Let's talk about the dark horses (T20WC22)

[zen]

To keep it simple for this world cup, dark horses = teams competing for a knockout spot against 2 major (or popular/strong on paper) teams in their group and/or have not won a world cup before. 

 

 

Group 1: NZ, and some may say AFG 

 

Group 2: SA, and some may say BD 

 

SL & WI, who are in the qualifiers. Feel free to consider associates too. 

 

 

Which team has the best chance of making it to the KOs?  ... Discuss and vote. Poll closes on Oct 31. 

Edited October 17, 2022 by zen

[cricketfan28]

WI, they are always unpredictable.

[zen]

1 minute ago, cricketfan28 said:

WI, they are always unpredictable.

 

Since we are talking about "best chance", I guess, you are expecting them to bring their top game to the WC. 

[cricketfan28]

8 minutes ago, zen said:

 

Since we are talking about "best chance", I guess, you are expecting them to bring their top game to the WC. 

yes, their big hitters scare me.

[zen]

Below is how NAM prepared for the WC - Link

 

"The experiences we had from last year's World Cup really gave us a good idea of what type of skill we need to have to be able to compete at this high level. The speed of the ball is more, the quality of the skills and the percentage of execution that guys are playing at is higher. We got some powerplay boundaries today which were scored behind square. We were much more comfortable playing mystery spin [Maheesh Theekshana] and [Wanindu] Hasaranga towards the middle and towards the latter end, bludgeoning the ball a bit harder. Those types of skills, we've had to put together over the last 12 months."

 

Over the last 12 months, Namibia focused on how to play the short ball, which is what they expected to be their biggest threat at this World Cup.

 

"We worked on synthetic wickets - AstroTurf and cement wickets - at home and we trained for the short ball since we know the bounce is a bit more in Australia," their batter Jan Nicol Loftie-Eaton said

 

Apart from attempting to mimic Australia as much as possible, they also roped in, as bowling consultant, an adopted Australian: Morne Morkel, the brother of their assistant coach Albie and someone who knows more about the short ball than most. While Zane Green described Morne as the yang to Albie's yin - "the fun guy that brings the energy to training and matches" - Erasmus said just having someone different has helped. "Being a team where there are not many fresh players coming in because of our small player base, it's always brilliant to have someone new on the coaching staff."

 

While facing Morkel in the nets would have helped improve the batters' skills, his primary job was to help the bowlers and the results are already showing. The Namibian quicks stuck to a hard length and an off-stump line to force a Sri Lankan collapse that will be talked about for ages.

 

 

[Sgattick10]

India could be the dark horse, since it's not one of the fav this time 

[zen]

Btw, in the AFG-BD warm up game, both teams were full or near full strength. AFG beat BD by 62 runs. BD lost 4 wkts for 6 runs.

[zen]

SL & NED qualify 

 

IRE favorite to beat WI, who would then be knocked out, and qualify 

 

SCO v ZIM will be a virtual knock out too 

[Ankit_sharma03]

On 10/15/2022 at 2:49 PM, cricketfan28 said:

yes, their big hitters scare me.

aisi lappebaazi aus men nahin chalti 

[Ankit_sharma03]

WI - gone , mentioned before they only have weakness n weakness

SL - will at best spoil someone party that to will need a ground like SCG where bounce is easy 

Bang- they are lucky to not be playng qualifiers

Afghanistan- dont have batting for these conditions

[Majestic]

NZ

SA

SL

Afg

IRE

 

 

First three are dark horses and the next two can spoil someone's party. BD se na hoga kuch..

 

 

[coffee_rules]

India is the real dark horse

[zen]

Both NZ & SA are solid ... Zim remains unbeaten 

 

 

Interesting to see if both African teams in Group 2 can make it to the semis