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CWC Round-Up: 17 March

Sat, 17/03/2007 - 16:12 — admin

Welcome to Upset Saturday, as Bangladesh and Ireland overturned the form books - and in the process dumped former World Cup champions Pakistan out of the competition.

First up, Bangladesh's win over India. Perhaps it's all those matches against Zimbabwe, perhaps not, but Bangladesh have been a side on the up for a while now, and India appear to have been caught napping. After choosing to bat on a bowler-friendly surface, India faced a discplined and controlled bowling attack from the Bangladeshis and found themselves unable to cope. Bangladesh, meanwhile, exhibited patience when their turn with the bat came around, and comfortably reached the required total with only a few minor scares along the way. This "upset" wasn't entirely unexpected - reports ahead of the game had pointed out Bangladesh's recent improvement and had the match marked as a possible upset. The writers of those reports got what they wanted, and India now need to make sure they don't slip up against Bermuda or Sri Lanka if they're to proceed.

If Bangladesh's performance didn't really surprise, though, Ireland's did. While the other Associates have been torn apart by the Full Member sides, Ireland came into this game fresh from their tie with Zimbabwe and with a real nothing-to-lose attitude. Pakistan coach Bob Woolmer, writing in a CricInfo article ahead of the match, had used Ireland as an example of where the ICC's High Performance programme was working, and called them a "banana-skin side" - shame he doesn't appear to have told his team. Needing a win to stay in the competition after losing to the West Indies, Pakistan failed to cope with the Irish bowlers on another bowler-friendly track at Sabina Park. When "Extras" is your second-highest scorer, you know that something's wrong, and even Pakistan's big guns - Inzamam, Younis Kahan and Mohammad Yousuf, who managed just 16 runs between them - were left wondering what hit them, as Pakistan collapsed to 132. Ireland suffered some wobbles in reply, being 2/15 at one point and losing 3 wickets for 5 runs later in the innings, but composed displays by the O'Brien brothers provided an anchor for the innings and helped see the Irish home with more than six overs to spare. It also gives Ireland a real shot of reaching the Super Eight, if Zimbabwe lose their two remaining matches. Well done to the Irish on St Patrick's Day, and raspberries to those who doubted the ability of the Associate sides to make an impact on the tournament.
Bangladesh beat India by 5 wickets
Ireland beat Pakistan by 3 wickets

Next up: England v Canada in Group C, and Australia v Netherlands in Group A.

Comments

Sun, 18/03/2007 - 02:16 — calvin (not verified)

i told a mate of mine before the start of the world cup that i had my money on bangladesh doing well .i think zim and bangladesh have benifited from playing each other in their own version of the ashes, which i belive is very competitive despite the negative press. well done to bangladesh and ireland. at least they dont get as much negave press as the zimbabweans.i feel sorry for the zimbabweans for the negativity associated with zim cauz of mugabe and chingokas of zim cricket.its sad to hear people like andy flower calling for sports sunctions aganist zim. What about the people employed by sport who cant make it to england like andy and others. Lets not be selfish andy pls.What about the essence of sport to zimbozs in and out of zimbabwe. i know of many peole who took days off to watch zimbabwe play here in the uk. thats is our only chance of being close to home.Food for thought!!!1

Sun, 18/03/2007 - 04:47 — maehara (not verified)

I think you're right about the Zimbabwe v Bangladesh games - the two sides are fairly evenly matched, and that's just what's needed for both of them to improve. I'd like to see more of them - and to be fair, the Future Tours Programme already has quite a few meetings scheduled between the two sides.

I'm against any boycott - the guys on the team are just trying to make a living as best they can in a country where that's becoming ever more difficult, and forcing them out of international sport will just deprive them of that. It certainly won't make any difference to Cde Bob, either. As it is, the problems back home are getting far more press at the moment, because of Zim's presence in the World Cup, than they would ever get if the team wasn't there. So let them play.