Here I take a look, with the help of some statistics, at some or the World Cup’s most exciting batsmen.
Like every other Irish cricket fan, us beating Pakistan on St Patrick’s Day four years ago was the highlight of my cricket-following life. Even when I see the footage now I struggle to believe it’s actually going to happen. I’m still thinking, “ha, it’s starting to get a bit hairy for Pakistan” or “we’re putting up a decent show here”. Actually winning wasn’t even a possibility until Trent Johnston hit the final six, which I was sure would fly down a fielder’s throat…
With just a few days to go before the start of the tenth World Cup we cannot pin-point a favourite as yet. With the tedious long-drawn format this is as open as it could be. The format starts off with a week of warm-up matches (just a hit and giggle contest) before the tournament officially begins. However the league format is nothing but an extended
warm-up with no real sense of serving any purpose. 42 meaningless games over a period of 30 days which have no bearing on the knock-outs followed by a crammed seven knock-out games to decide the winner. In effect the format takes 42 games to eliminate six weak teams and uses just the knock out games to determine the winner.