*Official* Group B Discussion - South Africa, Sri Lanka, New Zealand, England

[James]

Tue Sep 22
Group B - South Africa v Sri Lanka
SuperSport Park, Centurion

Thu Sep 24
Group B - South Africa v New Zealand
SuperSport Park, Centurion

Fri Sep 25
Group B - England v Sri Lanka
New Wanderers Stadium, Johannesburg

Sun Sep 27
Group B - New Zealand v Sri Lanka
New Wanderers Stadium, Johannesburg

Sun Sep 27
Group B - South Africa v England
SuperSport Park, Centurion

Tue Sep 29
Group B - England v New Zealand
New Wanderers Stadium, Johannesburg

[Athlai]

Bond + Vettori + Taylor + Ryder + McCullum = NZ getting up there.

[Naumaan]

Originally Posted by Athlai

Bond + Vettori + Taylor + Ryder + McCullum = NZ getting up there.

yeah & it's been played in south africa so this time newzealand can handle lankans

[TT Boy]

No choke for South Africa. Should just lose all their games and not get anyone's hopes up.

But they have got the best surface to play both Sri Lanka and New Zealand. Pace and bounce nullifies Sri Lanka's most potent weapons and gives them a huge advantage against the New Zealand batsman. So another false dawn looks on the cards.

Not even thinking about England. No chance.

[Naumaan]

Originally Posted by TT Boy

No choke for South Africa. Should just lose all their games and not get anyone's hopes up.

But they have got the best surface to play both Sri Lanka and New Zealand. Pace and bounce nullifies Sri Lanka's most potent weapons and gives them a huge advantage against the New Zealand batsman. So another false dawn looks on the cards.

Not even thinking about England. No chance.

well who knows they reach semi's

[TT Boy]

Originally Posted by Naumaan

well who knows they reach semi's

Some ask without KP and the likelihood, no Fred. Last two games without those players, England has lost to the Netherlands and a test match by an innings.

KP's absence in ODI cricket is even more pronounced than in test cricket, as he is England's only proven ODI batsman. No one else comes close. I can't see how a top order of Ravi, Wright, Strauss, Denly, Colly and Morgan, could chase anything which is reasonably tough.

Flintoff is a wicket taking bowler in ODI cricket, England only has him and Broad. No him and you lose that but also someone who is capable of bowling at the death.

[TT Boy]

No point in starting a new thread but this is the South African squad...

Smith, Botha, Amla, Boucher, AB, JP, Gibbs, Kallis, Albie, Ntini, Parnell, Robbie P, Steyn, Tsotsobe, van der Merwe.

Apparently a contingent of the squad is unhappy that Morne Morkel was axed and want head selector, Mike Procter sacked for his sins.

South Africa are resting everything on Steyn and Parnell firing as Ntini isn't an option and Tsotsobe is still on the comeback trail after knee surgery. Charl Langeveldt was the player they wanted but he still isn't ready for selection after shoulder surgery. Think they would have preferred selecting a squad of 13...

Also, watch the waist lines of Kallis, Bouch and Smith, reportedly all three men have been on diets.

[superkingdave]

Three straight losses is a given, just not sure how embarrassing it will get.

[straw man]

The order the matches are played in is interesting. The favourites from this group (IMO) playing each other in the first match and the winner of that will almost certainly go through. South Africa can virtually assure a spot in the semis with wins in the first two matches which would make the scrap for the other spot interesting.

South Africa should definitely get through the group, despite their reputation for falling over in tournaments and the added pressure of being at home.

SL are good but with some obvious weaknesses in the lower middle order and the conditions may not suit them (what are SA limited over wickets like at this time of year?).

NZ have gone downhill a lot as an ODI side in the last year or so and to me the batting order looks all ass-about-face. The bowling is good (fitness permitting - our backups aren't so good) so if the batting works then we have a chance.

England have reverted to being rubbish in ODIs, or maybe that's a clever ploy so that SA, SL & NZ underestimate them.


I'm going to go against orthodoxy and pick South Africa and England to go through to the semis.

[Faisal1985]

SA and SL will enjoy the easy ride in this pool.

[King Pietersen]

England are favourites tbh.

Seriously, I'm going to go with South Africa and Sri Lanka to advance, although Bond could have a say in NZ getting through, especially in South Africa with the pacey wickets.

[Migara]

SL middle order is getting organized a bit. Sangakkara, Jayawardane, Mathews and probably Dilshan are going to enjoy the extra pace for sure.

[kingkallis]

In today's warm up games...

SA and Pakistan had easy wins....SL and Windies struggled....

[SeamUp]

The early season one-day wicket is tough to describe.

It will be either slow due to over-watering or it could be a spicy wicket with bounce. I don't know what preparation the groundsmen have done because SA will most definitely play 2 spinners. I did hear that the new strips prepared in the off season could make the Centurion and Wanderers pitch pretty sporty.

If England had KP and Flintoff I would say England and SA would progress.

But now it seems the key match will be Sri Lanka and New Zealand.

From my memories, NZL and SRL haven't been close to competing against SA in ODI series in SA since 1992 so its up in the air. I'm leaning towards New Zealand because their bowling attack is more suited to taking wickets on our pitches. All I remember is that NZL and SRL have been the 2 worst touring teams because their batsmen couldn't handle our pace attack over the years.

[Athlai]

Did you see the last NZ vs. SA series. We lost but every match was very close.