really well.



I'm gonna tip a Australia vs New Zealand final.



Anybody on this forum planning to go to a World Cup game?


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You accidentally said you can´t see India and WI losing to SA while meaning the opposite there.

Personally I´ll also go with Australia - New Zealand if Faulkner gets healthy.

Woops, accident. Corrected now, thanks for pointing out.

I really really hope that Faulkner gets better. Australia need him in those tight situations at the end.

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I'm not tipping any final spots, because I don't want to Jinx anything. Also being somewhat favourites almost never does us any favours. Just look at how many RWCs we were favourites for compared to the number we've actually won.


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Considering what NZ just did to Sri Lanka I think it will be an up hill battle for them.

Yup, not many people here actually expect SL to win, but we hope.

But, it would actually be nice if either NZ or SA (finally) finally (finally) won a WC.

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I'm starting to waver on going with Aaron Finch for my fantasy team, he's picking up a lot of low scores in matches were Australia are dicking teams.



I vaguely remember having a conversation with a guy who's doing a masters on statistical analysis of cricket about how short term form is the best predictor of how players are going to do. I had had a few beers at that point so it might not be the most solid foundation for picking my team but at least it's something. Still I do think Finch could click and rack up a big score pretty quickly against someone.



Speaking of players in form Dhawan just got a respectable half century in the warm up against Australia Xray so perhaps he's turned a corner. :dunno:


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I'm not liking all the pundits putting the favourites (or co-favourites with Aussie) mantle on New Zealand. New Zealand's cricketing juju is very rarely best served when they are placed as favourites. After the last few months the Black Caps certainly deserve to be highly regarded for the tournament, especially with playing most (all?) of their matches on home turf. But still, co-favourites to get to the finals with Aussie, and people like Beefy Botham picking the Black Caps to win?


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This advertise for the Ind-Pak game is hilarious:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Za4qBpSQb9A

Lol, that poor guy. I find it remarkable how Pakistan always find a way to lose to India in the WC. In the 90s Pakistan had a much better side,yet in 92 96 and 99, Pakistan choked. I think that this year might be the year for that guy to finally use his firecrackers, Pakistan are not that strong, but India are out of form.

I'm not liking all the pundits putting the favourites (or co-favourites with Aussie) mantle on New Zealand. New Zealand's cricketing juju is very rarely best served when they are placed as favourites. After the last few months the Black Caps certainly deserve to be highly regarded for the tournament, especially with playing most (all?) of their matches on home turf. But still, co-favourites to get to the finals with Aussie, and people like Beefy Botham picking the Black Caps to win?

Well NZ have always been the dark horses, they were never really ranked as favourites. This is their best team in ages, probably better than the 1992 team that lost to Pakistan in the semis. They should be able to beat India, Sri Lanka, Pakistan and England in the knockouts. While they should do really well, semi finals at least I think, can they beat Australia and South Africa though, when it comes to crunch time. We shall see I guess. The NZ vs Australia pool game at Eden Park, will be one of the games of the tournament IMO.

Also NZ will play at home unless they get into the final and/or if Australia finished higher than them in Pool A and Australia and NZ meet in the semis.

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For those of us in the UK without Sky Sports apparently highlights of all England and Scotland's matches plus the semi-finals and final (probably unlikely to count as either an English or Scottish match) will be on ITV or ITV4 - I'm a bit unclear whether there will be any coverage of other matches. In theory, I'd prefer to be able to watch them live but the time difference would make that impractical anyway.


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