CWC: Round Up
Happy Easter!
It really doesn’t seem like a week since the end of the Cricket World Cup (in all honesty it feels a lot longer ago).
It was a great tournament filled with highs and lows, some matches that were absolute walkovers and some that were nerve-shreddingly close.
Before we close the door on the World Cup to start focusing on all the shiny new cricket about to begin (IPL, Eng v WI test series, County season starting) I’d just like to share some of my highlights from the tournament.
· Joe Root’s 121 against Sri Lanka
· Hamid Hassan bowling Sangakkara for 7
· Hamid Hassan’s celebrations
· Sangakkara’s four consecutive centuries
· Chris Gayle’s 215
· Martin Guptill’s 237 not out
· Mahmudullah’s centuries
· Samiullah Shenwari’s batting against Scotland
· Afghanistan’s win over Scotland
· Tim Southee and Brendon McCullum v England
· Trent Boult and Mitchell Starc’s bowling during the NZ v AUS match (group stages)
· Glenn Maxwell’s century
· Clarke and Smith’s fifties in the final
· Ireland’s wins over West Indies and Zimbabwe
· The New Zealand v South Africa semi-final
· Dan Vettori’s one handed boundary catch
· Dale Steyn’s diving catch
· AB de Villier’s fastest 150
· All the crazy shots and magnificent sixes
· The celebrations
· The sportsmanship
It’s hardly an exhaustive list and there are probably so many other moments that would have been worth mentioning but these are the ones that stood out for me.
I really enjoyed watching the World Cup (even getting up at 4:30 in the morning to watch the final) it was a great advertisement for Cricket in general but I hope it has also given people something to think about.
The associates made the group stages exciting. Other than the semi-final between New Zealand and South Africa I think the most thrilling match was between Afghanistan and Scotland. Afghanistan registered their first ever world cup win and throughout the group stages really showed the world that they were a team to keep an eye on. Ireland too excelled and only narrowly missed out on a place in the knockouts. So why don’t we get to see these two teams more often? Why don’t we get to see all of the top ‘associate’ teams more often?
I have a lot of good memories of the world cup but if I could give thanks for anything it would be for introducing me to the incredible associate nations cricket teams. After also reading ‘Second XI- Cricket in its Outposts’ and ‘Out of the Ashes- The remarkable rise and rise of the Afghanistan Cricket Team’ I am now going to be doing everything I can to learn more about these amazing teams (and all the other associate teams that didn’t make it to the World Cup).
Time to move on to the next round of cricketing events. Lets see what they have in store for us.
It really doesn’t seem like a week since the end of the Cricket World Cup (in all honesty it feels a lot longer ago).
It was a great tournament filled with highs and lows, some matches that were absolute walkovers and some that were nerve-shreddingly close.
Before we close the door on the World Cup to start focusing on all the shiny new cricket about to begin (IPL, Eng v WI test series, County season starting) I’d just like to share some of my highlights from the tournament.
· Joe Root’s 121 against Sri Lanka
· Hamid Hassan bowling Sangakkara for 7
· Hamid Hassan’s celebrations
· Sangakkara’s four consecutive centuries
· Chris Gayle’s 215
· Martin Guptill’s 237 not out
· Mahmudullah’s centuries
· Samiullah Shenwari’s batting against Scotland
· Afghanistan’s win over Scotland
· Tim Southee and Brendon McCullum v England
· Trent Boult and Mitchell Starc’s bowling during the NZ v AUS match (group stages)
· Glenn Maxwell’s century
· Clarke and Smith’s fifties in the final
· Ireland’s wins over West Indies and Zimbabwe
· The New Zealand v South Africa semi-final
· Dan Vettori’s one handed boundary catch
· Dale Steyn’s diving catch
· AB de Villier’s fastest 150
· All the crazy shots and magnificent sixes
· The celebrations
· The sportsmanship
It’s hardly an exhaustive list and there are probably so many other moments that would have been worth mentioning but these are the ones that stood out for me.
I really enjoyed watching the World Cup (even getting up at 4:30 in the morning to watch the final) it was a great advertisement for Cricket in general but I hope it has also given people something to think about.
The associates made the group stages exciting. Other than the semi-final between New Zealand and South Africa I think the most thrilling match was between Afghanistan and Scotland. Afghanistan registered their first ever world cup win and throughout the group stages really showed the world that they were a team to keep an eye on. Ireland too excelled and only narrowly missed out on a place in the knockouts. So why don’t we get to see these two teams more often? Why don’t we get to see all of the top ‘associate’ teams more often?
I have a lot of good memories of the world cup but if I could give thanks for anything it would be for introducing me to the incredible associate nations cricket teams. After also reading ‘Second XI- Cricket in its Outposts’ and ‘Out of the Ashes- The remarkable rise and rise of the Afghanistan Cricket Team’ I am now going to be doing everything I can to learn more about these amazing teams (and all the other associate teams that didn’t make it to the World Cup).
Time to move on to the next round of cricketing events. Lets see what they have in store for us.