Pitches cause rethink

It looked as though the most common sight in the 2007 World Cup would be balls rushing to and over the short boundaries in high-scoring matches, but predictions of such feasts of runs failed to take into account one thing – the state of the pitches.

The warm-up matches played in the last week clearly indicated that the conditions will be friendly towards the bowlers and particularly the slower bowlers, leading to many teams adjusting their plans at the last minute.

Ricky Ponting, captain of World Cup favourites Australia, commented on the pitches, which seem to resemble conditions on the subcontinent, and said that slow bowlers are likely to play a significant part. Ponting made particular reference to the West Indies’ tactics of using Chris Gayle and Marlon Samuels during the middle overs of the innings, with that looking to be the hosts’ strategy for the tournament itself.

If it does prove to be a tournament in which pitches favour that sort of bowling, it could be a tournament in which we see a number of spectacular all-round matches by batting all-rounders such as Sanath Jayasuriya, Paul Collingwood, Scott Styris and Andrew Symonds.

If this week’s matches are anything to go by, the predictions of scores threatening 500 in this World Cup look a fair way off the mark at this point.