2019 Cricket World Cup Predictions

[RohitSharma]

Still not all that confident we will get to the final tbh. Bowling depth is still a big concern and I'm not sure the batting is good enough to make up for it.

If we don't win it I hope India do since it's more than likely it's between them and England.

Thanks for the well wishes man, I like Aussies because they never give up, till the last ball is bowled Aussies give their heart. Mad respect for Smith, Starc and Warner but I hate Cricket Australia for making a big deal out of nothing.

 

[Macpotata]

Indians are the best and should have been the faves going into the cup. England were due to home advantage but they shouldn't have been.

India will win it and they deserve to. Been the best side for a year or two at least.


All class.

 

[Santana]

Indians are the best and should have been the faves going into the cup. England were due to home advantage but they shouldn't have been.

India will win it and they deserve to. Been the best side for a year or two at least.


All class.

England has been the best ODI team over the last 2/3 years tbh. India will have to play better than that if they want to beat England which is something they will have to do if they want to win the WC.

 

[The Speaker]

In a competition between competitive matches, washouts and dead rubbers, which will win?

Today's match will mark the halfway point of the round robin. So far, by my measure, we've had:

Competitive matches: 4/22 - An inauspicious start to the tournament was followed by a bunch of competitive matches in quick succession, but we've now gone quite some time without one.
Washouts: 4/22 - I suspect the worst of it is over, but English weather is notoriously hard to predict. Furthermore, the format has caused many of these by preventing reserve days, which means that the number of competitive matches needs to make up for that to make the format worthwhile.
Dead rubbers: 0/22 - hasn't had a chance to get going yet, but once they do they'll pick up steam very quickly.

 

[Hamingja]

If England beat Sri Lanka, Australia beat Bangladesh, NZ beat Windies then by Sunday we are effectively in dead rubber territory with 16 games to go. "Mathematically" maybe not quite but in practice it would be.

 

[iluvparis]

Dead rubber just smoking their pipe out the back but looking to travel beautifully under hands and heels riding. Expect them to be popped out at the top of the straight and to explode away to a comfortable victory.

 

[Coolangatta]

If England beat Sri Lanka, Australia beat Bangladesh, NZ beat Windies then by Sunday we are effectively in dead rubber territory with 16 games to go. "Mathematically" maybe not quite but in practice it would be.

Yeah, the fixturing should've been arranged according to ranking. Have all the best sides play each other in the first three to four rounds, so if some of those sides falter early they might have to win a game in their second last or last round to make it.

 

[Macpotata]

England has been the best ODI team over the last 2/3 years tbh. India will have to play better than that if they want to beat England which is something they will have to do if they want to win the WC.

Yeah nah sorry mate. So far, and I reiterate so far, I've proved to be correct. And you wrong.

 

[Santana]

Yeah nah sorry mate. So far, and I reiterate so far, I've proved to be correct. And you wrong.

Not really, they weren't knocked out of the World Cup last night last time I looked. They are still going to make the semis, and by then they will have Roy back. Their bowling has also been a bit better than many thought it would be. They're still favorites imo

Aren't you also forgetting that Dhawan is now out of the tournament? Huge pressure on both Kohli & Sharma. If one of them or both fail there are big questions on the rest of the batting. If England's top two batsmen fail then they still have plenty there that can score big and quickly more often than not.

Also how will Kumar comeback from his injury? India still have question marks around them just like England.

 

[Ishikawa]

Not really, they weren't knocked out of the World Cup last night last time I looked. They are still going to make the semis, and by then they will have Roy back. Their bowling has also been a bit better than many thought it would be. They're still favorites imo

Aren't you also forgetting that Dhawan is now out of the tournament? Huge pressure on both Kohli & Sharma. If one of them or both fail there are big questions on the rest of the batting. If England's top two batsmen fail then they still have plenty there that can score big and quickly more often than not.

Also how will Kumar comeback from his injury? India still have question marks around them just like England.

I do tend to agree with your overall thoughts on the cup, but disagree on the feeling that England are still ahead of India who looked primed to take it out. Very interesting quartet though with Australia and New Zealand realistic threats too.

 

[Santana]

I do tend to agree with your overall thoughts on the cup, but disagree on the feeling that England are still ahead of India who looked primed to take it out. Very interesting quartet though with Australia and New Zealand realistic threats too.

How are they primed to take it out? You watching their batting? A huge drop off after their best 3 batsmen.

Yes their bowling is very good but it's not the 1979 West Indies good now is it. They have a burning hole in one of their opening spots now.

 

[Ishikawa]

How are they primed to take it out? You watching their batting? A huge drop off after their best 3 batsmen.

Yes their bowling is very good but it's not the 1979 West Indies good now is it. They have a burning hole in one of their opening spots now.

They are not performing well in this game (well done Afghanistan), but I do feel that they have the lineup for which I am most confident about performing consistently. England are good, no question - but they've consistently shown they are a 3 out of 4 proposition with the fourth game being horrible.

 

[Santana]

They are not performing well in this game (well done Afghanistan), but I do feel that they have the lineup for which I am most confident about performing consistently. England are good, no question - but they've consistently shown they are a 3 out of 4 proposition with the fourth game being horrible.

They have been consistently good though over the last 3 years. Didn't they set a record for most ODI series wins in a row?

There are only two knock out games, no quarterfinals, so their batting only has to perform in two straight games to win the Cup. Last night was the only time their batting has totally failed at this World Cup. People need to remember that. Even in the loss to Pakistan they scored over 330. If they score around that they will beat India, Aus and NZ more often than not.

While at the same time India has just replaced Dhawan with a guy who has yet to show himself to be a one day player. Sorry, I'm just not seeing how they are favorites.

 

[Santana]

@ Macpotata, have you still been proven to be correct? May have gone off a bit early here.

 

[The Speaker]

Today's match will mark the halfway point of the round robin. So far, by my measure, we've had:

Competitive matches: 4/22 - An inauspicious start to the tournament was followed by a bunch of competitive matches in quick succession, but we've now gone quite some time without one.
Washouts: 4/22 - I suspect the worst of it is over, but English weather is notoriously hard to predict. Furthermore, the format has caused many of these by preventing reserve days, which means that the number of competitive matches needs to make up for that to make the format worthwhile.
Dead rubbers: 0/22 - hasn't had a chance to get going yet, but once they do they'll pick up steam very quickly.

The excitement level peaked not long after the halfway point with Sri Lanka's win over England, but from there it began to drift back down again, reaching a pretty low ebb this past week just as it's meant to pick up. In any case, here's how it came out:

Competitive matches: 11*/45 - (*3 of these were dead rubbers) I am being harsh, but I'm being harsh with all three of these categories so it evens out. There were a bunch more matches which looked close at the end, but were only ever really going one way. This was the main reason given by the ICC for the introduction of the format, which was always a bit of a furphy given the majority of cricket matches tend to be one-sided the whole way through. This just made it clearer. Interestingly, there were two patches where we got a run of actually tight, competitive matches where either side seemed like they could win, followed by long stretches of dull ones.

Washouts: 4/45 - It felt like more, but these matches had a serious knock-on effect on the rest of the tournament. Given the ICC also stated that the reason for no reserve days is that the format makes it too difficult, this is something that needs to be looked into.

Dead rubbers: 4/45 - As I mentioned many weeks ago now, the washouts did have a positive impact on the number of dead rubbers, although that isn't really a positive because it left us with less cricket instead. We were also within inches of having many more dead rubbers anyway - the SL vs Eng match was basically a hinge for the tournament, and if it had swung the other way things would not have looked so flash. Regardless, the last week of the round robin was still a slog to get through, and interest was diminished.

 

[Ishikawa]

I think you set your position to be negative no matter how the tournament played out. As it stands the semi-final composition was not established until the second last ball of the group stage and the favourites were forced to win their last two games against the strongest opposition in order just to make it (low ebb?).

If the new championship format is genuine in providing consistent opportunities and funding for the current associates to compete against all nations and an appropriate qualifying process is set, I have no problem with the 10 (possibly 12) team format being retained.

 

[The Speaker]

I think you set your position to be negative no matter how the tournament played out. As it stands the semi-final composition was not established until the second last ball of the group stage and the favourites were forced to win their last two games against the strongest opposition in order just to make it (low ebb?).

If the new championship format is genuine in providing consistent opportunities and funding for the current associates to compete against all nations and an appropriate qualifying process is set, I have no problem with the 10 (possibly 12) team format being retained.

What would you dispute? I was simply looking at the ICC's alleged logic (we all know that the real reason is $$$, and it's likely been foist upon them by Star Sports), which was that this tournament is the best way to ensure competitive matches.

There will never be an appetite for a 12 team round robin cup tournament.

 

[big_e]

Semi Finalists?

England, West Indies, New Zealand, India

The Final?

India vs England

Winner?

India

Best Performing Players?

Most runs: Shai Hope
Most wickets: Yuzvendra Chahal

Emerging Players?

All of the Afghans

Player of the Tournament?

Andre Russell

Top 3 games most looking forward to?

The first game
Australia's first game
England vs West Indies

Anything else you want to add?

At least one of the marquee matches will be rained out.

This is why I don't bet on sport.

 

[Macpotata]

Santana, you are right my man.


You proved to be correct

 

[Woody15]

Semi Finalists?

England, South Africa, New Zealand, Australia

The Final?

New Zealand, England

Winner?

New Zealand

Best Performing Players?

Brits, Kiwis, a few Aussies and South Africans, one of the Indian batsmen, one of the Asian bowlers.

Emerging Players?

Enn Eff Eye

Player of the Tournament?

Enn Eff Eye. If I had to bet, I'd go with Williamson.

Top 3 games most looking forward to?

The two semis plus the final.

Other than that, every game featuring teams that are not Sri Lanka, Bangladesh or Afghanistan.

Although truth be told I am looking forward to seeing what the Afghanis can do, if they win a couple early I'll tune in for the rest.

Anything else you want to add?

I'm liking the Windies as my outside / smoky bet. Something about them, and I can see Gayle going out in style.

Close.

 

[mouncey2franklin]

Close.

Holy s**t, I picked the final. But I didn't put any money on it!

What would that have been paying? $20 easily. FMD.

On the upside, I did put $10 on NZ win the cup into Williamson most runs at 101-1.

So if Williamson wins the toss, and then tons up, I might just be on for a nice little collect...

 

[Santana]

Santana, you are right my man.


You proved to be correct

Sadly yes this time