Monday, February 25, 2008

South Africa & New Zealand Play Spoil Sport to Asian Party in Malaysia

In my previous post I had reported the possibility of an All Asian clash in the Semi Finals of the U-19 World Cup. While defending champions Pakistan and runners up of the last U-19 WC India made it easily to the last 4, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh were trounced by New Zealand and South Africa respectively in the quarters.

I had also mentioned in the last post that a repeat of the 2006 WC Final was not possible, however, either I made an error in reading the line up for the quarters or Cricinfo made an error in listing it as the Semi Final line up reads as follows:
Wednesday 27th Feb: India vs New Zealand
Friday 29th Feb: Pakistan vs South Africa

Thus an India vs Pakistan final is very much a possibility and if it happens, it will be a repeat of the final of the 2006 version of the tournament.

In this morning's Quarterfinal Pakistan beat Australia by 6 wickets to make their way into the last 4. Pakitan's bowling lived up to its reputation and bundled the Aussies out for 129. Their bastmen easily got to the target in 28 overs, albeit after an earlier hiccup which had seen Pakistan reduced to 32-3.

India's Quarterfinal against England has been covered in detail by Soulberry at TCWJ. In the other 2 matches South Africa demolished Bangladesh, bowling them out for only 41 after posting 242, while New Zealand beat Sri Lanka by 80 runs after scoring 213.

There have been a number of young players that have made a mark in this tournament and I will cover their performances in another post.

Till then lets hope for a subcontinental clash on Sunday, 2nd March and say EYE!

Make your pitch on this post...



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12 Pitched:

  1. Aashrey said...
     

    EYE!

    Again.

  2. Q said...
     

    EYE buddy EYE! :-)

  3. Aashrey said...
     

    Lol.

  4. SledgeHammer said...
     

    Sorry man, here's a "NAY" from me! I haven't recovered from my Twenty20 heart failure yet. I need about a year or two between Pak vs Ind final clashes.

    Jokes aside - it would be nice to have Pak vs Ind, but just too much tension. Let's get through the SFs first. Q, as you mentioned on the other blog, SA are a very tough side.

    Going off on a tangent here...just thought about it, Pak has never beaten SA in ODI WCs (lost 92, lost 96, lost 99, DNP 03, DNP 07). Has no bearing whatsoever on this, but just thought it was interesting. Of course, we all know the record with India! :(

    And there's one more team we've played and never beaten in ODI WCs - Bangladesh!!!

  5. Q said...
     

    Sledge, I agree abt the tension but u should realise that the results of the senior teams bear no similarity to what the juniors pull off. Look at the Aussies - they look like a minnow in the U-19 WC :-)

    U talk abt World Cups even in general Pakistan's ODI record against SA is very very poor.

    Either way, India have an easier route to the final and I dont see anyway the Kiwis can stop that batting force.

    As for us, we have a tough game.

    but, EYE! :-)

  6. Viswanathan said...
     

    EYE! EYE!EYE!

  7. obaid said...
     

    What is this EYE? Is it like Aye? Im looking forward to India vs Pakistan final... it will certainly have the blogosphere buzzing :)

  8. Q said...
     

    EYE is just "I" with more emphasis :-)..

    Whenever we want to take a vote for something, people usually say "whoever agrees with this say I"...and the whole crowd goes "I"...if u actually write as u hear they are all saying EYEEEE..

    So in my last post, I just said whoever wants an All Asian semi say EYE!

  9. obaid said...
     

    So you do mean "Aye" :)

    Aye = Yes

  10. Q said...
     

    Well it can be AYE = YES but I mean "I" = ME = MAIN in Urdu :-)

  11. straight point said...
     

    another observation which come to my mind that as yo said that seniors performance do not get translated in to juniors and sighted oz team as an example...

    it just goes to show that how tough oz system make them once they step into first class...the competition there prepares them well enough to succeed at international level too...

    while look at pak or india...we have enormous talent but somehow does not get translated into consistent performance coz we dont have good system to back talent and thats why we are so inconsistent...

  12. Q said...
     

    Thats true SP, I agree.

    I think its a mix of the infrastructure, academies, and coaches that Australia, South Africa, etc have that results in this - the U19 talent in these countries gets nurtured and mde ready for the international level.

    While in the subcontinent I believe that the talent that is there a U19 level is what the players remain for the rest of their careers cos there is no one to take them to that next level.

    For example players like Imran Nazir, Imran Farhat, Faisal Iqbal from Pakistan - the way they bat today is how they used to bat when they were playing for the U19 team - whereas someone like Micheal Clarke has upped his game probably 10 times since his U19 todays.

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