ICC World Cup 2011

[DexteR]

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Welcome to the SD Cricket World Cup 2011 Central. Here we are going to discuss everything related to the Cricket World Cup 2011 which is to be played in India - Sri Lanka and Bangladesh from February 12 to April 2, 2011 (Warm-up Matches start Feb 12th, 2011 and Group Matches start Feb 19th, 2011.)

I would like to bring all the news and happenings related to the ICC World Cup. You are also encouraged to share news, your knowledge and insight as we move along.

This Video below will help you know more about the schedule, venues and more about the ICC World Cup.

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9BSmMNN0BaQ"]ICC World Cup 2011[/ame]

[Sadaf Gondal]

Vettori surprised at used pitch
Daniel Vettori, the New Zealand captain, is not impressed with the use of the same pitch for Tuesday's semi-final as the one that was used for the quarter-final against England on Saturday. "They've told us we're playing on the same one as England, which is very surprising for us," Vettori said on the eve of the first semi-final against Sri Lanka. "Playing a World Cup semi-final on a used wicket; we would have thought it would be mandatory to prepare a fresh wicket, but obviously not." Sri Lanka won their quarter-final easily, strangulating England's scoring through clever use of slow bowlers and Lasith Malinga at the death, and went on to win comfortably by 10 wickets.

Vettori is spot on with his observation that it is not mandatory to play a semi-final on a fresh pitch. However, the pitch to be used for the semi-final is relatively fresh; it was used for the first time in the tournament during the quarter-final. The call on which pitch is to be used is the groundsman's, and Anuruddha Polonowita, Sri Lanka's chief groundsman, said that he has chosen the most-fair strip.

An ICC source said the choice of the exact pitch remains with the venue, as long as it complies with the ICC's guidelines for fair pitches. The choice, the source said, was between the pitch used for the Australia-Pakistan game and the one used for the quarter-final. The first one had more inconsistent bounce, hence this pitch was chosen.

[Sadaf Gondal]

Vettori considering three-spinner attack
Daniel Vettori would make a bad bridesmaid. He wouldn't fit the role of the person dressed up to walk down the aisle behind someone more important. He is the important one.
At the best of times, Vettori is abrupt - probably not intentionally, but because it's part of his character. He is a no-nonsense kind of guy who gives a straight answer to most questions. Whether he expected to be sitting in a press conference as the only non-subcontinental team captain at the World Cup semi-finals, he won't say, but he seems rightly annoyed with being asked if his team is excited to have got this far.
"It's the semi-final of the World Cup, everyone is ecstatic," he said dryly. Of course they are. New Zealand have proven themselves to be one of the top four teams in the tournament. They beat the odds. After a group stage which saw them record victory over only one major team, Pakistan, and get thumped by two others, Sri Lanka and Australia, they came into the quarter-finals as one of the weaker sides. Very few people expected them to raise their game enough to beat South Africa and even when talking about that victory, very few people say that it was New Zealand who won the game. Most say it was South Africa who lost it.
Vettori doesn't really want to talk about that anymore, because he has more important things on his mind. "We need to move on pretty quickly from the South Africa game. We're proud of our achievement, but we need to concentrate on the semi-final." Most people paid him very little attention when he made that point, probably because most don't expect New Zealand to get past the semi-finals. That's partly because they are playing a very strong Sri Lanka side and partly because this will be their sixth World Cup semi-final, without having ever made the final.
"Everyone wants to talk about our record [of always going out at the semi-final stage], but this is an amazing achievement for a small country," Vettori said, which hinted that he was satisfied enough with having come this far. He recovered quickly though. "We have our expectations, it's irrelevant what people say. We reached the Champions Trophy final in 2009, there we went one step further." New Zealand were horribly outplayed in that match, losing to Australia by six wickets. But, it was an important exercise for them, because they played in a final of an ICC tournament - for the first time since the 2000 Champions Trophy, which they won, beating India - and experienced the pressures of a do-or-die encounter of a different kind.
Vettori knows consistency is the key. "When we've won well, we've followed it up with a poor performance," he said referring to the group stage. "We've got to make sure we have another big performance in the bag because Sri Lanka will be very strong in home conditions."
Sri Lanka have looked the side to beat and on a pitch where they asserted their authority over England, they will be tough to handle. Vettori is toying with the idea of picking three spinners for the match. "The fact that it's a used wicket may allow us to do that, but Sri Lanka have grown up playing spin."
Getting their combination right for the semi-final will not be the trickiest thing for New Zealand, it will be making sure that that combination works well on the day. Vettori said that they were fortunate to have "one or two batsmen and a bowler or two who could stand up" in the knockouts. "It was Jesse Ryder and Jacob Oram who did it against South Africa. That made the difference and it may have to be someone else who does it now."
Vettori himself, playing in either his penultimate or final match as captain, may be the man to shoulder the responsibility. He knows it's his last chance, as he is firm in his decision to step down as captain. "I've made the decision. You need fresh ideas and people get sick of you." To leave office as the blushing bride probably doesn't quite fit his image either, but Vettori would chose to be the bride over the bridesmaid any day.

[Sadaf Gondal]

Muralitharan doubtful but Sangakkara upbeat
For the second match in succession, Sri Lanka are sweating over the fitness of Muttiah Muralitharan who is nursing a leg injury ahead of the semi-final against New Zealand tomorrow. "Murali and everyone around him is trying to get him as fit as possible and fit enough to play," Kumar Sangakkara said.
"It's no use thinking about the final and saving him for other games, this is the crunch game and if he can play tomorrow that'll be great for us, but if that doesn't work out, we've got enough cover to make sure that we are still a solid winning side."
"At the same time its two different injuries. He knocked his knee at Mumbai and he's just aggravated a quadricep muscle - a very slight strain - in the game before so it's not the same injury. We'll just have to monitor how he goes and hope he is fit enough to play."
Sangakkara said that with injuries, it was crucial to see that both the team and the player were comfortable with him taking part in the match, especially a big one like the semi-final. "If Murali is not fit it's something that we have to accept and get on with."
Having thrashed England by ten wickets in the quarter-finals, Sangakkara said that complacency is the last thing on Sri Lanka's radar. "There's no chance of that happening in anyone's mind. You understand the gravity of the situation, you understand the challenge that's going to come your way, you got to accept it and you got to enjoy it.
"The guys have done pretty well and tomorrow is not going to be any different. You can't play too much to the crowds, or too much to show off, it's a question of playing good solid cricket, concentrate on doing the best. We have set ourselves small goals to achieve, if we keep our heads and we perform as well as we can, we can turn it into a solid performance."
"The expectations are always there, that's not something that we can control, what we really want to do is to make sure that when we go out tomorrow, we are realistic. We stay in the moment and make sure we concentrate on what we have to do and make sure our focus is 100 per cent on tomorrow."
Sangakkara said the win over England was made to look easy because the openers - Tillakaratne Dilshan and Upul Tharanga - came up with a magnificent batting performance. "Those kinds of partnerships don't come very often and that kind of overshadowed the contest as such. But England is a side that we were very wary of and we expected nothing less than their strong performance. In the light of that tomorrow it's a new game for us. It's nothing to do with England, we are starting from square one and we want to make sure that we understand that."
Sangakkara said that his team was building up momentum towards the final and that they were improving by the day. "In a tournament like this, there's never a point when you think over where you are the best. It never happens in cricket. Also in big tournaments it's always a question of gradual and continuous improvement for us. There are lots of areas we have to make sure we cover, we've done pretty much in the two days leading upto tomorrow. The guys are much focussed they are pretty confident but at the same time they understand that it is the performance that counts and that's what we are trying to deliver tomorrow."
Sri Lanka were second-placed in Group A in the league stage which was considered relatively easier compared to Group B but Sangakkara didn't think that was the case. "It's hard to say that we got lots of breaks in the group stages and very few breaks this time. That's not something that we can control, the schedule was set long before and we are happy that we have got here. Ours is to go one step further tomorrow."
Sri Lanka used three specialist spinners plus the occasional spin of Dilshan against England, but Sangakkara did not indicate what their plans were against New Zealand. "We thought that was the best combination to play against England. It was a very good track and it stayed true throughout. At the same time we have to consider other options as well. We have fast bowlers, especially Nuwan Kulasekara, who has done exceptionally well against New Zealand. So we got to make sure we play the right combination."

[sheem]

Hmmm best of luck nz but jeetna srilanka ne hi hai

[Sadaf Gondal]

best of luck NZ

[DexteR]

New Zealand.

[Nida_Ali_Nido]

Srilanka inshALLAH

I want NZ out of this world cup now

boht khel liye lucky ho ker ab ghar jayin apny apny inshALLAH

[fasco_buk]

[Assassins]

bol le beta dhoni INSHALLAH jeetna PAKISTAN ne he hai aur end main to chae ka he cup le kar ja raha hoga ghar aur wo b disposible hahahahaha

[Sadaf Gondal]

Mercurial outsiders v solid favourites
And yet nothing much has changed with the way they play cricket on the field. It's still the bowlers who win the games for them. For all that is mercurial about them, Pakistan have lost just one game in this tournament.
India have occasionally limped, at times choked, sometimes dazzled, before beating Australia to reach to the semi-finals. The progress card has the bowlers in the red, the batsmen guilty of not finishing the job, and the fielding has always been almost beyond redemption. Their mode of progress should actually have freed them up in some ways. The batsmen must have realised that they can't try too hard to cover up for their bowlers' weakness, by trying to pile on too much, with the batting Powerplay pulling the rug from under their feet a few times. The bowlers showed they are learning from the serial hiding by putting up a pretty disciplined effort against Australia. In some ways, the pressure must be off them, as not many would be surprised if they leak 300 runs.
It's the batting India depend on. Is there any chink in it barring those Powerplay debacles? Gautam Gambhir hasn't been at his personal best - were he playing at his optimum, he would have rendered Virat Kohli superfluous at no 4. Yet Gambhir's slightly iffy form has made Kohli vital in that middle order. Prior to the tournament, it was felt that Kohli would be a misfit in the lower order, where Suresh Raina and Yusuf Pathan would be more dangerous, and that he might be wasted even further up. But Gambhir hasn't been at his fluent best and India have turned to Kohli to take them through the middle overs. Gambhir has always raised his game against Pakistan and his form will be crucial on Wednesday as it would then give the middle order the licence to attack.


Form guide
(completed matches, most recent first)


India WWLWW
Pakistan WWWLW


Watch out for...

Virender Sehwag In the past few games Sehwag has - curiously, for a batsman so wonderfully innovative as him - tried to hit every spinner through the off side. He would back away and try to drive, slice or cut and has fallen a few times in the process. Pakistan might well have a spinner bowling at him early and it will be fascinating to see whether Sehwag will retain that off-side bias or be more inclusive, and open, in his approach.
Umar Gul's yorkers: After Lasith Malinga, Gul has probably the best control over the yorker in world cricket today. There have of course been days when the radar has been awry but more often than not he has got them right. The Indian lower middle order will be fully tested by the yorkers, slower ones and the bouncers that he loves to bowl.
Sachin Tendulkar v Abdul Razzaq: Bowlers like Hansie Cronje and Razzaq, more than the Umar Guls and the Shoaib Akhtars, have been reasonably successful against Tendulkar. Cronje used to tease Tendulkar with deliveries shaping away from a length outside off while Razzaq specialises in the opposite: he slides the ball back in, looking for that lbw. He hasn't always had success, but it will be a mini-battle worth watching. Will Tendulkar opt for all-out attack or will he bat with relative care against Razzaq?
Zaheer Khan v Kamran Akmal Kamran loves to square drive and Zaheer has been able to bend the ball back in to the right-hand batsmen this tournament with the new ball. This contest should be fun.

Umar Akmal v spin: India will rely a lot on the slow bowlers during the middle overs, and Umar is the middle-order batsman who loves to attack spin. He has laid into the likes of Daniel Vettori on the tour of New Zealand and is always itching to cut and slog-sweep.

Team news

The signs are that Ashish Nehra is likely to replace Munaf Patel. Even Yusuf Pathan has been sweating it out in the nets raising speculations that he might push R Ashwin hard for a spot in the team. Ashwin has been really good in the games he has played and has added some teeth to the attack while the nature of the patta track has made India think about bringing in Yusuf.
India (probable): 1 Virender Sehwag, 2 Sachin Tendulkar, 3 Gautam Gambhir, 4 Virat Kohli, 5 Yuvraj Singh, 6 MS Dhoni (capt & wk), 7 Suresh Raina, 8 Yusuf Pathan / R Ashwin, 9 Harbhajan Singh, 10 Zaheer Khan, 11 Ashish Nehra
Pakistan are thinking of playing three seamers. The choice of the third seamer is between Shoaib Akthar and Wahab Riaz. Afridi said Shoaib wasn't 100% fit today but a decision will be taken on the evening preceding the match.
Pakistan (probable) 1 Kamran Akmal (wk), 2 Mohammad Hafeez, 3 Asad Shafiq, 4 Younis Khan, 5 Misbah-ul-Haq, 6 Umar Akmal, 7 Shahid Afridi (capt), 8 Abdul Razzaq, 9 Saeed Ajmal / Abdur Rehman, 10 Umar Gul, 11 Wahab Riaz / Shoaib Akthar.
Try picking the XIs for tomorrow's game by playing Team Selector.

Pitch and conditions
It's a batting pitch but what's eating up everyone is the dew factor. Read here for a report on the pitch .


Stats and trivia


Afridi is the first bowler in World Cup history to take four wickets in a match on four different occasions in a tournament.


MS Dhoni is the only wicket-keeper captain who has played in 100 ODIs.


Zaheer Khan is the second Indian bowler after Javagal Srinath (44 wickets) to take more than 40 wickets in World Cups.