As the cricket world cup of 2011 unfolds, new events generate in the world cups. Some of the events take up the form of gossips, while others of more important nature will be written in the books of history one day. And mind it; these books are always present
in the libraries that reside in the cricket world.
England has been a real surprise, all the way. And if history is not misleading, the team England of today closely resembles what Pakistani team has always been; unpredictable. At some point of the mega event team England is clinching victory from the jaws
of defeat while on other times it is doing the exact opposite. Of course this is not sarcasm from any measure but this is a point of great concern for the team England. They still have a long way to go and such an unpredictable behavior has the ability to
ruin them.
The team England played its first match against Netherlands which is clearly a minnow in the line-up. And by the way England was in full mood to pull in all the drama in this potentially unimportant match of the mega event. Netherlands mounted up a heavy total
(at least heavy enough for them) that racked to 292 in the allotted overs. Good Enough! The spectators were ready to show some decent English show. And it turned out that England was able to just cross the line in the penultimate over. Thanks to the experienced
play of Paul Collingwood otherwise the white men were in full mood to make history in the cricket world.
Next up, it was India. Well it was an equal match with both sides equally competent and equally determined. And mind it, India turns out to be very lethal when playing on its home ground. The match was worth watching when the team England was given a mammoth
target of 338 runs to chase. Thanks to the efforts of Sachin Tendulkar that team India was able to mount such a total. And by the way, the English men are second to none. They stunned the Bangalore crowd when they were able to equal the score on the last ball
of the match. The match turned out to be a breath taking episode but alas! No winner could be declared.
And now it was Ireland standing up against England. England was sailing nicely with five of the Irish men down and Nelsons on the board. All of a sudden a loud thunder, reverberations of which will be heard throughout the cricket world for a long time. England
lost the match. And the readers can well anticipate how broke the spectators were. Ireland must be one happy team. They chased the highest score in the history. For them it was like getting the world title.
England’s life was now on the knife edge. The team was due to face South Africa and it needed to win that match to qualify to the quarter finals. And then the match began. Team England completed the innings at a score of 171 and they knew that bad time was
imminent. With 124/3 team South Africa needed only 48 more runs to thrash England. Time was racing and team England really needed a miracle. That miracle did occur. South Africa was 124/6 and the rhythm continued until the English men wiped them off completely
to mark a place in the quarter finals.
England has proved to be a package of surprises this time. The team has done well and it really deserves a place in the quarter finals. But now there is no time for stunts. One bad move can wipe England off for the next four years. Indeed it would be interesting
to see when England meets Pakistan in the quarter finals. Let’s hope that we will be able to enjoy some good cricket out there. Let’s just wait and watch.