Is it me or is anyone else got a new found respect for the Indian team of 2011?

Surely Zaheer Khan, Tendulkar, Sehwag, Harbhajan are better than Shami, Dhawan, Jadeja and Ashwin.

JT- agree the ICC are a complete utter joke. Also, in their statement they appeared to indicate that Watson started it, but whabbi gets 50% and wats 15%. Also, lots of chatter from starc and haddin in first innings but nothing done.... Don't mind verbals at all, fair play to both aussies and wahab... Icc complete joke

Sehwag, Harbhajan are better than Shami, Dhawan, Jadeja and Ashwin.
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The latter were 20 times better than the current. Agree ...

The former

http://m.smh.com.au/sport/cricket/cricket-world-cup-pakistan-captain-predicts-scg-will-favour-india-in-semifinal-20150320-1m4ef2.html

Misba says India has the edge at SCG.

Hazlewood is requesting the SCG curator to "prepare" the pitch to suit Australian bowlers.

http://m.smh.com.au/sport/cricket/cricket-world-cup-hazlewood-wants-pacefriendly-scg-pitch-for-india-semifinal-20150321-1m4jer.html

India's team in 2011 was built very powerfully at the top and had some real legends of Indian cricket in there such as Viru, Tendulkar, Yuvraj, Harbhajan, Zaheer, Dhoni himself and to a lesser extent Gambhir alongside a young Kohli in the form of his life which hindsight has shown was no purple patch. The bowling was poor though Zaheer aside and that goes to show the brilliance of MS Dhoni who in the limited format is quite simply a genius in rotating his bowlers and strangling the opposition with what on paper is relatively poor bowlers. The trio we have now are better in one day cricket than the 2011 side where we relied on the likes of Patel, Nehra and Sreesanth to bowl tight lines.

If Dhoni leads India to another world cup. in my opinion he will go down as the greatest limited overs captain in the history of the game. Getting ahead of myself here as I think ultimately the Indians will fall short but Dhoni's captaincy in big tournaments is superlative. I've given him much flak over his test captaincy and I'm relieved he has retired from the longer version of the game but he will be sorely missed for the trio of his superlative captaincy, ability to bring the side together as one and his extraordinary ability to finish a game off in the short format of the game. All this without even mentioning his professionalism throughout the years of having one of the most burdensome jobs in world cricket. His CV speaks for itself really.

Having said that if India are to to beat Australia it won't be without some sort of scrap. Whether that be in the form of actual cricket warfare between bat or ball or physical confrontation you can guarantee it will happen against this Aussie side who are not known for letting games slide away from them easily as we saw against the Kiwis.

The SCG as already mentioned is traditionally a turning wicket and in theory that should favour Ashwin and Jadeja although I'm sure Clarke will not be happy if the curator doesn't leave some form of green on the wicket. Again the toss may be key as this world cup seems to be rather formulaic: bat first, score 300 or more and then watch while the chasing team wilts under the lights. Whether that is the case remains to be seen.

Dean Jones on India's turnaround:

http://m.smh.com.au/sport/cricket/cricket-world-cup-how-dhoni-turned-indias-fortunes-around-20150320-1m3oau.touch.html

Hopefully the winners of the South Africa and New Zealand game will go on to win the tournament

2011 team was a great one filled with legends but I have no doubt that they would struggle outside subcontinent. I don't think those set of players ever performed as well as a team outside Asia.

And then Zak is probably indias best fast bowler. And he was probably the reason why our bowlers did pretty well in 2011.

This new team i think has a better bowling with express pace and the batters seem to click together in major events.

And let's be honest sehwag would more often than not score a quick 20 here and there and give away the start in away conditions. Compare dhawan and rohit in major tournaments. They both have a splendid record so far.

Tendulkars and yuvi are the only 2 players I think that would add value to this team. Gambhir, sehwag would more often than not struggle in these bouncy pitches. And in terms of Bhabhi, I think in 2011 he was way past his prime and hence got dropped straightaway after England series.

These young Indian players are fielding and throwing better than the geriatric ones of the Tendulkar era. Kohli, Hadeha, and Raina have always been outstanding fielders. Lately, the likes of Yaduv and M Sharma have improved their fielding.

*Yadeya

Damn, got it wrong again with these iPhone prompts.

Jadeja *

comment by Tagge (U20048)
posted 3 hours, 16 minutes ago
Damn, got it wrong again with these iPhone prompts.

Jadeja *
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Most make mistakes, my phone is rubbish too.

Semifinal predictions (not wishes)?

Aus and NZ to qualify. Both have a better batting line up, one that has alot of depth and more importantly have power hitters that can strike the ball from ball 1. Unfortunately I dont think India have that luxury. even dhoni needs time to settle before he hits them out.

And SA i think are too reliant on AB especially against good teams.

PS i would want either NZ/SA to win the WC if India dont get through.

I believe Australia will win the final if they get there. Their bigger challenge is India if SCG offers help for spinners and if India bat first.

Yh true. well lets see. if it plays like the SAvSL game where spinners played a crucial part then maybe there is a chance.

Stats trivia Aus have never lost a WC semifinal and Dhoni has never lost a semifinal ever. Now lets see what he can do with this team.

Hope I am very much wrong but I think india will beat Aussies. The wicket is very much in favour for Indian spinners and someone like Maxwell and Doherty won't even get in the India F side as spinners.

I also fancy SA to upset NZ. This could be there year.

This could be "their" year.

Much at stake for teams and their star players in this WC.

Australia: Could distance itself from others with 5th championship.

New Zealand: 7th time could be lucky.

South Africa: Could wipe out negative perceptions about their temperament.

India: Third championship and second under Dhoni. Winning something important in Australia.

Dhoni: Walk into sunset with glory as a great ODI batsman with tactical excellence as a skipper.

Clarke: This is probably his last WC. Not sure he knows.

AB de Villiers: Arguably the best ODI batsman today. Needs a championship trophy to consolidate his status.

Steyn: Best fast bowler of this era. Badly needs a WC trophy on his cupboard.

McCullum: What a turnaround under his leadership, which he assumed in chaotic circumstances! Time to carry his team across the finish line.

Vettori: Last WC for this great servant of NZ cricket. Sentimental favourite.



Clarke: Probably his last WC.

I am looking forward to watching how the Kiwis handle Tahir. He is much different from the likes of Botha and Boje in that he is always aiming to dismiss the batsman. And, with the short straight boundary, can the "filler" Duminy contain the big hitters? Or, will he surprise us again with a hat-trick?

SA played NZ in NZ late 2014 and beat them 2-0 with one N/R. Tahir took 2 wickets in both games at under 4 runs an over and will be a threat again. He seems to have added more variation to his bowling in this tournament.

NZ are a much better side now and will be favourites but I still fancy SA to win.

There are two challenges for SA:

1) How well can their middle-order batting handle loss of 3-4 early wickets to Boult/Southee, especially if they are chasing?

2) The 10-overs to be filled by non-regular bowlers.