Australia favorites, but slow pitches to aid sub-continent teams
A man cleans replicas of the World Cup Cricket trophies in a shop in Chandigarh, India on Sunday. Reuters |
A week of warm-up matches has confirmed that pitches in the West Indies, once the hunting grounds for a conveyor belt of express bowlers, now resemble those on the Indian sub-continent.
"Slow bowlers are going to play a part," Ricky Ponting, the captain of defending champions Australia, told reporters this week. "We just have to look at the makeup of the West Indies' side during the last 12 months.
"They had Chris Gayle and Marlon Samuels bowling a lot for them during the middle. That would suggest they are preparing to bowl in a World Cup."
Predictions that the short boundaries would lead to a flurry of big-hitting and, possibly, the first team score in excess of 500, have also been revised with batsmen constantly having to check their shots to counter the slow and sometimes variable bounce.
Australia are still favorites to win the Cup for an unprecedented successive third time, despite their recent blip in form when they lost five matches in a row to England and New Zealand.
They have a long list of attacking batsmen, headed by Ponting and Adam Gilchrist, varied bowling and consistently excellent fielding.
But South Africa, who struggled to defeat Ireland then lost to Pakistan, and who will field their customary array of fast-medium bowlers, look over-priced at second place ahead of Sri Lanka.
For their part, Sri Lanka could not have asked for better conditions 11 years after beating Australia in the 1996 World Cup final in Lahore.
Jayasuriya value
Sanath Jayasuriya, who redefined the role of opening bat in 1996, could still be the most valuable one-day player in the world with his explosive left-hand batting and canny, flat leg-spin while Muttiah Muralitharan has the control to bowl a series of two-over spells without offering a loose ball.
After sweeping West Indies aside on Friday in their final warm-up game, India will also relish the conditions as will Pakistan, who remain the most unpredictable team in world cricket.
Pakistan meet West Indies in today's opening match in Jamaica, a game which will determine who will carry two invaluable points through to the Super Eights round.
Two days later England play New Zealand in the key Group C clash while India meet Sri Lanka in Group B on March 23 followed by Australia against South Africa in Group A.
West Indies captain Brian Lara, on the eve of the biggest tournament of his life, told the Cricinfo.com he did not think Australia were guaranteed to get any further than the semifinals "which is still two big, big matches away from winning the final".
"We know that the host nations haven't had a great record when it comes to winning," he said. "Let's just say that we are confident we are going to have a very good World Cup."
The ICC Cricket World Cup runs from March 13 to April 28. All matches start at 0930 local time (1430GMT for games in Jamaica, 1330GMT for all others).
World Cup groups
Group A - Australia, South Africa, Scotland, Netherlands.
Group B - Sri Lanka, India, Bangladesh, Bermuda.
Group C - England, New Zealand, Kenya, Canada.
Group D - Pakistan, West Indies, Zimbabwe, Ireland.
Agencies
(China Daily 03/13/2007 page23)
