Australia just look so good at the moment both as a bowling and batting unit, think they will make the final.

Never watched the game, but would like to see the highlights after reading about Starc and Wahab. Always enjoy watching fast bowlers in full flow.

Those dropped catches...they could have made the game alot tighter, not saying they were matchwinning catches, but it would have put an element of doubt in the Aussie batsmen

Pakistan is probably the only test playing nation with very poor fielding. How many times have seen pak players drop crucial catches in crunch situations? No matter how good your bowling is, if your batting and fielding isn't consistent it will always be hard to get over the line.

South Africa, New Zealand, Australia and India.

They ar ethe strongest 4 in the World cup, and rightly deserve to be in the Semi-Final.

The only thing stopping this is some Magic from Mr.Gayle..

What happened to Pollard and Narine? I stopped watching cricket for a year and now they have disappeared.

Pakistan is probably the only test playing nation with very poor fielding. How many times have seen pak players drop crucial catches in crunch situations? No matter how good your bowling is, if your batting and fielding isn't consistent it will always be hard to get over the line.
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Spot on, I was thinking that earlier too. Our fielding is still stuck in the 1990's. Beyond a joke.

comment by Afridi14 (U2805)

Spot on, I was thinking that earlier too. Our fielding is still stuck in the 1990's. Beyond a joke.
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The 90's had great fielders like Jonty, Gibbs (apart from that catch), Ponting, Chris Harris, Mark Ramprakash, but yes I take your point, Pak still believes they can win match by dropping crucial catches. Wasim, Waqar, Imran, Mushtaq, Saqlain, Qadir, Akhtar would get so many people out bowled or lbw that it didn't matter so much in the 80s and 90s, but it won't work now.

Wahab had 6 catches dropped of his bowling while Afridi had 4 catches dropped of his bowling during the tournament. You get away with in the group stages but not in a knock out against a top side.

The other issue is the lack of mobility and athletism of the Pak players. If you look at India bowlers like Yadhav and Shami started as weak fielders but improved. Our guys are too lazy to learn.

Irfan, Rahat and Sohail are liabilities in the field. Our probably three safest fielders in Afridi, Misbah and Khan will all retire. It's pretty bleak

Irfan is a good bowler, but his height restricts him to get down and stop a ball...By the time that guy gets down to pick up the ball, and throw it in, 6 overs have passed by

India in 2011 were an atrocius fielding unit. You only had likes of Yuvraj and Raina as your main athletic fielders.

Now we have undoubtebly one of the best fielding sides in the world. every one of our batters are athletic and only Ashwin can be classified as slow fielder.

Viru,

What do you think of Indias chances vs Aussies?

Sydney is a bat first wicket and also turns. Its a 50/50 game.

I dont rate it that high actually. Its just a feeling i have that Australia will be very hard to beat. Like I said before we will need our top 3 to score big runs. I dont think Raina will be able to contribute much cause he will be peppered with short ball.

Australia look alot more balanced. Batting is their strength and since they have lots of batsmen to come in, I think players like Warner, watson and maxwell will just take on our bowlers. I think that is probably going to make a big difference. Our batting so far has only been able to score just about 300, whereas the aussies can score mid 350s on a good day. That will probably be the difference between them and us.

Also our pacers have been effective against other teams through bowling alot of short stuff. I dont think that strategy will work against the aussies. And jadeja IMO will be a big target for them, so it means all our 4 bowlers will have to be at their best.

In this world cup we have lost only to Australia(in the warm ups). So its more of a gut feeling I have.

Lets see. I will be behind our boys but sometimes you just have to accept it.

I think aussies will beat you simply because you guys haven't been challenged yet. No close games whatsoever. The pak game was easy and saffers didnt put up a fight either.... Put it this way, Aussies have played 5/7 top sides, you guys have only played South Africa.....

Also india strategy of keeping wickets until 37th over have worked well to date, but the aussie bowling attack will present their own challenges... Can't see india winning it.

I do think the Aussies have alot more to worry about. Yes they have home advantage..BUT, they are looking at a team who have showed limit signs of weaknesses.

You have the likes of Sharma, Kohli, Raina, Rahane, Dhawan who can all score big.

Then ou have a fielding unit, which I feel is second to none in the world.

The usual weakness of a good bowling unit, seems to have evaporated with Yadav, Shami, Ashwin, Mohit looking like a decent unit.

Agree with Viru, a bit lost with Jadeja right now, he looks like a Jack of all trades, master of none. I don't think Dhoni will drop him though.

Aussies dident look comfortable chasing today, and a couple of catches held, and Pakistan could have really got into that tail, with some runs to play with.

I think the Winners of this game, will go on to become World champions.

BRING IT ON!! buzzing for this one........but first Man U on Sunday

A14, I reckon whoever wins toss and bats first will win. The Aussie bowling lineup is not all that and Johnson looks out of form.

Starc is the best bowler in the tournament
Johnson been off colour
Hazelwood benefitted from poor technical Pakistan batsman
Faulkner wont give them sleepness nights
Watson/Maxwell will go the distance.

We made the Aussie bowling lineup look much better than it was.

Pakistan broke a world cup record with 15 dropped catches in the tournament

I agree with afridi. We havent been challenged enough. Australian attack isnt the best but starc is very good with the ball. For me the biggest worry is how will indian attack get australia out for less than 280ish. Even today if they batted 50 overs they would have easily got to 360.

They have very unorthodox players in warner, maxwell, smith and they aint going to get out if we are bowling just straight. and this is no NZ where it will be a bowlers paradise. I might be sounding pessimistic but there are so many if's for India to consider.

they have done very well so far and credit to them for turning it around. But this will be their biggest challenge and if India do get through this Aussie line up then I am sure they will go all the way.

Even if Aus win the toss and bat first, I would write off India chasing a score......

Im seeing Bangladesh erupt to some poor decisions that went against them and saying that the umpires had an agenda against them.

Bangladesh should remember that they have been average for a long time, and a second string indian team that had binny in it had bowled them out for 58 when chasing 108 in their own home soil.

Even in this WC they have only beaten a very poor England team and they have been flying high as if they have won some world cup. They were thrashed by SL, NZ and im pretty sure the aussies would have piled 400 runs in that washed out match.

Sharma's No-Ball was the only dodgy decision

I saw some Pak players in tears today. Shows how much a WC means to subcontinent teams.

yh agreed lefty. and infact batting become alot easier after the rain break, so if Bangladesh were really that good they have chased that down. But they lost by 109 runs.

comment by virudagreat- beating India in india is ..... (U8738)
posted 20 minutes ago
I saw some Pak players in tears today. Shows how much a WC means to subcontinent teams.
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Kash\Afridi - Hope you 2 are ok