Friday, 9 March 2007

Ben on...the blockbusters

I'm rather enjoying the little "World Cup Countdown" country snippets on the website of the Australian newspaper The Age, light though are. Today's is South Africa. One section that intrigues me is the 'Blockbuster', the country's biggest anticipated game in the tournament. South Africa's blockbuster is its game against Australia in the Super 8. Which is fair enough, as both teams are battling for the no. 1 ranking.

The blockbusters of the minor nations are

The NetherlandsSouth Africa
BermudaBangladesh
Canadanone given oddly, though I'm picking Ireland
IrelandZimbabwe
ScotlandHolland
BangladeshIndia
KenyaCanada
ZimbabweIreland

There are some quite interesting ones in there. I think the Bangladesh–India match is one to watch (India should win, but Bangladesh could put up a good fight). The Dutch–South African game has an interesting non-cricket aspect to it.

Something odd happened when we got to the likely Super 8 teams however.

IndiaAustralia (repeat of 2003 final)
EnglandAustralia (post-Ashes thing)
West Indies
Australia (having won 4 of the last 10 match-ups)
South AfricaAustralia

I'm detecting a trend.

4 comments:

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Anonymous said...

I don't want to be a pedant, but Canada isn't in the same group as Ireland, and I can't see them progressing to the final 8.

Ireland, on the other hand, have has good a chance as anyone to make it to the 2nd round.


www.sportsfreak.co.nz

Ben said...

You're quite right about Canada's group. I was mistaking the schedule for the warm ups for the schedule for the group games.

I can't agree with your optimism for Ireland however. Not withstanding their history of success against the West Indies, it would be the upset of upsets if Ireland were to make it to the Super 8.

Anonymous said...

The thing about Ireland is they have had the luck of... in terms of their draw.

For a start they have the Zimbabwe Schoolboy side... and they must be a good show there.

And then there's the hosts who they beat a couple of years ago, and then there's Pakistan who have a habit of dropping such games.

There are some good English county pros / NSW rejects in the Irish squad too.

Sportsfreak