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With the preliminaries over, the Cricket World Cup (CWC) starts on Wednesday when Pakistan and West Indies play the first Quarter Final at Dhaka in Bangladesh. Not that the earlier rounds were a mere rehearsal for the main drama.
In both Groups A and B, topsy-turvy results coloured the CWC.
In Group A, Australia beat New Zealand who beat Pakistan who beat Australia.
In Group B, England beat South Africa who beat India who beat Bangladesh who beat England.
A rigmarole, eh?
Sri Lanka will face erratic England in the second Quarter final on Thursday in Ahmedabad (India); the two under-performing titans Australia and India will clash in Dhaka on Friday; and the Proteas will meet the Kiwis in Colombo (Sri Lanka) on Saturday.
How Australia fares against India will be the highlight of the Cup.
Let us match them, captain vs. captain, player vs. player, by their form and statistics thus far in the 2011 CWC.
In the yellow corner is Ricky Ponting chewing gum, pondering on which strategy to use against his bête noir India. Will Australia win her fourth CWC – and her third under his leadership – is the question uppermost in his mind.
He is also searching feverishly to locate his lost batting form and reading a book on diplomacy and on “How to win friends in media and influence a lethargic team”.
His rating in this World Cup as batsman and captain: 3.5/10.
In the blue corner is Mahendra Singh Dhoni, trying desperately to find his golden winning touch. Apart from his openers’ big bang Virender Sehwag, masterly Sachin Tendulkar, and left-handed all-rounder Yuvraj Singh, his highly rated batting lineup – including himself – has derailed.
Except on rare occasions, his bowlers have been misfiring.
And he has not helped them by his “inni minni myni mo” choice of bowlers, especially at the death. His captaincy and batting rating: 4/10.
Openers for Australia and for India have carried their teams to the Quarter Final.
For India, Sehwag has scored 327 runs at 65.40 with a dazzling strike rate (SR) of 125.28. He has top-scored in the tournament so far with 175 against Bangladesh including 14 fours and 6 sixes and a SR of 125.
Tendulkar is just one run behind, crunching 326 runs at 54.33 and a SR of 99.69.
He has hit two centuries this far. His best was 111 against the strongest bowling attack of South Africa. He added 142 runs for the first wicket with Sehwag and 135 for the second wicket with Gautam Gambhir.
But then India lost 9 for 29 off nine overs and India lost the match. Rating for the Indian openers: 9/10.
Australia is also well served by their openers Shane Watson and Brad Haddin who have averaged 53.00 and 55.80. They added 133 runs against New Zealand and 183 against Canada. Rating for the Australian openers: 8/10.
The middle order for both Australia and India has failed.
For Australia, Michael Clarke has a fabulous average of 112.50 and a good SR of 94.93. Others have been disappointing. Rating for the Australian middle order: 3.5/10.
For India, Virat Kohli and Yuvraj Singh hit timely tons, but the rest have flopped due to over-confidence and a touch of arrogance.
Rating for India’s middle order: 3/10.
Yuvraj has been the all-rounder of the tournament, having scored 284 runs at 94.66 with a SR of 86.06. He has also taken 9 wickets at 25.22, with 5-31 as his best figures. A bonus of 6/10 goes to India for his all-round excellence and match-winning ability.
Australian all-rounder Watson gets 4/10.
Yuvraj is likely to achieve the rare double of scoring 300 runs and capturing 10 wickets as the CWC advances.
In fast bowling, Brett Lee has been impressive, collecting 12 scalps at 15.83, and has received adequate support from Mitchell Johnson and Shaun Tait, with 10 wickets each. Rating: 5.5/10.
For India, Zaheer Khan has bowled well (15 wickets at 14.86) but the rest have been very disappointing. Rating: 3.5/10.
Spinners from both teams have let their captains down and receive 2/10 each.
Finally, to the wicket-keepers.
Australia’s Haddin has made most dismissals (12, all caught) and India’s Dhoni 8 (5 caught + 3 stumped). Haddin receives 5.5/10 and Dhoni 4.5/10.
So overall count: 32/70 for Australia and 32/70 for India. A tie!
Will the reigning champions Australia lift their game to enter the semi-final? Or will India’s middle order regain their oomph to frustrate their opponents? Will off-spinner Harbhajan Singh recapture his aggro against his old enemy?
It’s worth staying awake until 4.30 on Saturday morning to get the answers.