World Cup 2023: Weekly Round-Up
Fakhar Zaman keeps Pakistan in the hunt, Adam Zampa's back in form, how India beat South Africa and some thoughts on the format.
Fakhar Zaman and New Zealand’s luck
Pakistan’s inconsistent run during the first 6 matches at the World Cup meant they had to win all the remaining 3 and hope they get through on net run rate. Even after the 30th over of the Kiwi innings, it was clear that Pakistan will need to chase a large total (barring a sudden collapse) and Fakhar Zaman will have to play a key role. And Zaman certainly delivered by scoring the fastest 100 in a World Cup by a Pakistani batter, although incredibly it’s still the 5th fastest 100 of this WC.
You have to feel for New Zealand though. After a fantastic start against England, NZ had a fairly smooth fixture list that allowed them to sail through the next 3 matches without too much of a struggle. However, since that opening spell v/s India (where they beat the bat consistently without picking a wicket), their luck has dried out. Add to this injury concerns - their main bowler Matt Henry is out of the World Cup, Kane Williamson has missed some matches after randomly hurting his thumb.
And when they finally score a ridiculous 401, Fakhar Zaman plays an incredible innings hitting 11 sixes off 81 balls to take Pakistan home on DLS. Even though Zaman was batting brilliantly, chasing down such a target is nearly impossible. Any team is only a wicket or 4 tight overs away from losing the plot. DLS coming into picture certainly helped Pakistan, although NZ still have the upper hand as far as NRR is concerned.
Adam Zampa & Australia’s resurgence from the bottom
Australia started their World Cup campaign quite terribly and were sitting the bottom of the table after Round 2. They lost the first 2 games and their star spinner had been ordinary at that point. A cousin replied to my World Cup preview post on Facebook to say, Zampa would not be a strength for Australia. I disagreed, since I thought it was only a matter of time that Zampa would find his rythm and control. And Adam Zampa has proved his fans (like myself) right as he now sits at the top of the wicket takers in this tournament.
At this point, Zampa has picked the most wickets in the middle overs at this stage, at the 2nd best average (although Shami is a freak) and his control has been spectacular since the game against the Netherlands. There are still odd vulnerabilities in this Australia side but they are shaping up well for the Semis where they will likely meet South Africa. Despite their loss to India, South Africa will not be an easy side to beat and Australia will hope that Glenn Maxwell is back and rearing to go.
India’s onslaught on Marco Jansen
After a comprehensive win versus South Africa, India have qualified as the number 1 team in the group stage for the 3rd consecutive World Cup. The key difference in today’s game (in my opinion) is how India treated South Africa’s main wicket taker in the World Cup - Marco Jansen. Right from the start, Rohit Sharma went after Jansen to give a racing start in the Powerplay. The man who had taken 12 powerplay wickets in the 7 fixtures so far, went for 57 in his first 5 overs, 4 of them in the powerplay. In fact, even after Rohit was dismissed, Shubman Gill stepped down the track and tonked him over mid-on for a 6.
It didn’t help that Jansen was having issues with his rhythm or run up (or both) and he missed his line and length early on, even giving 5 wides in his 1st over. South Africa’s other wicket taker in this World Cup, Gerald Coetzee has been a star in the middle overs (as the chart in the Zampa section above shows), but he had to make way to Tabraiz Shamsi on this track that assisted the spinners. Unfortuntely for South Africa, Shamsi had a horrid day as he too sprayed the all over the place on a helpful track, even bowling a number of leg-side wides.
India’s bowling performance was once again outstanding with every bowler keeping batters on their toes, and not letting them do what India did with Jansen. And that’s really where the game was won.
Virat Kohli’s inability to accelerate
After the brisk start by India’s openers, Virat Kohli started off positively. It wasn’t the easiest pitch as Dinesh Karthik mentioned 250-260 would be a par score, while Ricky Ponting opined that South Africa had no chance to chasing 300. Here’s how Kohli’s innings progressed:
First 35 balls - 35 runs
Next 35 balls - 19 runs
Next 35 balls - 28 runs
Next 16 balls - 20 runs (including getting to 100)
This led to a lot of debate about this being a selfish innings (like Sachin Tendulkar’s 100th 100 in Asia Cup 2012 that led to a loss) as he was focused on matching Tendulkar’s tally of 49 ODI hundreds. However, there’s enough evidence to suggest otherwise. Even when Kohli was batting 35 off 35, he was in control just 77% of the time. Once the ball was older, it was incredibly hard to time it off this pitch.
Batting was made even more challenging by Keshav Maharaj’s incredible spell of 1/30 in 10 overs, where he missed his length just once. Even Shreyas Iyer, batting at the other end, was 18 off 39 balls at one point in time. Once the two had batted a while, and gone past 50, both the batters tried to up the ante. Kohli was batting in 60s off about 80 balls when Ngidi and Jansen were brought into the attack and he immediately tried going after them, although he just couldn’t find the top gear.
Once Iyer departed, considering India had no batting after Jadeja at 7, Kohli had to be a little more circumspect. Even in these last 10 overs, he failed to connect the big shots (like when Shamsi bowled a no-ball), and instead kept rotating the strike. All in all, it was the knock that (along with Iyer) kept India’s innings from falling apart on a challenging pitch. Having said that, all the hoopla from broadcasters, commentators and even journalists away from the game (like this one), around Kohli’s birthday and his 49th hundred was truly nauseating and unneccesary, particularly in a World Cup game.
World Cup Format
There has been a lot of discussions around the World Cup format and how there have been a number of dead rubbers. A ‘world’ tournament should have more than 10 teams, the good thing is that the next edition in 2027 will have 14 teams and 2 groups. I am not sure this will really eliminate dead rubbers, although the ability to carry points forward will mean teams cannot take any games lightly. So I think things are generally trending in the right direction. None of this will change the fact that teams like Afghanistan that punch above their weight will still have a tough time going all the way.
The team came into the World Cup with most expecting them to win 1-2 games and they have managed to beat 4 teams. They have bowled exceptionally restricting oppositions to mediocre totals to ensure their batters have a reasonable target to chase, and yet it’s unlikely they will get to the Semis. It derides Cricket from having a story like the one Greece scripted in Euro 2004. The simple truth is either you can have a format like FIFA World Cup and hope to make it a global sport in the longer term, or ensure a lot of games for the big teams to make it a financial success. Apart from the re-introduction of Cricket in the LA 2028 Olympics, there’s nothing that suggests they administrators care about the prior.