The tightest game?

Everybody was saying that Sri Lanka – South Africa quarterfinal will be the tightest. But the match lost it’s “tightness” as soon as Sri Lanka started playing.

I don’t even want to discuss Sri Lankan scorecard, because what can you talk about when there are 133 runs on the board and when a team hurries home in just 37.2 over out of 50 overs allotted. Kumar Sangakara, who had hit 4 centuries in this world cup until now, just put pup 45 runs today. Although he did not even get to a 50, he still was the top scorer for Sri Lanka. So my friends, Sri Lanka is out of the World Cup.

As far as South Africa is concerned, their bowlers, did their work and the batsmen just had to sail home. Dale Steyn, Morkel Abbott al got 1 wicket each, but J. P. Duminy and Imran Tahir dismissed 3 and 4 batsmen respectively. Great bowling by the South Africans and their batsmen followed suit. I would like to remind you that it is the same J. P. Duminy, who was dispatched for 3 sixes in an over by Sarfraz and A. B. was forced to take him out of attack.

Now we have one Semi-finalist, South Africa and I have very few doubts that following the last quarterfinal between New Zealand and West Indies, we will see a South Africa – New Zealand semi-final.

Tomorrow will be the quarterfinal, which interests me the most, of course after the third quarterfinal. I also have few doubts that India will win in quarterfinal №2 on Thursday, but let’s see.

All the high hat experts had given Sri Lanka better chances in this match, so they are a little disappointed. And now the same high-hat experts are saying that their best bet would be Australia, New Zealand and India, who can make it to the finals. Everybody has discarded Pakistan as a real contender.

This sounds discouraging, but in fact this is a good thing. When there are no high hopes and no bets on you, the pressure is low. I don’t think that Pakistan-Australia quarterfinal will be a walk through the ballpark, It will be a tough match and probably the toughest, now that quarterfinal №1, which promised to be tough, has disappointed everybody.

So all eyes on quarterfinal №3 and Adelaide Oval. We don’t have Irfan, but hey cricket is a team game, not an individual sport. Irfan would had been good, but Pakistan has one of the best fast bowler stock in the world today. We have no problem replacing Irfan with a world-class pacer and of course we have superb spinners. Pakistani batting is more or less composed now.

So as before I am still backing team Pakistan. At the same time I would like to congratulate South Africa for winning their first ever knockout stage game in the World Cup. Now they can rest for some time, because the next knockout stage game will not be so easy.

I would also like to wish India a victory tomorrow, because they have been playing superbly since the start of the tournament and their game has been stable. They have all the chances of winning it for cricket lovers India’s win in tomorrow’s match creates an other chance during this World Cup to see an India-Pakistan derby. We watch cricket to have fun, don’t we? And honestly no other game is as interesting as an India-Pakistan game!