Being a Sanju Samson fan, I was greatly disappointed that he was not chosen in the Indian World Cup squad. He sadly has no godfather in Indian Sport!
I was also saddened that my school alumni from Bishop Cotton School, Bengaluru, Mayank Agarwal was not in the squad.
As I have already blogged, I was also very disappointed with the organisation of the first match and lack of a decent opening ceremony. As I asked is India a truly cricket loving nation?
However, as the tournament progressed, I was happy to see some excellent performances from new entrants, especially the young Afghani team. They really made a good step forward. I was taken aback by their loss against Australia when they were in the driving seat.
There have been several reports of match fixing. I hope that it is not true as they are a great young squad and I have always been a fan of Rashid.
K. M. Mammen (cousin Vinoo) giving the Man of the Match Award to K. L. Rahul.
My cousin, the Chairman of MRF Ltd., gave the Man of the Match to another favourite player of mine, K. L. Rahul. He did give another such award in another game but I was slow to get my camera out.
I was disappointed with the performance of the English team especially as I am a fan of Moen Ali. Jos Butler has had a bad run right from the IPL onwards.
The Indian team have been cruising. Harsha Bhogle, who is usually a good reader of the game, had raised the point that it may be that the Indians have peaked too soon. This opinion was knocked down by Ravi Shastri, but I have never been a fan of Ravi Shastri, so his opinions do not matter to me. He is usually wrong!!
The players that have impressed me most are Rachin Ravindran of New Zealand, and Quinton de Kock and Kagiso Rabada of South Africa, whose bowling run up is like a cheetah. I hope another favourite of mine, Ken Williamson, is coming back to form.
No Australian players are in my list of favourites. So I hope that South Africa gets through to the final. I hope the better team wins in the India and New Zealand clash.
The persisting with Hardik Pandya shows that the BCCI is corrupt to persist with a player who is unfit on several grounds to play in the Indian squad. Always excuses to keep him alive in the squad.
I am sure the same situation will arise when it comes to Rishabh Pant!
The four semi-finalists have booked their places as I had expected. We hope all the teams show their fighting spirit and the best teams get through to the finals.
I will blog my opinion prior to the finals.
