Pure World Cup Magic….

The video starts with David Lloyd referring to the favorable conditions for bowling and how Wasim Akram, Andy Caddick, Darren Gough and others might have enjoyed themselves….. as Malichi Jones sets off purposefully to deliver his first ball in World Cup Cricket to Robin Uthappa (playing his second World Cup match).

A ponderous poke from Utthapa sends the ball flying to the right of Dwayne Leverock – hidden away at a widish slip by Gus Logie’s Bermudans. Leverock executes a swan like dive – side on at all times and comes up with the ball – all hell breaks lose. I think David Lloyd forgot who Wasim Akram was at that point.

Dwayne Leverock takes the Catch of the World Cup

Every possible scene is played out – from the winning goal in the World Cup final, to an exhilarating sprint victory… Leverock and Jones encapsulated in that moment the very joy of sport…. all of you must have heard about it, but i promise you, even if you watch it a hundred times, it will still retain its magic.

And what a catch that was!

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India win by 257 runs – Interesting situation in Group B…..

The Indian batting line up came to play at Port Of Spain against Bermuda to rack up their first 400+ ODI score as India beat Bermuda by 257 runs – the largest run margin of victory in the history of ODI cricket. It should in all likelihood come down to India beating Sri Lanka now. The margin of victory should not matter to India, as Bangladesh would have to match India and Sri Lanka’s efforts against Bermuda to qualify if they don’t beat Sri Lanka. If they beat Sri Lanka, then the winner of the India- SL game wins anyways.

From that point of view, India will be mindful – that while they must obviously beat Sri Lanka, they mustn’t hurt the Sri Lankan run rate in doing so. India’s best case scenario is that India and Sri Lanka qualify and Bangladesh get eliminated – as then, India will have beaten Sri Lanka and taken the points over to the Super 8s. If India beat Sri Lanka, Sri Lanka beats Bangladesh and Bangladesh beat Bermuda, then qualification will come down to India and Sri Lanka – because Bangladesh will have to overcome both their margin of defeat against Sri Lanka as well as match India and SL’s result against Bermuda to catch up on net run rate.

So for Bangladesh to qualify, they have to beat Sri Lanka – if they lose to Sri Lanka, they will hope that India lose to Sri Lanka as well, in which case they only have to beat Bermuda to qualify.

If India lose to Sri Lanka, then the only way India can qualify is if the Bermudans beat Bangladesh – something they have never done before in a One Day International.

The run rate issue has been well handled by India today. Sehwag coming to form – he owes his batsman many more runs in this tournament. Dravid has stood by Sehwag with the same fortitude that he shows while batting in Test matches. Sehwag has to repay his faith, and he knows it. Tendulkar made 59 in 27 balls playing second fiddle to Yuvraj. Yuvraj looks unshakeable at the wicket more than any other player ive seen, he looks like hes in a zone when he’s batting – tremendous balance and awesome power.

Ganguly needs to work on rotating the strike – but his great strength is being able to pace his innings. He is the ideal foil to the belligerence of Sehwag and Uthappa. Agarkar hasn’t been convincing with the ball inspite of his three wickets, and bringing in Sreesanth for the must win contest might be a good idea. The real dilemma for Dravid will be the Kumble – Harbhajan question.

With 4 lefties in the SL top 6, he might be tempted to play Harbhajan Singh. Kumble hasn’t done too well against SL, who seem to have his measure more than any other side in the world. On balance, it seems Harbhajan Singh is the way to go.

The Bangladesh – Sri Lanka match on Wednesday will clarify Group B.

Its all down to Friday’s game now.

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