[dust-n-bones]

Originally Posted by Shreyans_Jain

This has to be the most one sided of all India-Pakistan World Cup matches. Jingoism aside, not a great advertisement of the game or even the rivalry.

Quite true. More generally, most of the games in the world cup so far have been decided by the half-way mark. Maybe the t-20 mindset. And the 'bowlers are cannon fodder' pitches.

A boring, insipid show so far on the field. The Kohli/Rahul show against Australia is a very notable exception.

Off the field, its the same boredom. If you look at the press coverage in Australia, NZ or England, there is barely any notice. None bar Sky Sports seems to be doing any independent coverage.
Yes, cricket is not their favorite sport, but BCCI's bungling with tickets (which should have been available 6 months in advance) means that there are very few people around to support other teams either.

Coupled with the partisanship. The empty stadium for the inaugural match between two marquee teams set the tone. Then for a SA/SL pre-match show, the presenter is asking the SA expert if he thinks the Indian middle order is clicking well. And I guess NZ/BD were just plain unlucky that they played the day before the IN/PK fixture.

How do you make a showcase event for the world if you let everyone know that they are not relevant. Its painful to compare against what the English (with their more modest resources) did in the previous edition. This time around, its me, myself and I.

[ghodlur]

What a way to drub the arch rivals!!!. Way to go team India. The batting, fielding and bowling depts were 100%. I missed the bowling of the likes of Bhuveneshwar Kumar, Shami etc who could swing the ball deadly. Virat Kohli generally does brilliantly against the Pakis, but yday he was not is his usual best I guess.

Rohit needs to ensure his fitness, his unability to take singles is becoming a topic of its own. He almost got Virat run out. There are things team India also need to learn from this match and be prepared for the next one. Being complacent and on top of the table wont help.

PS: I miss the Mauka Mauka jingle.

[PPS]

Originally Posted by ghodlur

Rohit needs to ensure his fitness, his unability to take singles is becoming a topic of its own.

Why would he take singles when he was smashing boundaries & sixes against more than a decent bowling attack?! His impetus in the first 15 overs is what ultimately helped us get a better NRR in the end which may matter in the latter stages. Though I agree Fitness isn't Rohit's best virtue.

He almost got Virat run out.

There was no single there at all! While Virat was ball watching. Both had to be blamed.

Being complacent and on top of the table wont help.

This Indian Team so far has looked anything but complacent. They only need to figure about Shardul Thakur's place since he hasn't been required to bowl much in 2 games. Jadeja also needs a hit soon.

[vibbs]

Originally Posted by dust-n-bones

I agree on the rant part. And I do agree on the Indian crowd doing Indian things.
My question though is, if supporting both teams is the ICC protocol (which is how it should be in multilateral tournaments), and that is being followed in other centers, why not here?

Well I beg to disagree. I don't know any ICC protocol of supporting both teams. Who should support both teams? The Djs at the ground?

I think they are there to entertain the crowd and not so much to support the teams. As they build up hype, it ends up supporting the teams as well. In this match it is a 100% Indian crowd and therefore, I see no need to play Dil Dil Pakistan. Had there been Pakistani supporters in the audience it would have been a different matter.

Should they have been given Visa? I don't know. All I can say is that National security comes above the need to showcase an impartial image during an international event.

[searacer932]

Security takes the highest priority and there should be no assumptions made about the security and there should be no lax on the security please.

It was a fanstastic win for India and the Head to Head record is 8-0 in our favour in the ODI World Cups! The 2015, 2019 and the 2023 ODI WC matches have been pretty one sided with India dominating in all 3 departments - batting, bowling & fielding.

Pakistan made a good start but some intelligent bowling and some lax batting by Pakistan meant that India had an easy target to chase to win the match. Rohit lead from the front on captaincy and batting and Bumrah just bamboozled the Pakistan batters with his delightful bowling.

The big target is still 8 matches away.

[jkrishnakj]

I guess the Afghans may outshine England today. A tall ask for England now. 130 to get in 19 overs with 6 wickets down isn’t easy. For so much talk about how the English will use this game to improve their NRR, the afghans have alternate plans.

Edit: 7 down for England. Could just be the biggest upset yet this World Cup. Will Harry Brook pull off a miracle, we will know in 17 more overs.

Edit: Harry Brook is dusted. It’s a big upset going on now. Clearly, the Afghans should be able to put it across England from here.

[VWAllstar]

This over of Mujeeb against Woakes should be considered as the best over so far in this WC Not saying it aloud, but could this be the first..

[Emvi]

Afghanistan humiliate defending champions England, win the contest by 69 runs!

This is what Buttler had to say just before the world cup started-

Buttler dismisses 'defending champions' tag: 'It's irrelevant to me'

"I want us to attack, so I don't like the word 'defending'... it may be a motivation for certain teams when they've been in that position, but not for us"

C'mon Jos Buttler

Source

[Fx14]

Originally Posted by Emvi

Afghanistan humiliate defending champions England, win the contest by 69 runs!

When England used their part time bowlers like Root and Livingstone to slow down the Afghans, wondered how they themselves would fare against the Afghan spinners. They ended up losing 8 wickets to spin.

Bazball against quality spin on Indian pitches yet to be tested. We should unleash all our 3 spinners against them.

[rx100]

Originally Posted by Fx14

Bazball against quality spin on Indian pitches yet to be tested. We should unleash all our 3 spinners against them.

Bazball is only on test matches. I always used to wonder why they are not employing Baz as their limited overs coach too. Looks like priorities are different for them.

[antz.bin]

Match analysis done by Wasim Akram, Moin Khan, Shoaib Malik and Misbah has been quite entertaining in the past few days. This is a welcome change from what is happening on the BCCI powered networks.

Loved the way they have been handling this and the passion and honesty with which they have been answering questions.Not shying away or avoiding the difficult questions especially after the India V Pakistan game.

Check out the programming after the India v Pakistan game here.

https://youtu.be/C6XCnULDVnM?si=qmfQj2GEG2QsVEZd

Much better than the usual pre-post match content on Indian TV. They did a good job on England v Afghanistan as well last night.

[whencut86]

Originally Posted by vibbs

Should they have been given Visa? I don't know. All I can say is that National security comes above the need to showcase an impartial image during an international event.

There was a mention of a major security incident post the 2011 World Cup, in a few podcasts where Army and Intelligence veterans talk about more than 5000 Pakistani nationals who were issued visa not returning back to their country and how it became an intelligence nightmare for security and intelligence agencies to try and track them. With the then security apparatus no idea if at all they could track these folks. This is the key reason for the visa issues this time around.

[RaghuVis]

I read somewhere that since 2012, India and Pakistan have played each other 12 times, of which 8 times Pakistan were bowled out by the Indian bowling unit (irrespective of who batted first).

People need to realize that, since the past decade, it is almost a one-sided affair. The truth of the matter is that these teams are not comparable at all. There are obvious blips where Pakistan can/will win as any team can have a great/poor day.

India might be 8-0 ahead but there might come a day when we will lose one game in the World Cup to them. That would be an unfortunate record for the then-captain to have it on his back for the rest of his life. Even if it had been this Saturday, it would still not change the fact that these 2 teams are currently not on the same level.

[dust-n-bones]

Originally Posted by vibbs

Well I beg to disagree. I don't know any ICC protocol of supporting both teams. Who should support both teams? The Djs at the ground?

Agree with you. There does not seem to be an 'ICC protocol' as such. Even though, you could hear both English and Afghani songs in Delhi yesterday. So it does seem to be a thing.
OT. Who thought of getting these DJs into a cricket match. In between balls for god's sake. Cringe.

Originally Posted by vibbs

Should they have been given Visa? I don't know. All I can say is that National security comes above the need to showcase an impartial image during an international event.

There's a simpler explanation to this. BCCI and ICC's revenue model is just television rights. Fans (domestic or overseas) are fillers to make the telecast look good. Look at this and this to see how they operate.

Visas and security would be resolved, after these guys find more value in the fans.

[ValarMorghulis]

The Pakistan Cricket Director distracted everyone with the "No dil dil Pakistan song" and it seems to be working. What did he expect? Come dil dil Pakistan and Babar and Rizwan would have scored 100 each? Pffft.
Pakistan, as a team, seemed clueless against India. First their batsmen and the bowlers against Rohit's onslaught.

OTOH: Loved Afghanistan's spirited game against Eng. England seemed over confident.