RYAN VREDE reviews the first round of fixtures in which South Africa soared and Australia showed signs that suggest they may be overrated.
The first week of the World Cup has passed with little national or international attention (thanks Rugby World Cup) but is laden with talking points.
Proteas are potent, but …
The Proteas broke collective and individual batting records in their demolition of Sri Lanka. Their batting line-up has fired this calendar year (13 innings), scoring in excess of 400 twice, and between 300-399 four times.
Notably, they have improved exponentially against spin, with David Miller in particular averaging 95 against the tweakers since 2022. The emergence of middle-order maestro, Heinrich Klaasen, amplifies their threat.
The most glaring weakness is their bowling attack, which has leaked runs in 2023. Saturday’s victory over Sri Lanka was never in doubt, but the Proteas did concede 325, which was the fifth time in 13 innings they’ve conceded in excess of 300.
On wickets that are deader than Jadon Sancho’s career, they need to figure that facet of their game out or risk their campaign being undermined.
HIGHLIGHTS: Proteas vs Sri Lanka (2023 CWC)
Australia are in decline
Yes, I picked them as one of my semi-finalists, but Sunday’s blowout defeat against India confirmed that they aren’t the dominant force they once were.
The loss in Chennai was their sixth in the last seven matches and the nature of it suggests they may struggle to make the knockouts. Their bowling attack has conceded an average of 319 runs in those seven matches, which doesn’t for champions make.
On Sunday they had India at 3-2 but didn’t have the firepower to put the hosts under any significant pressure thereafter. South Africa must be purposeful in exploiting this weakness in Lucknow on Thursday.
This is a team in decline. The bulk of their key players won’t make the next World Cup, and probably shouldn’t have been carried to this one.
(Cue their World Cup DNA kicking in to embarrass this opinion.)
HIGHLIGHTS: India vs Australia (2023 CWC)
What to make of New Zealand?
I’m writing this as New Zealand pile on runs against the Netherlands, and after they did so against England in their opener. That result surprised me, not least of all because they’d lost eight of 20 ODI matches coming into the tournament.
England and India are my picks to contest the final, owing to the balance in their squad, their World Cup experience, and the presence of game-breakers in their batting and bowling ranks.
But the Black Caps made England look ordinary in Ahmedabad, restricting them to 282 (which was widely agreed to be at least 50-70 runs short of a par score on that wicket), then chasing it down with 15 overs to spare, having lost just one wicket.
The Black Caps have made the last two finals, despite coming into the tournament outside of the favourites’ group. And they’re there again, underpinned by a collection of defiant Davids with the capacity to take down the game’s giants.
HIGHLIGHTS: England vs New Zealand (2023 CWC)
Nobody cares about the World Cup
I had more people in my apartment to watch the Arsenal-Manchester City match on Sunday than were at the opening World Cup match.
I can’t say for certain what the reasons for the poor attendances are (even the India-Australia game wasn’t sold out), but imagine it is a combination of apathy towards the ODI format, a local culture of support for India and not the game as whole, regular scheduling changes in the build-up to the tournament, the fact that tickets only went on sale a month and a half before the tournament began, a poor marketing effort from the BCCI (which prioritises broadcasting revenue over ticket revenue), and a tough global economy.
It’s a really bad look for the game as a whole, even though the format is not representative of the overall health of the game.
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Photo: Surjeet Yadav/Getty Images
