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.