Wednesday 14 March 2007

Previews: Sri Lanka vs Bermuda; Ireland vs Zimbabwe

An interesting round of matches here. Sri Lanka will undoubtedly brush Bermuda away with consumate ease, but it will be worthwhile watching the performance of twenty stone police man Dwayne Leverock. His left arm spin was particuarly impressive against England and he has the potential to become one of the faces of the tournament, even though he is unlikely to feature beyond the group stages.

To the second match and there is a feeling building that Ireland have a sniff in this encounter. Ireland's impressive performance against South Africa and demolition of Canada, in their earlier warm up matches, has done enough to suggest that a mini upset may well be on the cards. However, Zimbabwe's fresh batch of youngsters will be looking to impress, given the negative publicity surrounding Zimbabwean cricket and whether or not this group of players merit their places in the squad, given the continued absence of the best Zimbabwean cricketers. The prize for the winner is a real chance at reaching the Super Eight Stage of the tournament, given Pakistan's injury woes and the sometimes inconsistant form of the West Indies.

Sri Lanka vs Bermuda:

Prediction: Sri Lanka to brush Bermuda aside, but only after Leverock has entertained the crowd with his "jiggling, jogging" celebration.

Players to Watch: Kumar Sangakkara and Dwayne Leverock.

Ireland vs Zimbabwe:

Prediction: With a tint of green on the wicket, the team who wins the toss and bowls should win. I'm going for the first shock of the competition and counting on the luck of the Irish to pull Ireland through in a tightly contested match.

Players to Watch: Trent Johnston and Sean Williams.

1 comment:

Chrispy said...

Well, well, well, I guess that my predictions still came true. My thesis was that the side that won the toss and bowled should have won (Zimbabwe), but the Irish battled through that seaming swinging period to get a decent score and they came back to defend it in the end, in no small part because of the luck of the Irish, my antithesis. End result is a draw, which I guess proved to be the synthesis! It all makes so much sense now, it was never going to be any other result! hehe ;-)

Great match, has brought the World Cup to light! May there be many more such games!