Okay, so who's gonna win?

[adharcric]

It'll be Australia, India, Pakistan and South Africa in the semifinals. England will have a chance to replace one of them if the batsmen fire.

 

[adharcric]

YESSS they will

My wife will be in the kitchen keeping up the supply of hot snacls while I will be sitting with my beer watching Dhoni, Sachin and Sehwag sending every bowler to the cleaners.

DHO DAALO INDIA !!!​

sounds good. i'll fly to the caribbean over spring break to watch india take on the loser of the early sa/aus match, assuming we can beat sri lanka in the 1st round match. so excited!

 

[FaaipDeOiad]

In my eyes, a full strength team is:

Gilchrist
Jaques
Ponting
Hussey
Symonds
Clarke
Hogg
Warne
Lee
Bracken
McGrath

...man that`d be so awesome to watch.

One batsman short possibly. Although Hogg, Warne and Lee are all pretty good, so it might not be. Other option would be take Hogg out of that team for a Cosgrove or someone.

 

[marc71178]

It'll be Australia, India, Pakistan and South Africa in the semifinals. England will have a chance to replace one of them if the batsmen fire.

Need more than just one batsman.

IMO we have only 4 out of a decent top 7, which is not good enough at this stage.

 

[Richard]

Not been paying attention? Averaged 24 with the ball across 2004 and 2005. Nothing wrong with his economy rate or his fielding or batting either.

Hogg's career can clearly be split into 3 parts...
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Clearly, part 3 is the most impressive in terms of wicket-taking (SR 33.4) but still the economy-rate's poor (4.81). In part 2 the economy-rate (4.24) is impressive but the SR less so (43.5). Obviously, in part 1 he was a rubbish bowler not established in the side so it's none too relevant to the next 2.
Of course in both parts 2 and 3 he started with wicket-taking then teams got on top of him pretty well.
But, as with many, Bangladesh (19 at 3.56) and Zimbabwe (post-WC 24.14 at 4.58) distort the picture a little. Hogg has always been IMO a pretty average bowler and I've always been surprised at things like wicket-taking sprees at the start of parts 2 and 3.

 

[Richard]

In my eyes, a full strength team is:

Gilchrist
Jaques
Ponting
Hussey
Symonds
Clarke
Hogg
Warne
Lee
Bracken
McGrath

...man that`d be so awesome to watch.

How can someone who's retired be part of a full-strength side (regardless of the possibility of him coming back, he's been retired 3 years and has still yet to reverse that decision)?
I'd say that substituting Clark for Warne.

 

[Richard]

It'll be Australia, India, Pakistan and South Africa in the semifinals. England will have a chance to replace one of them if the batsmen fire.

The chances of Strauss, Vaughan, Collingwood, Jones and Blackwell firing are remote indeed.
The chances of Trescothick firing, indeed, have been remote of late. IMO England are the least well-placed of the 8 ODI-standard teams at present.

 

[Richard]

Need more than just one batsman.

IMO we have only 4 out of a decent top 7, which is not good enough at this stage.

So one of Strauss or Vaughan are decent?
Pull the other one.
We have currently 2 out of a decent top 7 - plus Trescothick if he can get himself back into gear (which obviously won't be happening for a few months now).

 

[aussie]

Yeah. There's no doubt Australia are coming back to the field, but they still have the best team around.

Actually, the emergence of Bracken as a reliable ODI bowler means that in McGrath, Lee, Bracken and Hogg Australia still have a very strong ODI bowling lineup at full strength, and the batting certainly can't be questioned. I wouldn't read too much into the last game... Australia were well beaten, but when you score 400+ you can hardly say it was a terrible performance.

yes but what i'm worried about looking ahead of the WC is our bowling if we dont have McGrath. The conditions in the WI will be similar to Johannesburg i.e small grounds, flat pitches. So even though our batting is the strongest around our bowling can be showed up without McGrath againts other strong batting sides which could be a possible hinderance in australia's bid to win 3 in a row.

 

[aussie]

In my eyes, a full strength team is:

Gilchrist
Jaques
Ponting
Hussey
Symonds
Clarke
Hogg
Warne
Lee
Bracken
McGrath

...man that`d be so awesome to watch.

swap Hogg or Warne for either Martyn or Cosgrove possibly, but it looks decent.

 

[DanielFullard]

There is no way England should be second favourites with the UK bookmakers!

I do think that India have a very good chance of winning it. A strong attack on the batting and bowling front, a big squad to choose from and new players emerging all the time

 

[legendkilla]

India & Pakistan both have very good chances especially as india has new young players and pakistan won against engand but unfortunately lost to india.

 

[adharcric]

There's one reason why India have a solid chance in this World Cup.
Until now, India had two glaring weaknesses: a weak fielding unit and a weak pace battery.
Fielding ~ Ganguly & Laxman & Kumble -> Raina & Kaif & Powar/Chawla
that's a huge improvement, and we're seeing young athletes entering the squad with each series now.
Pace Battery ~ Agarkar and Zaheer are just about finished, Nehra and Balaji are injured and out of sight, and India has genuine "pace" prospects in Munaf, VRV & Nabi to go along with the promising Pathan, Sreesanth and RP Singh ... far from a proven pace battery, but it could turn out to be very good

I'll predict that by the end of the year, India will be closing in on Eng, Aus, Pak & Saf in terms of pace bowling strength.

 

[Richard]

I do think that India have a very good chance of winning it. A strong attack on the batting and bowling front, a big squad to choose from and new players emerging all the time

Harbhajan Singh is not a strong attack in himself.

 

[Richard]

There's one reason why India have a solid chance in this World Cup.
Until now, India had two glaring weaknesses: a weak fielding unit and a weak pace battery.
Fielding ~ Ganguly & Laxman & Kumble -> Raina & Kaif & Powar/Chawla
that's a huge improvement, and we're seeing young athletes entering the squad with each series now.
Pace Battery ~ Agarkar and Zaheer are just about finished, Nehra and Balaji are injured and out of sight, and India has genuine "pace" prospects in Munaf, VRV & Nabi to go along with the promising Pathan, Sreesanth and RP Singh ... far from a proven pace battery, but it could turn out to be very good

I have to doubt extremely whether Pathan, Sreesanth, VRV Singh or RP Singh will be ODI-class bowlers - and certainly not in a year's time.
Never heard of Nabi.

 

[marc71178]

Clearly, part 3 is the most impressive in terms of wicket-taking (SR 33.4) but still the economy-rate's poor (4.81).

No, 4.81 is not poor.

If all bowlers did it we'd see scores of 240.

 

[marc71178]

So one of Strauss or Vaughan are decent?
Pull the other one.

Trescothick, Flintoff, Pietersen, Collingwood.

 

[Richard]

No, 4.81 is not poor.

If all bowlers did it we'd see scores of 240.

Which would be poor.
And it'd mean every game was tied.

 

[Richard]

Trescothick, Flintoff, Pietersen, Collingwood.

Collingwood, decent?
Pull the other one.
Collingwood has done little of note in a ODI career of considerable length.

 

[marc71178]

Which would be poor.

No, it would not.