Andy Pakes looks at the emergence of Australia's James Pattinson and compares him to his England-capped brother Darren.
Sam Holloway looks at why test match cricket is not going to become extinct just yet
Manraj Bahra looks at the subtle differences between the forms of cricket and how teams shouldn't look to pick the same players in all forms.
Sports Editor James Tompkinson looks at the continuing problem of corruption within cricket as the cases of three Pakistani cricketers accused of spot fixing comes to an end
India without doubt played the best cricket over the last six weeks and the final against Sri Lanka proved a worthy contest, with tension, drama and superb individual performances plentiful.
India’s talent has long been apparent, with stars such as Virender Sehwag, Harbhajan Singh, Zaheer Khan and, of course, Sachin Tendulkar all proving themselves world-class. But there was always the fear that they lack the mentality to build upon their obvious talent and achieve success at the World Cup.
This year though they showed such doubts to be wrong, displaying an assured toughness in victories over Australia, Pakistan and Sri Lanka in the knock-out stages. That they defeated these three teams (arguably the three strongest teams after India themselves) too proves them worthy winners.
Much attention is placed on the incomparable Sachin Tendulkar, who did have an exemplary tournament, ending it the second highest run scorer (behind Tillakaratne Dilshan). But their success has been a real team effort, with match-winning contributions being made throughout the squad.
Sehwag’s 175 in the opening match was the tournament’s highest score; Zaheer Kahn took the joint highest number of wickets, at a devastating rate of 16.66 runs per-wicket; and, most noticeably, Yuvraj Singh batted and bowled superbly throughout, ending with four man of the match awards.
And in the final, it was two players who had so far had a quieter tournament, Gautam Gambhir and Dhoni, who put in star showings. When Gambhir came to the crease India were in crisis, with Tendulkar out for 18 and India at a perilous 31-2. But the 29-year-old kept a calm head and scored a brilliant 97, most of them coming during his 109 run match-winning stand with Dhoni.
Dhoni had surprisingly elevated himself up to bat at five, ahead of the on-form Yuvraj Singh, but his decision was justified as he made 91 not out of 79 to calmly bring home victory for India.
For a long while beforehand the game remained in the balance, as Sri Lanka batted their way to 183-5 and looked set to make a competitive score in the region of 250. But inspired hitting at the end of their innings led them to score 91 off the last 10 overs, and set an imposing total of 274.
The cornerstone of their innings was Mahela Jayawardene, whose 103 off 88 balls deserved to be a match-winning knock. His elegant batting style was beautiful to watch, and came very quickly too thanks to a lethal acceleration in the last 10 overs. He even ended Sri Lanka’s innings not out, and, despite ending on the losing side, probably deserved to be man of the match.
The wickets of Tendulkar and Sehwag at the hands of the dangerous Lasith Malinga put Sri Lanka in a very strong position and stunned the home crowd into silence. But Gambhir and Dhoni’s composed and excellent performances slowly put India back into pole position, before Dhoni’s on-drive six saw them over the line. Such a great game was a welcome relief from the trilogy of thrashings Australia have dished out in the previous three world cups.
The semi-finals too proved entertaining contests. First Tuesday saw Sri Lanka complete what looked halfway through the second innings – with Sri Lanka 160-1 chasing 217 – to be a routine victory, but what proved, thanks largely to intimidating captaincy by Daniel Vettori, to be a tense finale as New Zealand took three quick wickets. But with Thilan Samaraweera and Angelo Matthews at the crease Sri Lanka ultimately steadied themselves and booked their place in the final.
Then on Wednesday India v Pakistan took place, the tournament’s most hotly anticipated match. The contest did not disappoint, as the first innings saw batting fireworks from Sehwag and Tendulkar (the latter despite being dropped multiple times) only for young Wahab Riaz to strike back with the ball with a five-for.
Pakistan needed a difficult-but-obtainable 261 runs to win but fell short, failing to accelerate sufficiently at the end of their innings. The inexplicably defensive Misbah-ul-Haq the main culprit and they were bowled out for 231, with all five of India’s bowlers taking two wickets each – further evidence of their strength as a collective whole.
Looking back, the tournament was a far more exciting affair than predicted. It still had structural problems, specifically the seemingly never-ending length of the group stages; but despite the inevitable one-sided affairs at the early stages, we have England’s unpredictable showings to thank for keeping the early stages interesting.
The quality of cricket, the closeness of matches in the knockout stages and India proving to be worthy champions ensured this World Cup to be the best in recent years.
Great article. I completely agree that Jayawardene's innings was world class, and it would have been fitting if that had seen Sri Lanka home to victory. Taking nothing away from India though, they were deserved winners, and on home soil as well.
Hope the ICC look at this 7 week long World Cup and realise that something has got to give structure wise. Personally, I think that the World Cup should be much shorter, perhaps with a preliminary tournament for the non test playing nations (Ireland, Holland, Kenya, Namibia, USA, Bermuda, Afghanistan, Scotland ect) where the prize for victory (and possibly runners up as well) would be a place at the real tournament. This would take the strain off the test playing nations who all had hectic winters before this tournament whilst increasing participation for the smaller sides.
James: Isn't that what the World Cup Qualifier was?
Alan: Yes it is true that there is a World Cup Qualifier, but what I was trying to say was that to me it makes no sense whatsoever to have a tournament as long as the World Cup and not make more use out of the preliminary tournament. In essence it could work like the FA Cup in football, where the tournament itself runs over a long period of time, but the bigger teams don't enter until the later rounds.
I think if the World Cup's preliminary qualifiers were given increased prominance and made much more competitive, then the World Cup could be made much shorter much more easily. I think it's better than the current ICC proposal which is to only allow the Test playing nations to compete at the next World Cup.
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