CWC 2019 Mania - Precursor !

The Cricket World Cup Mania is here again …

Aha ! The World Cup fever bug bites us again & this time it promises to be bigger & faster and high scoring than before. I like this format than the ones in the recent past, in the sense that each team plays the other & hence has an ample opportunity to address a slip and recover in time. This also means unlike the 3 or 4 team groups where a single “upset” can (* & has …. remember the heartbreak of both India & Pakistan in 2007 WC ?) potentially knock you out of the tournament without a “second chance”. In the current scenario, the more fancied teams or shall I dare say, the stronger of the lot of 10, have a more realistic chance of making the top 4. As mentioned above, any slips-ups or upsets would set the alarm if only to come back harder in the next match. 
For any proud cricket follower in a cricket crazy nation, it becomes his birth-right to first, dish out predictions on the champions; boil it down to the top 4 and then ofcourse for each match. The fun of debating on the field positioning, the bowling changes, the batting order and yes, the umpiring decisions simply blows the roof off at  most of the times esp. in those games that run high on vitriol (India v Pakistan anyone ?) I take pride in considering myself as a couch captain-coach, a self declared pundit who catches the nuances more by watching the pulse on the field rather than just rely on the past record. The past record obviously plays a solid part but the on field subtleties just add that zingy aroma to the flavour of a well fought contest ! 

Right then ! So here are my top 4. Like any other “cricketing soothsayer”, I would go for England, India & Australia as my top 3. While, some may throw the current ODI rankings, some would go by current team form while others on the form of the players themselves; I am going by yes … bit of current form & hence the fact that they bring that X factor on the field but I back it up with a bit of heart, a bit of head, much of maths & a lot of thought that comes from the gut. My math tells me that a team winning 6 games has a fair chance of making it to the top 4. It may so happen that couple of teams may end up with 6 wins & NRR will come into play but these said top 3 teams when they win, will win big & compensate. An upset from Afghanistan looks unlikely for these 3 & if they were to lose their matches it would be most likely against each other. 7 wins is a guaranteed spot in the SF. There is no way that Eng, Ind & Aust will lose more than 3 games (or so says my gut). 
Now for the tantalizing 4th spot. For this, let’s go the reverse way. 

The process of elimination :

While Afghanistan is slowly climbing up the ranks, it’s difficult to see them win 6 matches. Those are like 6 big upsets. Sri Lanka have really jumped down to the bottom of the barrel for reasons best known to all but still a very well kept secret. Bangladesh for all its bravado can pull of a win here and there (can no longer be called as upsets after they have been doing the Goliath kills esp in the key ICC events) but difficult to see them winning 6 games. South Africa have been perennial under achievers either due to form or fortune. Recently, India drubbed them in their own backyard and they look very vulnerable coming into this tournament. Needless to say, am not even pausing to elaborate on the C word. That leaves me with remaining 3. Pakistan, West Indies & New Zealand. 
Pak is one of the most enigmatic cricketing nation since the game has been invented. Atrocious on a day & pristinely sublime on the other. You never know which team from which end of the spectrum is going to turn up to play on that given day. I really pity the Pak fans whose emotions would be doing somersaults from ball 1. West Indies barely qualified for the main event & had to come through the qualifiers. Not having WI in the CWC would be like not having Brazil in the FIFA WC. They dance to a different drummer & have a brand of cricketing passion parallel to none but hard to see it percolate to a string of wins. NZ seems to be in that sweet spot where they can slowly fly under the radar completely unnoticed. They do not have any flamboyant star quality as a team or even an individual to draw the spotlight on themselves, so they wont have much of a pressure situation. I would go for NZ for my 4th spot purely on gut instinct & a lot of grey matter. 

England 
India 
Australia 
New Zealand 

Too bad they don’t have Qualifier & Eliminator like the IPL. That would have been really cool ! 
One final thing. RAINS ! Don’t second guess the English weather. Rain curtailed or completely washed out matches esp. for the front runners v/s the minnows would throw the table topsy-turvy.

Restless Couch Captain
 – Yogi !

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