ICC WORLD CUP 2023 DISCUSSION THREAD!

[teosanru]

The seating arrangement is more than 130k which is why the stadium seems empty. I am watching the match on Hotstar and I can see 44L showing up now. People are crazy about T20 cricket only a few like you and I are the ones who watch ODI. Watching the way England spinners are getting whacked for 4 and 6, I do not agree with your analysis. It is all about captaincy and discipline when it comes to bowling. Might as well say, what a fantastic debut by Ravindra.

Yeah, that's why i said "Obvious reasons". Also, i heard that for this particular opening match. BCCI gave 20k free tickets to women and kids and still, it's not even half full. Tells you a lot about the current situation of cricket. It's an ICC tournament so every board has the responsibility to create hype in their respective countries so that fans can travel and support their teams. We can obviously make a list of why the opening match looking dull.

True, it does look like it. Surely smooth sailing for Kiwis against English spinners.

This was one of the worst start of this world cup because I have feeling mostly understand there is no India involved in this match so having this here is no good deal because even we have 30K fans but still this was looking empty which create big negative impact on this mega event around the globe.

BCCI and ICC needs to understand ground realities and having a match like this in a small ground could also work for them, and surely we have good atmosphere, but they have done poor things which are surely going to have negative impact.

Now tomorrow we are going to have same situation again while Pakistan will play against the Netherlands which is going to be another dull encounter between these two sides even now I have feeling mostly matches without India surely going to have same problem.

I just saw the statistics and the last time before this world cup when the host nation did not play the first match of the ODI world cup was in the 1996 ODI World cup and coincidentally that happened in the Indian sub-continent as well. After that all the world cups have their first matches with the host nations:

1999, England : Eng vs SL
2003, SA : SA vs WI
2007, WI : WI vs Pakistan
2011, Ban : Ind vs Ban
2015, Aus-NZ : NZ vs SL
2019, Eng : Eng vs SA

[Sithara007]

Rachin Ravindra Scored Century 123* on World Cup debut and a Youngest NewZealand player to score a century in the ODI World Cup. Third youngest player to score a Century in the ODI World Cup. Ravindra took one wicket and made Fastest ODI World Cup hundred New Zealand and Player of the Match on his debut world cup match. In this match England hits 26 boundaries while New Zealand hots 38 boundaries. NewZealand win the match and the boundary count as well. Ravindra well Played young man have a Great Future

Yeah.. good to see that finally he has started to deliver. The New Zealand management has been patient with him and finally he has proven them right. If he can improve his bowling as well, then he can be one of the crucial players for New Zealand in the role of spin-bowling allrounders. Since Mitchell Santner is their first-choice spinner, this would mean that Ish Sodhi may find himself out of the playing XI. And with Matt Henry and Trent Boult performing well, I don't think that the Kiwi management will be in favor of including any additional spinner.

[elevates]

ICC WORLD CUP 2023 SECOND MATCH

Image source

The second match of the World Cup will be played today at Rajeev Gandhi Stadium in Hyderabad. Pakistan's team is the favorite to win the match against the Netherlands. Unless something unexpected happens with the Pakistani side.

Betting Odds

Pakistan - 1.05
Netherlands - 10

Who will win today? Any guess?

[Sithara007]

Betting Odds

Pakistan - 1.05
Newzealand - 10

Who will win today? Any guess?

Typo, right? It should be Netherlands instead of New Zealand. And I agree with the odds. Even with the addition of county players, Netherlands is 1-2 levels below Pakistan. And then sub-continental conditions should favor Pakistan more. Overall, the odds look accurate for me. I would expect a good fight from Netherlands, but definitely an upset is not in the cards. For the Dutch batsmen, it is going to be extremely difficult to face the raw pace of Shaheen Shah Afridi, Mohammad Wasim and Hasan Ali. At this point, the only negative with Pakistan is their spin bowling. 

[JSRAW]

ICC released numbers are 47-50k attendance for today's match. In 95% of cricket stadiums it's considered a packed house and successful marketing but in this case, it isn't because of the sheer size of the stadium, here ICC and BCCI deserve the blame. They should have organized this fixture on smaller ground. I also don't understand why they didn't opt for India vs X team for an opening game.

Hyderabad ground capacity is not much so even a 20k crowd will look alright for non India match.

If the attendance was actually 47k (out of that at least 2/3rd would be from complementary passes), then BCCI should be happy about it. And why should the match be played at a smaller stadium? This match was allotted to the Gujarat Cricket Association (GCA) and it was their decision to host the match in this stadium. I am not sure whether they have any other international stadiums within their borders. Meanwhile GCA claims that yesterday's match was the best attended opening match for any world cup (I am not sure though).

Looks ridiculously shameful! Having said that spectators did turn up in the second inning tho and it was alright looking crowd.

Non-Indian match, Too much heat, a working day and last but not least fine example of epic mismanagement from the BCCI. Only these bunch of nutjobs were serious from the start and had some sort of planning. Lol GCA must be trolling or smoking some high quality stuff.

In short, they made a big mistake by awarding GCA opening match but that's how BCCI works in general. You can't expect 140K people to turn up when the home team is not playing.

[Sithara007]

Looks ridiculously shameful! Having said that spectators did turn up in the second inning tho and it was alright looking crowd.

Non-Indian match, Too much heat, a working day and last but not least fine example of epic mismanagement from the BCCI. Only these bunch of nutjobs were serious from the start and had some sort of planning. Lol GCA must be trolling or smoking some high quality stuff.

In short, they made a big mistake by awarding GCA opening match but that's how BCCI works in general. You can't expect 140K people to turn up when the home team is not playing.

I don't understand the scheduling. First of all, I would have expected the hosts (India) to play against the defending champions (England) in the opening match. And secondly, the opening match should ideally be scheduled on weekend. None of this was followed and in the end we got such a sparse crowd. I have posted this a few times. I think that the BCCI is not that serious about hosting the world cup. Even the schedule was released a few days before the opening match and some of the teams are not happy with the fact that they need to move from one end of the country to the other every week.

[elevates]

snip..

Yeah, typo mistake, I have made the changes. I am also expecting an easy win by the Pakistan team they are far superior to the Netherlands side.

snip..

The first half was bad, the stadium looked empty and by the second half, it was half-filled. BCCI should have hosted the inaugural match in Mumbai or Delhi, those stadiums are small and it would not have looked better.  This is the first time I have seen the home team not playing the first game. The simple reason BCCI wanted the Indian match to be played on a Sunday.

Bad News coming from the Indian squad: India vs Australia: In-form Shubman Gill doubtful for World

[JohnBitCo]

Today we have just 1 match, which is play in between Pakistan vs Netherlands. The match will start in the next 20 to 25 minutes. Everyone knows that Pakistan can easily win today's match. But, the Netherlands is in progress. This is the first match of both teams of this WC. I hope that Pakistan will play well in today's match.

[Fuso.hp]

Devon Conway and Rachin Ravindra were supposed to open the batting. The New Zealand management wanted to test Will Young, which I think was a bad choice. These two guys have been training and practicing together since Rachin Ravindra was just a teen. I heard it when the commentators were discussing his debut and his identical chemistry with Conway. I also saw how these two guys complement each other with the number of runs scored by each one of them.



This game as per my understanding has gone out of the hands of the England team. Another 10 overs left for this match to end with they way these guys are batting now.

  

I would say New Zealand batted only two men and those two ensured the team's victory. The first batsman was dismissed with one ball and from then on New Zealand were able to build a devastating partnership. Rachin Ravindra and Conway's second wicket partnership I think is one of the greatest partnerships in World Cup history. We couldn't have imagined that England would be beaten like this. Many people lost their money by betting for England in this match. The way New Zealand started batting and the way they finished it seemed that even if the target had been 400 plus they might have won this match. This may be the biggest victory of this World Cup.

[JohnBitCo]

Who will win today? Any guess?

Pakistan can win easily today's match because Pakistan has a bowling attack, Batting attack, and Fielding attack, and the main thing spinning attack, and Pakistan has it all, which is a great and useful thing for Pakistan in this WC. The Netherlands did not have it all.  

[pakhitheboss]

Netherlands won the toss and choose to bowl. The wicket again looking good for the bowlers. Van Beek got the first wicket of Fakar Zaman, his bad form continues. He couldn't anticipated the slower ball. Intial stage of the match, Babar is on the field and he is in good form. Pakistan are the favourite to win this match. One thing that is again bothering me is why the stadium is empty. I can hardly see any crowd in the stadium.

[Sithara007]

Netherlands won the toss and choose to bowl. The wicket again looking good for the bowlers. Van Beek got the first wicket of Fakar Zaman, his bad form continues. He couldn't anticipated the slower ball. Intial stage of the match, Babar is on the field and he is in good form. Pakistan are the favourite to win this match. One thing that is again bothering me is why the stadium is empty. I can hardly see any crowd in the stadium.

Saud Shakeel and Mohammad Rizwan are now rebuilding the innings after the Dutch bowlers reduced them to 38/3. The 4th wicket partnership has added 40 runs till now, and they have scored at brisk pace. The Pakistani batsmen are handling the Dutch spinners with ease. Bas de Leede has bowled just one over till now. Pakistan should be wary of him (and also about Logan van Beek), since the Indian pitches can suit medium pacers who generate variable bounce. Also, it will be interesting to watch Roelof van der Merwe bowl, who is their most experienced player in this match.

[2Pizza410000BTC]

Netherlands won the toss and choose to bowl. The wicket again looking good for the bowlers. Van Beek got the first wicket of Fakar Zaman, his bad form continues. He couldn't anticipated the slower ball. Intial stage of the match, Babar is on the field and he is in good form. Pakistan are the favourite to win this match. One thing that is again bothering me is why the stadium is empty. I can hardly see any crowd in the stadium.

As Pakistan's match is being played on Indian soil today, if the Indian crowd does not go to the stadium to watch today's match, then the stadium will surely remain empty. As far as I know, very few Indian people watch Pakistan games. Anyway, it is not a matter of fact that in today's game, Netherlands won the toss and invited Pakistan to bat, and Pakistan decided to bat. However, Pakistan has now collected 165 runs in 29.2 overs with the loss of 4 wickets. Babar Azam expects more than 300 runs in today's match. Along with this, Pakistan captain Babar Azam asked the Indian fans to support him before entering the stadium. But comparatively, Pakistan is not able to score good runs in today's match. If they start playing like this, I don't think they will be able to score 300 runs in today's match.

[Bureau]

Netherlands won the toss and choose to bowl. The wicket again looking good for the bowlers. Van Beek got the first wicket of Fakar Zaman, his bad form continues. He couldn't anticipated the slower ball. Intial stage of the match, Babar is on the field and he is in good form. Pakistan are the favourite to win this match. One thing that is again bothering me is why the stadium is empty. I can hardly see any crowd in the stadium.

Pakistan started very poorly, they had lost 3 wickets in the first ten overs. Then a good partnership between Rizwan and Shakeel helped them to get good runs onboard. As for now they have lost 8 wickets and have scored 252 runs. They do have 8 overs left but the last pair is on the pitch. I expected them to give a target of 280 or more runs to Netherlands. If the bowlers do their job properly today they would be able to defend a total of less than 280 runs.

[Unknown Op]

Netherlands won the toss and choose to bowl. The wicket again looking good for the bowlers. Van Beek got the first wicket of Fakar Zaman, his bad form continues. He couldn't anticipated the slower ball. Intial stage of the match, Babar is on the field and he is in good form. Pakistan are the favourite to win this match. One thing that is again bothering me is why the stadium is empty. I can hardly see any crowd in the stadium.

I feel that Pakistan is in difficult situation at this time after losing batsman player of Muhammad Rizwan and Saud Shakeel these players build up awesome Batting collaboration and I believe both these batters made half century and made good score for Netherlands team. But this could not be possible Muhammad Rizwan out by Bas de Leede after making 68 score and Saud Shakeel out by Aryan Dutt after making 68 score. Netherlands bowler Bas de Leede fall down 4 batsmans of Pakistan team and in this match both have equal chance for getting victory few overs are left and Pakistan scored 267 runs and this is last wicket of Pakistan team if they got out then batting is overed.

[laurenB7742]

Netherlands won the toss and choose to bowl. The wicket again looking good for the bowlers. Van Beek got the first wicket of Fakar Zaman, his bad form continues. He couldn't anticipated the slower ball. Intial stage of the match, Babar is on the field and he is in good form. Pakistan are the favourite to win this match. One thing that is again bothering me is why the stadium is empty. I can hardly see any crowd in the stadium.

I feel that Pakistan is in difficult situation at this time after losing batsman player of Muhammad Rizwan and Saud Shakeel these players build up awesome Batting collaboration and I believe both these batters made half century and made good score for Netherlands team. But this could not be possible Muhammad Rizwan out by Bas de Leede after making 68 score and Saud Shakeel out by Aryan Dutt after making 68 score. Netherlands bowler Bas de Leede fall down 4 batsmans of Pakistan team and in this match both have equal chance for getting victory few overs are left and Pakistan scored 267 runs and this is last wicket of Pakistan team if they got out then batting is overed.

In the end, the Pakistan team was able to provide the target of 287 runs. Is it enough on this pitch? I'd say it's not enough. Because I don't think Netherlands bowlers are very strong. Pakistan should have easily collected more than 300 against this bowling attack. They failed.

Pakistan's bowlers have not been doing well in recent times. Besides, there are several world-class batsmen in the Netherlands squad. Still I think Pakistan will win today's match. They are experienced. And Pakistani bowlers know very well how to bowl against the batsmen of a team like Netherlands. I still think Pakistan has 80% chance to win this match.

[Bureau]

I feel that Pakistan is in difficult situation at this time after losing batsman player of Muhammad Rizwan and Saud Shakeel these players build up awesome Batting collaboration and I believe both these batters made half century and made good score for Netherlands team. But this could not be possible Muhammad Rizwan out by Bas de Leede after making 68 score and Saud Shakeel out by Aryan Dutt after making 68 score. Netherlands bowler Bas de Leede fall down 4 batsmans of Pakistan team and in this match both have equal chance for getting victory few overs are left and Pakistan scored 267 runs and this is last wicket of Pakistan team if they got out then batting is overed.

They were in a difficult situation but the tail-enders batter sensibly and were able to cross the projected score of 280. Considering the bowling attack that Pakistan has it won't be easy for Netherlands batters to chase the target. I would say it is an excellent comeback by the Pakistani team in this match. I never hoped that they would struggle so much initially against the Netherlands bowlers. I have no doubt that today's Netherlands was a different team in the first 10 overs of the match. They lost their momentum when Rizwan and Shakeel came to bat together. The ball in now in the hands of the Pakistani bowlers and I am sure they would be able to win the match.

[Jateng]

Netherlands won the toss and choose to bowl. The wicket again looking good for the bowlers. Van Beek got the first wicket of Fakar Zaman, his bad form continues. He couldn't anticipated the slower ball. Intial stage of the match, Babar is on the field and he is in good form. Pakistan are the favourite to win this match. One thing that is again bothering me is why the stadium is empty. I can hardly see any crowd in the stadium.

Pakistan 286 all out but what a strong comeback by Pakistan from 38/3 to 286/10. After early collapse, a good partnership and contributions from the lower order well played Rizwan, Saud Shakeel, Shadab and Nawaz but the Netherlands bowlers have restricted Pakistan to a score of 286. Good recovery from Pakistan. Good fight from the Dutch as well with the ball. Netherlands manage to restrict Pakistan below 300 with the help of Bas de Leede's 4/62. i think it is difficult for Netherlands to chase it down

[Shishir99]

When I last time saw the scorecard, Pakistan had recovered very well after losing three early wickets. Rizwan and Saud Shakeel were playing very well and I thought they were going to score a massive score. They needed to score more than three hundred runs on this pitch. It was a typical Pakistani performance. They are unpredictable as hell. Nobody knows if they will win or not.

Pakistan has a good bowling lineup which is why it's still a big target for the dutch batters! One of my friends placed a bet against Pakistan today. I hope he will win the bet. His odds was 9x, this will be a nice win for him.

[Fuso.hp]

Netherlands won the toss and choose to bowl. The wicket again looking good for the bowlers. Van Beek got the first wicket of Fakar Zaman, his bad form continues. He couldn't anticipated the slower ball. Intial stage of the match, Babar is on the field and he is in good form. Pakistan are the favourite to win this match. One thing that is again bothering me is why the stadium is empty. I can hardly see any crowd in the stadium.

Pakistan started very poorly, they had lost 3 wickets in the first ten overs. Then a good partnership between Rizwan and Shakeel helped them to get good runs onboard. As for now they have lost 8 wickets and have scored 252 runs. They do have 8 overs left but the last pair is on the pitch. I expected them to give a target of 280 or more runs to Netherlands. If the bowlers do their job properly today they would be able to defend a total of less than 280 runs.

Pakistan's total in the first innings is 286 runs. The way Pakistan lost wickets early on, if they had kept losing wickets like this, they might not have reached 286 in the end. Babar Azam played an irresponsible innings. He has had enough time to settle in at the wicket, since the Asia Cup we have seen Babar Azam as an outlier. Babar Azam scored a century only against Nepal in the Asia Cup and also did not play a significant innings against any other team. The team's batting is heavily dependent on Babar Azam in this World Cup tournament so he must return to runs. I won't say too much about the target of 286 runs, Pakistan is already the favourite, then there will be no surprise if Netherlands do well.