Day 2: CWC 2015

Both the hosts opened with comfortable wins. Strange coincidence: both were put in to bat, both scored over 325 runs and both won by almost 100 runs. Neither side showed any major weaknesses.

The second favorite South Africa is in action today. Should have it pretty easy against Zimbabwe. Depending on the toss, they'll get to flex either their batting or bowling muscle.

The marquee game of any cricket tournament is also on: India v Pakistan. A huge difference today: the Indian team's mindset. Mentally exhausted after a draining Test series against the
Aussies, I would be surprised if they run the Pakistanis close. Pakistanis know this, and will come at the Indians all guns blazing. Best chance for them to get a rare victory.

ESPN's coverage has been quite good. Available on Smartphone app and the Roku as well. I tuned into the Hindi broadcast for the Aus-Eng match and it was nice to see Kapil Dev as one of the commentators. Surprisingly enough, there was a lot more technical stuff being discussed on this channel than the English coverage. He was discussing the round arm action of Michael Johnson and why he gets the advantage he does. Enlightening for those who want a peek at how a fast bowler thinks. Amitabh Bachchan is supposed to be on the panel today: let's see if his cricket knowledge and commentating matches his acting!

CWC 2015 - a look at the opening day!

.. and it's almost here! The most awaited event for cricket fans around the world - World Cup! Comes around once in roughly 4 years. Comet World Cup one could call it. The Cup kicks off with matches featuring the two co-hosts Australia and New Zealand. New Zealand vs. Sri Lanka and Australia vs. England. On current form, NZ and Australia should emerge easy victors. Sri Lanka's a team in transition. The trusted triumvirate of Dilshan, Jayawardane and Sangakkara is aging and close to being over the hill: all three of them are 37+ years old and most probably, best days are behind them. Malinga, Matthews and the rest are all fighters but not enough to challenge a New Zealand side that is in form and raring to get into the finals, having been a record 5 times in the semis.

Australia undoubtedly are one of the favorites; they have already beaten England couple of times in the tri-series this year and is unlikely that they will lose at home to England who were outplayed by Pakistan in the warm-ups this week. Australia have both the batting and bowling firepower to bowl out or chase down, so it doesn't really matter whether they bowl or bat first. 

.. on to Christchurch and Melbourne tomorrow!!