South Africa currently third best team in ODI ranking with most chances they will stay at this spot because still they are not good enough for the final even now they are improving their chasing ability is also better like they have done against Pakistan but suddenly against India they were badly down and Australia also struggle against Afghanistan but Maxwell change the tables for their team which is impressive.
Its look like we are heading for another 1999 as semifinal were played between Australia vs South Africa and second New Zealand vs Pakistan, but now we have India with final is going to play between Australia vs India which could be another entertaining match as we have in 2003.
South Africa may not be able to compete properly against Australia, because they need to deal with the issue of quota products such as Temba Bavuma and Andile Phehlukwayo who needs to be included in the squad irrespective of their performance. The quota system means that players who are performing well needs to make way for these mediocre players and warm the bench. Australia gives priority for merit and that will be the main reason why they will remain as the favorites to win the second semi-final between these two teams. |
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That is what North Macedonia is hoping for, people to just look at what's going on on paper  Italy has some great memories of North Macedonia!  It was against all expectations when North Macedonia kicked Italy out of the World Cup play-offs in March 2022 and despite these huge differences on paper, the game was lost. I recall that Italy had an insane number of corners and yet it was the weaker team on paper that won the game. I think this time Italy will pay more attention to not making any mistakes twice. These sort of upsets can be expected. Italy is still in the rebuilding phase. They are no longer the team that we know from the 1990s and early 2000s. Younger players are not coming through the ranks and promising players such as Mario Balotelli have suddenly vanished from the international scene all of a sudden. They failed to qualify for the 2022 FIFA World Cup, and even now the qualification for 2026 World Cup is not guaranteed. At this point, there is not much they can do. They are undergoing a natural decline, similar to the case with Germany and Netherlands. |
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They don't only have Neymar in their club and so far Mitrovic is their best scorer and he is competing with Cristiano Ronaldo and some players for a best scorer award in Saudi Professional League this season.
Neymar is a great attacking player and he can provide a lot of creativeness for Al Hilal attacking system but without him, Al Hilal was already a big club and will be a big competitor in Saudi Professional League. His injury is unlucky for him and Al Hilal but they will move onward well without Neymar. Well.. you know that Neymar has been deregistered by Al Hilal, right? Jorge Jesus decided to deregister him as only 8 positions are maximum available in the Saudi Professional League for each club. Unless they do that, they can't get a replacement player from outside Saudi Arabia. For all practical purposes, Neymar's stint in Saudi Arabia is over. None of the other clubs are going to show any interest in him, after what he did to Al Hilal. Anyway, yesterday he underwent surgery for his anterior cruciate ligament injury and I heard that it was successful. |
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America is a country that pays more attention to its people and they usually try to avoid letting dangerous people enter this country because they care about the security of their people that's why it's hard for some people to enter the USA. However, I think America knows they need to make some changes in the rules during the World Cup to make everything easier for the people who want to enter the country just to watch the World Cup games. LOL.. so far this year, around 3 million people have crossed into the United States illegally and the Biden administration is not doing anything about it. In response the Republican ruled states are simply bussing these illegals to deep-blue states such as New York and New Jersey. When so many people are admitted without any sort of documentation in such a short period of time, I don't think that they should worry about the Visa status of a few thousand people from third world nations who want to watch the world cup in person. |
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ICC rankings (White ball) are a joke and context matters most. The red ball ranking still has some juice in it.
Any Player and team can achieve a high ranking easily if they keep playing against 2nd string team, similar to Pakistan. They played a fair amount of ODI but top teams like NZ, AUS, ENG fielded their 2nd string team because at that time everyone's focus was on the Test series and IPL, also it was pandemic bubble time.
Another example is that you hardly see Big teams fielding their full strength team in bilateral. ENG, AUS, IND are prime examples and in recent times NZ also started doing this. On the other hand, Pakistan always goes with the full strength team even against ZIM.
Franchise cricket is getting more and more important for the players. Players such as Trent Boult have completely stopped playing international cricket outside the ICC tournaments. This has many positives as well as negatives. One of the positives is that younger players get a chance to represent their national sides, and this is very evident in the case of teams such as England and New Zealand. Also, there is no point for teams such as Australia to field their full-strength squads, against weaker teams such as West Indies or Sri Lanka. |
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The Indian batsmen displayed their prowess as Shubman Gill 51 and Rohit Sharma 61 for 54 provided a excellent start, setting the tone for a formidable total. Shreyas and Rahul then built a remarkable 208-run partnership, with contributions from Virat Kohli and others scored cross to 400. The Netherlands bowlers struggled to get wickets and put pressure on India, despite some resistance, they were left with a challenging target of 411. India is on top of point table with 18 points while Netherlands is on No 10th on points table with 4 points. I just hope that the Indian batsmen will perform similarly while facing New Zealand bowlers during the semi-final and also during the final match when they face Australian/South African bowlers (in case they win the semis). Scoring 400+ against Netherlands doesn't matter, since India is playing at home and also due to the fact that the Dutch bowlers have been horribly out of form during the last few weeks. I am disappointed with the fact that India didn't gave any chances to the bench players. It will be a big insult for Ravichandran Ashwin, to not to play a single match in this world cup. |
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Netherlands started the tournament quite well by winning matches against South Africa and Bangladesh. But then they lost steam. They suffered very heavy defeats and then lost against weak sides such as Sri Lanka and Afghanistan. Running between the wickets was pathetic and so was their depth over bowling. They were presented with an ideal opportunity to qualify for the ICC Champions Trophy and thereby securing more funds from the ICC. But all of that was wasted with the immature approach to the game.
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The last group match in the ICC Cricket World Cup will be played today, between India and Netherlands. India is likely to experiment with their bench strength, by including players such as Ashwin and Prasidh Krishna in their XI. On the other hand, this match is very crucial for the Netherlands. If they can defeat India somehow, then they will qualify for the 2025 Champions Trophy. That would mean additional matches against full member teams and a big boost in the fund allocation from the ICC for the Netherlands.
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England squashed Pakistan surprisingly since I was expecting Pak to win this one. I felt that Afridi dropped the game when he dropped Stokes's catch who was in his 20s which was relatively easy in my opinion.
Anyway, both of these teams qualified for the CT 2025 which is the silver lining for them since they were out of the semifinals race before the match started.
Before the tournament started, no one would have thought that these two teams would perform so poorly. England, for most of the group phase duration was at the rock bottom of the points table. They won their last two matches and it enabled them to qualify for the Champions trophy. Pakistan was actually expected to do well, because they were in good form and also due to the fact that the matches are being played in the sub-continent. Their batsmen actually did a good job, but the bowlers failed them completely. |
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NZ is the team which has the habit of losing in the semi finals, and I am sure India will easily make it to the finals. The real battle will be between India, Australia and South Africa for the title.
During the last world cup (in 2019), they won the semi-final and almost won the final as well. So you should not underestimate New Zealand. And Indians do have a habit of performing very well in the group phase and then losing the knockout matches. So even at this point, there are no clear favorites. India do have the home advantage as well as momentum, so they may be considered as the team that is most probable to be crowned as the champions. But at the same time, you can't write off the other three teams. Each of them have their own positives. |
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Another heavy defeat for Pakistan and that ends their campaign for the 2023 World Cup. England will be relieved now, as they are at the 7th position in the points table and therefore qualified for the 2025 Champions trophy. And it looks as if Sri Lanka and Netherlands would fail to qualify for the above mentioned tournament. That said, overall it was a forgettable tournament for England. They managed to win just 3 out of the 9 matches and ended up with a net run rate of -0.572. And still Sri Lanka and Bangladesh ended up below them.
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That's why I said several times in this thread that this is Afghanistan's best World Cup they have ever played. They were amazing in this World Cup. Winning against teams like England, Pakistan and Sri Lanka is a sign that they are becoming more mature these days. I guess one of their players said they should have win the match against Bangladesh too. They could have been in the equation playing the semi finals today. But they should not be upset of how they ended this World Cup journey. They should be proud of theirself.
Afghanistan performed way better than what was expected from them. There is no doubt in this regard. But the same can't be said about Pakistan. At least they should have ended this tournament with a win. But they are going to suffer a very heavy defeat today as well. For today's match, both the openers (Abdullah Shafique and Fakhar Zaman) were back in pavilion by the third over. And by then, the match was almost over. Pakistan was playing for the consolation win, and unfortunately today they are not going to get it. They are at 150/7 in 31.4 overs. |
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After watching the performance of Mitchell Marsh, Steve Smith and David Warner, I guess Australia will be the favorites to win the semi-final match against South Africa. That said, the fact that they conceded a massive 306 runs to a team like Bangladesh needs some serious introspection. They experimented with Sean Abbott today, and he was quite expensive. Pat Cummins went for 7 runs per over without taking any wickets. Only Adam Zampa was impressive among the Australian bowlers. If South Africa bats first, then it is going to create some problem for the Aussies.
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All credit to Al Hilal for winning yesterday's match against Al Taawoun. And they did it without Neymar. The goals were scored by Aleksandar Mitrović and local player Mohamed Kanno. The absence of Neymar was never felt during the match, as Mitrović comfortably lead the attack with help from the two Brazilians (Michael and Malcolm) as well as Salem Al-Dawsari. Al Hilal continue to top the table, with 35 points from 13 matches. At second place we have Ronaldo's Al Nassr, who have 28 points from 12 matches. Even after yesterday's loss, Al Taawoun is at 4th place.
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Another national break is nearly upon us. I think these times are more difficult for betting. Because I believe that it is easier to analyze teams and make the right choices normally. But when it comes to national teams it is like the chance of seeing surprises increases even more. This happens even in qualifiers for one of the most important tournaments in this sport.
It looks like most people will be eyeing the Italy - North Macedonia match as there is a really exciting situation for Italy now. They need to win this match to get much closer to Euro 2024. We will see whether we would witness another upset by North Macedonia side.
Well.. Goran Pandev is no longer playing for North Macedonia, so I am not expecting much from them. But there is no room for compacency from Italy. They are in a very weak position. As of now, Ukraine is 3 points ahead of Italy in the points table, but at the same time they have played one more match when compared to their rivals. Ukraine has only one remaining match, against Italy. And this match will be more like a knockout, in case there are no upsets during the match between Italy and North Macedonia on 17th November. |
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If they bowl well then they can win today unless Maxwell again plays too well today.
Maxwell is not playing today. Well.. that was expected. During the last match, he wasn't able to even walk, and for sometime he was completely immobile and lying on ground. And after finishing the match, he was limping back to the pavilion. If the Australians are lucky, then he will be ready by the time of the semi-final, but even that looks unlikely. Anyway, we can't expect much. Glenn Maxwell is 35 years old and he is no longer young. Injuries will take a lot of time to heal. And it is up to the Australian management to decide when to bring him back to the playing XI. |
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Surprising fight from Bangladesh. They got to a total of 306/8 after batting first, which itself is a big achievement for them. But Australia looks quite solid in their innings. They are at 110/1, with David Warner and Mitchell Marsh at the crease. These two have added 98 runs so far for the second innings (Taskin Ahmed got Travis Head out when the total was just 12 runs). Anyway, this match is irrelevant, as the semi-final positions are already confirmed. Anyway, the second match is getting interesting. England, quite predictably chose to bat first. And that erased whatever small chance that Pakistan had, to qualify for the semi-finals.
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Knee jerk reaction from the sports ministry so it surely does look ugly but this problem should be resolved soon and we have a good 6-7 months window for T-20 WC.
The main issue would be WTC matches. SL only played 2 test matches so far and if they are scheduled to play some matches in the next 1-2 months then those fixtures might face cancellation. I don't really care about Sri Lanka. They are a team in decline. IMO, providing 30x more funds to teams like Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and West Indies when compared to stronger associate nations such as Netherlands and Scotland doesn't make sense. Hopefully the ICC will re-distribute funds to smaller nations and it will create a level playing field. Back in 2016, the ICC suspended CAN (Cricket Association of Nepal) and for a period from 2016 to 2019 Nepal didn't received any sort of ICC funding. The same criteria should be applied to Sri Lanka as well. |
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Unfortunately, Afghanistan didn't took the wickets of key players Rassie van der Dussen but Rashid Khan took 2/37 and Mohammad Nabi 2/35 a brilliant fight from the Afghanistan spinners against South Africa. South Africa winning it by 5 wickets because of brilliant innings of Rassie van der Dussen 74 unbeaten. Afghanistan is now officially out of wold cup, they win 4 matches out of 9 matches in this world cup. Afghanistan beaten first time 3 world champions Pakistan, Srilanka and England. Today's match was irrelevant for all practical purposes. Afghanistan should be happy with the fact that they qualified for the 2025 Champions Trophy. When the tournament started, I didn't had much hope for Afghanistan, as their recent form was very poor. Even during the Asia Cup, they failed to qualify for the Super-4 stage. But they surprised everyone in this tournament. After the initial setback against Bangladesh, they managed to defeat three very strong teams (Sri Lanka, England and Pakistan). There are a lot of positives for Afghanistan to take away from this tournament. |
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Unfortunately, Afghanistan didn't took the wickets of key players Rassie van der Dussen but Rashid Khan took 2/37 and Mohammad Nabi 2/35 a brilliant fight from the Afghanistan spinners against South Africa. South Africa winning it by 5 wickets because of brilliant innings of Rassie van der Dussen 74 unbeaten. Afghanistan is now officially out of wold cup, they win 4 matches out of 9 matches in this world cup. Afghanistan beaten first time 3 world champions Pakistan, Srilanka and England.
Did you really thought that Afghanistan had a good chance of qualifying for the semis? Out of the three teams who had 8 points each after the 8th round (Afghanistan, New Zealand and Pakistan), Afghans had the lowest net run rate. Even for Pakistan, it is getting almost impossible to qualify (they need to win by a margin of 287 runs, or need to chase down the target in just 2.5 overs). Afghanistan was never really in the race. But to their credit, they have secured qualification to the 2025 Champions trophy, which by itself is a great achievement. |
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