Top 4 teams that can be seen at end of round robin in 2019 World Cup?

Truly the best game so far.

The best game of the tournament was in between NZ and WI. It was matter of inches Boult caught the ball which was all set to cross the boundary and a win for WI.  Carlos Baithwait almost won the match on his brave effort but for the last ball catch.

True, WI vs NZ was the best match. Have seen the match commentary now. It was nerve wracking.

New Zealand have become the dark horses as they are always. I think they faced some close situations and the experience from those situations will help them should any such case present itself in the semi finals or finals.

They have however not faced tough teams much. But that experience will count a lot, be it against a big team or small.

In the game vs Afghanistan Dhoni was seen handling the strategies, fielding and bowling plans in the last overs where Virat was at the boundary line.

Dhoni knows to handle pressure situations better than any. So it came to our rescue against Afghanistan/

The fact is Dhony is the captain of the team who handles the fielding and bowling from behind the scene. India will know his value once he says goodbye to the Indian team. It's easy to criticize him for slow batting but what if he was out making rash shots?  

There is no doubt that Dhoni's absence is a void which cannot be filled at all, unlike other batsman and captains.

His slow batting was also done only to ease the situations. In this world cup he has played very well, despite any slow knocks which was required for the team.

Dhoni will be missed behind the stumps for the bowling advices, DRS, captaincy and his batting calmness.

Sachin Tendulkar on Sunday criticized Dhoni heavily for batting in a slow manner in the match against Afghanistan. Sachin felt that as Kedar was short of match practice, it was naturally Dhoni's responsibility as a senior member of the team to accelerate. He felt that Dhoni showed lack of intent.

In the past couple of years Dhoni has been criticized many a times for his slow batting. Kohli at times also felt that Dhoni's unnecessary slow batting have forced Team India to lose one or two T20 International matches. In the DRS also Dhoni made a big mistake against South Africa in this world cup.

But let's not criticize Dhoni or any other player. After all, everyone is a human being. Dhoni has won many matches for India and his experience is priceless. No matter what Dhoni is still the backbone of Team India !!!

Sachin is in a position now to say anything sitting in a studio but did he forget his own slowest century in a match against Bangladesh which India lost and faied to reach finals in Asia Cup? 

Want to check that- 

https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/asia-cup-2012/top-stories/Ind-vs-Bdesh-Sachin-Tendulkars-100th-ton-goes-in-vain-India-mauled-by-Bangladesh-at-Mirpur/articleshow/12290563.cms

I got a visual on whatsapp which showed Dhoni saying Rohit to go stand on mid wicket and Rohit immediately moves, then he asks Kuldip to bowl googly and then Kohli says- Dhoni Bhai I am the captain, Dhoni says I know you are now go field at mid off. And kohli follows the command. They have a good understanding and Kohli knows that Dhoni has a better cricketing brain than him. 

I also felt that what Sachin said was something which was not at all required.

Truly it is easy to say from a studio, well that he had said this, he should also have said that because of his wicket keeping skills and captaincy brain only India won the match against Afghanistan.

It is easy to point out someone.

Everybody knows that the knock Dhoni played in the match was priceless. He knows his role better than anyone. He played a very good knock in the middle. Because of his presence atleast Kedar played that innings. Otherwise the middle order would have collapsed without any partnerships. We have all seen that Dhoni & Kedar played some good partnerships. Kedar also credited that because of Dhoni he could play that innings. Otherwise he would have got out early.

Sachin's remark was totally uncalled for and brings a disrepute to his personality. When someone is talking about a standard called Dhoni, one should think whether it is right to say. In this case Sachin was totally wrong.

Today's match between the hosts England and the defending champions Australia is indeed a very big one. If Australia goes on to win this match they qualify for the semi finals. On the other hand, England is under a lot of pressure after losing their last match against Sri Lanka. Maybe for this reason they appeared pretty sloppy at times in the field against Australia. However, at one point of time it looked that Australia would go past 300 comfortably, but England pulled them back and restricted them to 285.

I feel Australia still have the attack to defend this total. Nathan Lyon has a good record against England. And this English side also have some left-handers. So, it will help the Aussie off-spinner even more.

By the way, it was a pleasure to watch Australian captain Finch registering a brilliant century at the historic Lords.

Australia won and now few of the lower standing teams are back in contention. I  think English were over confident.

suni51 wrote:

Australia won and now few of the lower standing teams are back in contention. I  think English were over confident.

I don't think England were in a state of over confidence especially after their defeat against Sri Lanka. I feel it's just that the pressure of a big stage like the world cup is getting into them. Yes England's failures are now giving hope to teams such as Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, and Pakistan.

I think England are kind of feeling the big stage pressure and remembering their past World Cups record.

The reason to support is that in the chasing in the matches before World cup out of the 20 matches played in chasing, they won 17, tied 1 and NR 2..

However in the world cup in chasing out of 4 matches, they lost 3 and won 1. So they certainly are feeling the heat.

Still England is a very dangerous side and the probability of making semis are also good, so if they make it to semis they will not repeat the mistake and thrash the oppositions is what i feel.

However they have to keep their nerve in chases.

Saurav Banerjee wrote:

suni51 wrote:

Australia won and now few of the lower standing teams are back in contention. I  think English were over confident.

I don't think England were in a state of over confidence especially after their defeat against Sri Lanka. I feel it's just that the pressure of a big stage like the world cup is getting into them. Yes England's failures are now giving hope to teams such as Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, and Pakistan.

England would have played better if they gone for batting. Their batting always fail them under slightest of pressure. They have lost the touch since their regular opener is out of the team due to hamstring problem.

I think India have got better bench players than England in that case. England have got a tough road ahead with India and New Zealand to be faced.

Do England need to win 2 games to qualify for semi finals I suppose as the points table present Srilanka also have a chance at 12 points in the table. However I doubt Srilanka getting to 12 points.

epraneeth77 wrote:

I think India have got better bench players than England in that case. England have got a tough road ahead with India and New Zealand to be faced.

Do England need to win 2 games to qualify for semi finals I suppose as the points table present Srilanka also have a chance at 12 points in the table. However I doubt Srilanka getting to 12 points.

Yes, and also the fact that England would be facing India at Edgbaston is definitely not a good thing for the hosts. This is because Edgbaston is known to favor the spinners. And India have two world class spinners in their ranks. Moreover, it's going to be more like a home fixture for Team India as there would be no shortage of noise and supporters for them at this ground.

Pakistan won against tough opponents New Zealand, they played with determination and grit grinding it out in the middle, especially Babar Azam.

They now have Afghanistan and Bangladesh. It will be interesting to see whether they go the distance by winning their next 2.

Afghanistan is relatively easier to beat, but it should not be taken lightly by them.

The thing is as the match ending got near, some people were already thinking of India-Pakistan final already!

New Zealand batting especially Taylor and Martin are out of form. They will have to come out of the shell otherwise Williamson can't  do it all on his own.

Australia looks to be the team to beat as of now. If we remove the blip against India they have looked rock solid. They are always great contenders for the World cup and that is not going to change this time around. I also feel that if India face Australia again, Australia will come victorious.

epraneeth77 wrote:

Australia looks to be the team to beat as of now. If we remove the blip against India they have looked rock solid. They are always great contenders for the World cup and that is not going to change this time around. I also feel that if India face Australia again, Australia will come victorious.

Absolutely. I completely agree with you. A team like Australia always raise their bar when it comes to a big tournament such as the world cup. They are true champions. The presence of players like Warner and Smith, and the form of Finch and Starc are threatening the winning possibilities of all other teams. I am enjoying the way Starc is bowling his yorkers. Especially, the yorker with which he bowled Ben Stokes was absolutely unplayable. If Starc continues to bowl like this, then only God can save the batsmen !

Meanwhile India has opted to bat first with the same team. At the moment it is 77/1 after 17 overs. Rohit went cheaply once again to a controversial decision.

I think it was a very beneficial toss to win as the pitch is already a little slow and will slow down further which will aid both our fast and spin bowlers.