ODI World Cup 2023

[Donny]

India v. Netherlands. Chance for Kohli's 50th. century.

India won the toss and elected to bat.

After 21 overs, 2/147. Rohit 61, Gill 51.

Kohli 20*.

[Donny]

Already looking like a training run for Kohli. 150+ ?

[Donny]

2/173 after 24 overs.

Kohli 44*, Shreyas 11*.

[Donny]

Kohli gorrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrnnnnnnnnnn.

Out for 51.

3/202 after 29 overs. Shreyas 31*.

[Donny]

10 overs to go. 3/284.

Shreyas 73*, Rahul 37*.

Carnage coming up ?

[Donny]

WHY !!?

This constant yelling of inanities into the PA. Be it male or female.

WHY ??

[Pies4shaw]

4/410. Something tells me the Dutch may struggle to run that down.

[Donny]

Oh, the cricket. Right.

Shreyas Iyer racked up 128* from 94 balls.

Lokesh Rahul was excellent. 102 from just 64 nuts. Fastest for India in World Cups.

4/410. 1/126 from the last 10 overs.

[Donny]

What a classy interview from Rahul. True champion.

[Pies4shaw]

Netherlands all out 250.

Final group table:

India 9 wins/0 losses
South Africa 7/2
Australia 7/2
NZ 5/4
..................................
Pakistan 4/5
Afghanistan 4/5
England 3/6
Bangladesh 2/7
Sri Lanka 2/7
Netherlands 2/7

It's India's to lose from here, obviously.

The ICC has to revisit this format - 45 games over 6 weeks with a lot of meaningless games and then it will all be done in just 3 more games. Given that there are several weak teams, we've finished with the top 4 being the only 4 teams with positive win/loss records. In fact, the top 3 won 23 of their 27 games - and if you exclude the games they played against each other, they ended with just one loss (South Africa against the Netherlands) to a team that didn't finish in the top 3 for a top 3 versus the rest record of 23/1. It was all a little predictable - and too comfortable, really, for the better teams. Even NZ's wobbly showing never really presented any drama - in the end, neither Pakistan nor Afghanistan could really compete for 4th place.

On balance, I think I prefer a couple of groups (perhaps with an opportunity for more of the emerging teams to reach the World Cup proper) and fewer early games.

[K]

[K]

cricket.com.au's team of the WC:

QdK
Warner
Rachin Ravindra
Virat (c)
Markram
Maxwell
Jansen
Jadeja
Shami
Zampa
Bumrah

12th man: Madushanka

[Pies4shaw]

There is, according to what I just head on SEN, apparently a serious hurricane likely to wash out the Australian semi-final. If there is no result, South Africa would go through to the Final. You'd think that in such a large country they could manage to find a cricket stadium that wasn't threatened with a monsoonal deliuge and move the game there. Not that I think it would change the outcome - I expect South Africa to win - but it is bordering upon farce that they could run a group stage for 6 weeks and then risk one of just three finals games being washed out.

[Pies4shaw]

^ The weather forecast for Ahmedabad, eg, is no rain, sunny, low 30s for the next week. Just saying.

[Donny]

Thanks, mate.

With the zillions spent on stadia, you'd think they could put a bloody roof on them !!