Paul Dennett's video: Dennett s Daily Cricket World Cup - Australia vs Bangladesh and Pakistan vs West Indies

Dennett’s Daily Cricket World Cup – Australia vs Bangladesh The forecast for the day of the Australia Bangladesh game was grim – the chance of rain was given as 100% and as much as 12 centimetres were predicted. Everyone assumed the game would be washed out – and this is indeed what happened. On Foxtel in Australia, this was a typical montage from their coverage - they made no secret of how unlikley play was. Compare this though with how channel 9 began their broadcast – as always, saying anything to keep people from switching over to channel 7. So, Australia and Bangladesh shared the points. What impact will this have on the tournament? Have Australia been badly disadvantaged? Well the big thing Australia would want to avoid is having to play a semi final against New Zealand in New Zealand. This will only happen if both sides make it to the semis, are drawn to play each other and if New Zealand finishes higher in the table. If Australia finishes higher an Australia NZ semi would be played in Sydney. Well, most people assume that New Zealand and Australia will come 1st and 2nd. If that’s the case and if it’s Australia who are runners up they have nothing to fear: Here is the draw – as you can see if New Zealand win group A and if Australia come 2nd, they go into different halves of the draw and would only meet again in the final. But the draw against Bangladesh could still be significant. Let’s assume New Zealand win every game of he group stage. They’d obviously win the group. If England were to win their remaining 4 matches they’d be on 8 points. If Australia, in addition to losing to New Zealand, lost one other game – say to Sri Lanka – then they would only finish on 7 points – meaning the point dropped against Bangladesh would be crucial – because in finishing 3rd they would be on course for a semi against New Zealand in New Zealand. And a final word on the washout – a nice little effort from Wisden India here, tweeting that the game had been washed out but including a file photo of an old washed out game at the Sydney Cricket Ground, not the Gabba. The other game saw West Indies crush Pakistan. You may have heard that Pakistan, in losing 4 wickets for 1 run, set the record for the lowest score for 4 wickets in 1 day cricket history. The magnitude of Pakistan’s loss was reflected in a huge change in their price to win the world cup. Before the game they were $24. After it they had nearly doubled to $46. This seems an overreaction to me. Given they’ll almost certainly beat the minnows and make it through to the quarter finals, Pakistan, like all the other teams really only need to win 3 matches to win the world cup. And as the West Indies showed here by bouncing back after their loss against Ireland, one bad day does not mean all that much. Finally, there was a controversial moment in the first innings of this game. Afridi had Bravo out caught behind, Bravo reviewed it and it was overturned, much to the annoyance of Pakistani fans, who thought it was too close. After being on the wrong side of a similarly contentious snicko decision in the game against India, some Pakistanis feel as if the world is against them. This tweet summed up the mood. ICC rule 31.3.2. Benefit of the doubt will be given to the team playing against Pakistan. I think the decision was correct, just. This still clearly shows that the ball had not reached the bat when the snicko movement occurred. By the next frame snicko had flatlined. But it illustrates once more the lunacy of not having hot spot. The ICC are making a fortune out of this tournament – they should change their minds and find the cash to pay for hotspot for the knockout games. Who cares if this is inconsistent with the rest of the tournament. When hawkeye technology was first brought in to tennis it was only used on centre court. Big matches simply matter more – especially given the format of this world cup. So ICC vbing in hotspot for the 7 matches that matter and get the important decisions right and avoid unnecessary controversy. And that was day 8 of the cricket world cup.