Tag: Zimbabwe

Cricket World Cup: Day 11 Recap

Posted on by Online Betting Pro

Chris Gayle survived a close LBW call first ball and then went on a six hitting rampage; breaking numerous records on the way to a massive 215 that set his side up for a big win against Zimbabwe in Canberra in Day 11 of the Cricket World Cup.

Read more about Gayle (and the game) below:

Day 11 Results

West Indies v Zimbabwe

A wicket second ball of the innings for the Zimbabweans did not give any indication to the brutality that was to follow.  From the joy of Dwayne Smith’s opening wicket (which was literally celebrated with dancing), the game quickly went pear shaped for the African side as Chris Gayle and Marlon Samuels combined in world record partnership of 372.  Former South African quick turned commentator Shaun Pollock put it best when he pointed out that the game got to the stage where “the fielders were becoming the spectators, and the spectators were becoming the fielders”.

Gayle hit 16 sixes on his way to becoming the first Cricket World Cup double centurion, and in the process became the first batsman to score a T20 100, an ODI 200, and a Test 300.  His record breaking blitzkrieg was even more remarkable given the pressure place on him by the public and the president of the WICB who had earlier given Gayle an underhanded slap via Twitter.

This was Gayle’s first ODI hundred since 2013, and despite being predicted by us,  still shocked plenty in the manner it was achieved.  Gayle set the record for number of 6’s in an ODI innings and broke the record for fastest ODI double hundred.  Mention should go to Marlon Samuels too.  He grafted (in comparison to Gayle) an unbeaten 133 to share in the fireworks from the best seat in the house.  Samuels was slower in comparison; a point that remained largely irrelevant on account of the unlikeliness of Zimbabwe chasing 373.

Zimbabwe did play well however.  Sean Willians and Criag Ervine compiled accomplished half centuries, but the chase lacked a big hundred to be able to compete.  They finished well short on 289, however in each of their games thus far they have managed to cross 270 which indicates their ability with the willow.  Jerome Taylor picked up 3 wickets to add to his 6 previous tournament records to be the best West Indies bowler.

West Indies back on course then.  Chris Gayle back in form.  Every team in the competition now hoping to avoid them in the quarter-finals.

West Indies 372 for 2 (Gayle 215, Samuels 133*) beat Zimbabwe 289 (Williams 76, Ervine 52, Taylor 3-38) by 73 runs

Cricket World Cup: Day 11 Preview

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The Three Big Questions 

Have India returned to form, are they a chance now?

Bowling woes aside, India have been in some okay form during the majority of their Australian tour.  Their batsman were competent in the test series, they scored some runs in the Carlton Mid Series, and have now scored 300+ against two top tier nations in their opening match of the Cricket World Cup.  Therefore, they haven’t returned to form, they have just had one of their top six score big runs as they have done all summer, and now their bowlers are looking much more comfortable when defending scores of over 300.  We’re convinced they’ll make the semi-finals, but to go further they need a big hundred (which we’ve seen from Sharma, Dhawan, Rahane, Kohli so far this tour), and their bowlers to bowl to a new simple dot ball pressure blowing plan.

What about England?

Less of a chance for India that is for sure.  Too many similar players in both the batting and bowling departments.  In Root, Ballance, Bell and Taylor (even Morgan in current form) you have smaller players who rely on gaps, timing and deflections rather than power.  That’s fine on the bigger grounds and, crucially, when the players are in form, but that’s not the case at the moment.  Joe Buttler is their only MS Dhoni, whereas New Zealand have McCullum, Taylor, Anderson and Ronchi.  Australia have Marsh, Warner, Finch, Maxwell, Faulkner.  They can’t compete.  Their bowlers too won’t offer enough to worry the best in the world.  Finn, Woakes and Broad hit the pitch hard, they rarely swing it down under.  That presents a problem, as Brendon McCullum pointed out.

And South Africa?

South Africa looked surprisingly, but completely, off the mark against India.  Bereft of ideas, and lacking individual accountability.  We mentioned after their first up effort against Zimbabwe that the top four wouldn’t fail cumulatively again in the tournament.  But they did.  du Plessis got a few but the form of Amla, de Kock and de Villiers is now reaching concerning levels.  They need a quick spark to prevent the dreaded c-word surfacing.

Today’s Matchup

West Indies v Zimbabwe, Manuka Oval (Canberra – scattered thunderstorms expected), starts 2:30pm local time

West Indies – $1.20

Zimbabwe – $4.50

The West Indies may have turned a corner with their strong win against Pakistan over the weekend.  After splitting their games in New Zealand, they now travel to Australia to get the better of Zimbabwe, who themselves had one win and one loss in New Zealand.  West Indies shouldn’t be short of runs.  Most of their batsman have enjoyed sufficient time in the middle to again be profitable in this match, while Jerome Taylor and the bowlers have also begun to show more mettle.

Zimbabwe have also been more than useful in their two showings.  Giving South Africa a run before chasing down 285 to win against UAE.  The Zimbabweans will need to improve their fielding and catching if they are to go toe to toe with their unpredictable opponents in this one.  We’re picking a West Indies win.

Today’s Bet

Chris Gayle has not started the tournament well, but we’re thinking today will be his day.  He’s at his best when he’s bullying opponents from the outset, and Zimbabwe could be on the receiving end.  He’s at $4 to top score, a West Indies win with him top scoring is paying $5, and Gayle’s at $7 to be named man of the match.

Odds from Sportsbet Australia.

Cricket World Cup: Day 6 Recap

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Nelson delivered the closest game of the Cricket World Cup thus far courtesy of the Zimbabwe and UAE team’s collective batting efforts.  While the bowling and fielding on display wasn’t always of the highest quality, the decent turns at bat provided some tense times for both sets of fans in an exiting finish.  Check out who did what below.

Day 6 Results

Zimbabwe v UAE

UAE got straight back on the horse of Cricket World Cup’s today with a handy first up batting effort against a confident Zimbabwe side that nearly proved enough to sneak a second World Cup win.  Playing nice and straight initially, and holding wickets for the final assault, the UAE found an effective way of taking advantage of their opponents strangling field placements by manipulating the field and exploiting some of the smaller Saxton Oval boundaries.  The big runs were made by Shaiman Anwar and Khurram Khan, but coach, Aaqib Javed, will rue the fact that no one went on to an 80 or hundred.

Zimbabwe may have been ragged in the field but with bat in hand it was a different story.  The big chase could have proved difficult, with the regular wickets stifling threatening to compound them to an upset, but at no stage did the Africans panic.  Instead each new batsman contributed to the run rate and aptly supported the man in.  Contributions from most of the side, save for Masakadza and Mire, eventually got them home by four wickets with a couple of overs to spare.

This match was further evidence of the closing gap between test sides and associate nations.  Remember, just a few days ago Zimbabwe scared South Africa with a strong showing.  Here, they were almost on the receiving end of a similar scare.  It’s great for the Cricket World Cup.

Zimbabwe 286 for 6 (Williams 76, Taylor 47) beat UAE 285 for 7 (Anwar 67, Khurram 45, Chatara 3-42) by 4 wickets

Cricket World Cup: Day 6 Preview

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Welcome to Day 6.  An early start in Nelson for a match featuring two of the Cricket World Cup underdogs.

The Three Big (Cricket World Cup Thus Far) Questions

Is Net Run Rate that important? 

New Zealand almost butchered an easy run-chase against Scotland the other day all in the pursuit of a superior Net Run Rate (NRR).  As the New Zealand public panic and critics slam their recklessness the New Zealanders didn’t care less.  You see, wickets lost is not used in the calculations of NRR.  Simply, the runs scored is divided by the overs faced and subtracted from the runs conceded divided by the overs bowled.  The Black Caps now have a health NRR of 2.62.  That’s important because if teams are on equal points after the round robin series, NRR will separate them.  The top four teams play off against each other in a traditional 1 v 4 scenario so it’s understandable NZ want to consider all factors.

Which team is better with their backs against the wall?  West Indies or Pakistan?

Write either of them off at your peril.  Both Pakistan and the West Indies play better without expectation.  They can relax, they can entertain, they can play naturally; aggressively.  Yes, both have suffered embarrassing defeats in their first games, but the tournaments a long one, they can atone for this in the latter more important stages.  Pakistan were semi-finalists in this tournament on 2011 and took out the Twenty20 World’s in 2009 in similar circumstances.  West Indies too have enjoyed big tournament wins as recently as 2012 (World Twenty20).

Is Duckworth-Lewis ever going to be a factor?  Is this World Cup being played in Qatar?

Certainly the lack of rain has been a pleasing factor of the first week of action.  Messrs Duckworth and Lewis left to work on even more complex algorithms, rather than meddle in international cricket. It probably won’t last forever mind you with Brisbane expecting showers for Michael Clarke’s return to action against Bangladesh on Saturday.

Today’s Match

UAE v Zimbabwe, Saxton Oval (Nelson – mostly sunny), starts 11:00am local time

Zimbabwe – $1.14

UAE – $5.75

Zimbabwe will take great confidence from their performance against South Africa into this one where they have been given the tag of strong favourites.  Zimbabwe were excellent in 70-80 overs against South Africa and will be looking to extrapolate that out to a complete performance today.  Not that this one’s expected to go 100 overs.

UAE are likely to struggle in their first Cricket World Cup since 1996.  They have been set-up in Napier fine tuning their games against club cricketers, but reports are they have struggled to beat Hawke’s Bay’s best club players in a series of one-daters.  That’s a worry.

Today’s Bet

Elton Chigumbura – Man of the Match – $11.00

Odds from Centrebet.

Cricket World Cup: Day 2 Recap

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Who said this was going to be batsman World Cup?  Four matches and four first innings totals over 300 has made chasing very difficult in the early stages of this World Cup.  All of the favourites have flexed some muscle in their opening wins, even if coming in slightly different circumstances.  Let’s have a look at the day 2 results.

Day 2 Results

1. South Africa v Zimbabwe

It’s pretty rare that a side can bounce back from losing Hashim Amla, AB de Villiers, Faf du Plessis and Quintin de Kock each for 25 runs or less and still go on to post 339/4 in their 50 overs.  But that’s exactly what South Africa managed against Zimbabwe in Hamilton in their World Cup opener.  Batting first on a sticky wicket, South Africa lost the plot against accurate but unthreatening bowling, plummeting to 83/4 before a record breaking partnership ensued between JP Duminy and David Miller.  Miller made a masterful 138* proving he’s much more than a late over finisher, and Duminy proved his value to the side with an equally well-paced hundred in one of his first games back from a long injury layoff.  South Africa set a 2015 tournament record of 89 from the final overs to post the third consecutive total of over 300 from teams batting first in the Cup.

Zimbabwe showed plenty of character in their chase, but eventually fell some 62 runs short.  They were close for a large portion of the run-chase and in particular with Brendon Taylor still in the middle had a chance, however, as the asking rate increased the pressure did too and Zimbabwe found fewer boundaries and resorted to calculated slogs to try and get their.  It was a valiant effort mind you, and their form over 7o off the hundred overs, outlines just how dangerous they’ll be against others in their pool.  Zimbabwe will (and deserve too) take great heart from their effort; South Africa will just be grateful their blushes were spared (mainly by Miller and Duminy).

South Africa 339 for 4 (Miller 138*, Duminy 115*) beat Zimbabwe 277 (Masakadza 80, Chibhabha 64, Tahir 3-36) by 62 runs

2. India v Pakistan

Adelaide Oval seemed a world away from Australia as over 50,000 Indian and Pakistan fans packed in to watch the latest editions of one of sports great rivalries.  In stark contrast to the sedate Hamilton ground in the earlier game, Adelaide was a cauldron of noise and excitement as the two Asian heavyweights launched their World Cup campaigns.  India would get the better of the occasion thanks to another Adelaide Oval hundred from Virat Kohli.  India posted 300/7 with Kohl’s and Suresh Raina’s 75 the difference between an above par and below par score.  In fairness, they actually should have scored more and their return of 27 from the final five overs is easily the worst in the competition thus far.

Pakistan’s mecurail batting lineup never threatened the total.  The Indian bowlers finally seemed to appreciate the length to bowl in Australia and masterfully mixed a fuller regular length with excellent directed short balls – used sparingly.  The seamers combined well with spinners Ashwin and Jadeja to restrict runs and take wickets.  Pakistan look to be struggling without Mohammad Hafeez and will need to figure out their best use of Umar Akmal and Sarfraz (even if Akmal was unfairly adjudged caught behind – in my view).  Misbah was again the rock of the flailing chase, he managed another ODI half century and could be a good fantasy banker on today’s evidence.

India 300 for 7 (Kohli 107, Raina 74, Dhawan 73, Sohail 5-55) beat Pakistan 224 (Misbah 76, Shehzad 47, Shami 4-35) by 76 runs

Cricket World Cup: Day 2 Preview

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While the opening matches of the Cricket World Cup were not as close as we hoped, they did feature incredible batting efforts from New Zealand and Australia.  The matches highlighted the new norm of ODI totals; 250+ scores won’t cut the mustard this year,  320+ will.

The Three Big Questions

Which performance on day 1 was more dominant?

Probably New Zealand.  New Zealand came out from ball one and attacked.  While they wobbled slightly in the middle overs, Corey Anderson’s finish ensured an unassailable total.  The attacking intent shows an approach very un-New Zealand like.  Rather than nervous deal with the expectation, they thrived on it and look to be comfortable leading from the front.  Their bowling did, however, look a bit ragged – they’ll want to improve.

Australia, were expected to win, they had beaten England easily and were at home in conditions perfect for their batsman.  They laid down a marker but you wouldn’t expect anything less from the group of players they have at their disposal.  Bring on the 28th of February.

Can any of the so-called minnows get up and sneak a win against a test playing nation?

If we were to base our answer on warm up matches, then yes.  Scotland ran in some big totals in the warm up matches, Ireland have played in plenty of tournaments now and even Afghanistan showed some promise in their two warm up games against thought opposition.  Of the test playing nations, the West Indies look disinterested; Bangladesh look dreadfully underdone. Therefore, absolutely, there will be an upset in this Cricket World Cup.

Amla or de Villiers to score the most tournament runs?

The South Africans possess the top two international ODI batsman.  Both are quality players on all surfaces, against all types of bowlers.  Amla will get more opportunities being at the top of the order and this could aid his chances of cashing in against the associate nations.  The only area he gives up points to de Villiers is in scoring rate.  de Villiers can bat through all gears, and even if he faces 30 balls at the end of the innings has shown he can score hundreds in that time.  We’re picking de Villiers.

Today’s Matchups

1. South Africa v Zimbabwe, Seddon Park (Hamilton – sunny and hot), starts 2:00pm local time.

South Africa– $1.02

Zimbabwe – $13.00

After New Zealand and Australia got off to impressive starts, South Africa now need to send a similar message when they open their tournament in Hamilton.  Nothing short of a dominant display will be needed to make sure punters don’t write them off.  South Africa are expected to be far too strong for Zimbabwe, but Zimbabwe’s warm-up form has been impressive.  They had New Zealand in trouble before rain and then beat Sri Lanka by 7 wickets.  South Africa on the other hand lost to NZ, but we don’t expect that to change the team’s fortunes today.

2. India v Pakistan, Adelaide Oval (Adelaide – partly cloudy but humid), starts 2:00pm local time

India – $1.50

Pakistan – $2.55

The defending Cricket World Cup champions have not enjoyed their time in Australia thus far.  After a winless test series and ODI trip-series, they finally mustered a win against Afghanistan.  Fractured form aside, the Indians still have an abundance of class in Kohli, Dhoni, Sharma and Rahane and will back their batsman to chase anything their bowlers concede.  Pakistan have warmed up by losing to New Zealand but beating England and Bangladesh in warm up matches.  They rely too heavily on Misbah to justify low odds.  But if Mohammad Irfan can generate step bounce on the Adelaide Oval pitch they could surprise.

Today’s Multi

The Beard and Bounce Multi

Pakistan (Win) + Hashim Amla and Sean Williams (Top Score Combo) = $43.35

*Odds from Sportsbet Australia.