Team Mani
Team is well balanced and spinner
(S.Warne) remains confident of bowling in any type of pitches, I'll be going with same team for all three pitches.
1.This team got the complimentary opening partnership with
(S.Jayasurya & G.Kirsten) Sanath would be more attacking and Kirsten would provide the support Jayasurya requires.These two will play McGrath cautiously at the same time attack bowler coming from other-end to provide some useful runs early in the innings.
2.MIddle and lower middle order
(G.Gambhir/D.Jones/MS.Dhoni/S.Raina)
Middle order is well suited to grind out those middle over and provide stability at the same time score some quick runs, unlike the EAP's team this batting line up doesn't have any weak links running between the wickets,Inzy in his team is a disaster waiting to happen.
3.Bowling
(M.Marshall /S.Warne /S.Bond/M.Morkel/H.Streak) + S.Jayasurya
I'm going with 5 bowlers, led by
M.Marshall ,who can swing the ball either ways at the same time who is more efficient to bowl at the death overs with yorkers, his partner in crime would
S.Bond the Aussie buster, his accuracy and pace would trouble any top batsmen and can bowl those Yorkers in death overs like Marshall.
M.Morkel would come up as first change, who rely on naming line and length which is difficult to score aganist.Middle overs will be handled by
S.Warne, (best spin bowler of the world had ever seen) will be controlling those middle over to provide is usual breaks for the team supported by
H.Streak and S.Jayasurya. This team had luxury of having H.Streak at 7 is so crucial, who's average and strike rate is much suited the modern game.
PS, his main spinner D.Vettori averages as similar to my 6th bowler S.Jayasurya plus S.Jayasurya got more wickets in ODI than D.Vettori,this doesn't mean Jaya is better bowler than Vettori but Jaya with my main bowler Warne would be far effective compared to his Vettori.
4.
MS.Dhoni -Captain / Wk
Team marshalled by more efficient captain MS.Dhoni, he's not just the explosive batsmen, he improves batsmen's around him gives them much needed confident, which obviously translates to much better batting side while team decides to chase.Staying behind wickets helps him in set perfect fielding.Man had led country to two World Cup success.
I got clear edge over his team in, quick running between the wickets, side that fields better, captain to deal with the situations , depth in bowling as well I go with 5 bowlers plus the X factor S.Warne.
Team EAP / TMH
Why we will win:
Batting: We believe we have overall stronger batting lineup than Mani's. He has a very good batting lineup too with some of ODI greats in Sanath, Dean Jones and Dhoni but we believe our middle order of Virat, Inzi and Aravinda
is significantly better than Gambhir-Raina and Jones. Dhoni is better than Sarfaraz but Oram and Vettori are more adept at lower order than Streak and Marshall especially since role of these players will be quick runs. Also, though it is not easy to categorize pitches in ODIs by country because any country can have batting pitches and usually has in modern times, our 5 Asians in top 6, all average better in Asian conditions. It needs to be pointed out that Mani has a game's great in Warne and we have 2 matches in spin friendly conditions but Warne's bowling average is not great in Asian conditions compared to his overall average. We believe our batsmen can handle Warne. Asian batsmen have proved so.
Bowling: Our team's bowling attack has variation in all departments which is key in ODIs. Pace attack is of McGrath and Gillespie who can both take wickets and keep batsmen in check. Johnson with his pace will be very handy on pace assisting wicket and is a left armer. Oram can generate awkward bounce bowling from his height. Spin attack again has variation with one left armer and one right armer which gives ability to bring ball in as well as take away. on spin pitches, we can get 30-35 overs from Vettori-Swann-Aravinda and Sehwag
which is a significant advantage over our opponent whose options are Warne and Sanath. Raina as bowling option is far weaker and ineffective than our support bowlers.
Mani has a got a very good pace attack and has good options like ours on pace pitch and it can be anybody's game, although we expect to get through due to our batting.
On spin pitches, Warne will be limited to 10 overs only and we have mentioned before we have players adept vs spin and a good history vs Warne. Other spin bowler Sanath, though with big number of wickets, was still a support bowler as his average suggests. So with more spin options meaning more spin overs, we expect to limit opponent to smaller total than ours and win on both spin pitches.
| Player Name | Batting Average | Bowling Average | Pitches |
| Virender Sehwag | 35.06 | 40.14 | All |
| Martin Guptill | 42.5 | | All |
| Virat Kohli | 59.34 | | All |
| Aravinda de Silva | 34.9 | 39.41 | All |
| Inzamam ul Haq | 39.53 | | All |
| Sarfaraz Ahmad | 33.85 | | All |
| Jacob Oram | 24.1 | 29.17 | All |
| Daniel Vettori | 17.33 | 31.72 | All |
| Graeme Swann | 13.89 | 27.77 | 3. Good batting pitch with assistance for spinners
5. Good bowling pitch for slow bowlers/spinners |
| Jason Gillespie | 12.57 | 25.43 | All |
| Glenn McGrath | | 22.02 | All |
| Mitchell Johnson | 16.12 | 25.26 | 2. Good batting pitch with assistance for seamers/pacers |
Batting:
Our team is built on an explosive opening partnership, a top top quality middle order who can both steady the innings and score quickly and then a lower middle order which goes deep and again very much capable of big hitting.
- We open with Virender Sehwag and Martin Guptill, both of them part of elite list of 6 people who have scored a double century in ODIs. Sehwag is one of the most explosive players in the game and Few players in world cricket play the short-arm pull on one leg with elegance like Martin Guptill. A classic partnership of power and elegance. Sehwag and Guptill can take the game away from opposition, definitely on good batting tracks.
- At no. 3 is Virat, arguably the best ODI batsman of all time. I don't know what can be said about him more than previous line. Whatever the continent, whatever the country, his ODI record is unparalled.
- At no. 4 is Aravinda, a class act to put it simply. MoM in 1996 semi-final and final and big game player. The reason Jayasuriya and Kaluwitharana could have the license to go bang bang in 90s was because they knew that at no. 4 is Aravinda who can be relied on. When he came in semi final, the score was 2/1 with both explosive openers gone and proceeded to score 66 of 47 balls with 14 fours and took game away from India. In final, he came in at 2/23, chasing a challenging score of 242 (for those times) in a world cup final and proceeded to score 107*.
- At no. 5 is Inzi the gentle giant of Multan. We can expect him to keep cool and carry on scoring in a match when things get tough. Average of ~51 in winning causes and ~29 in losing causes tell his importance to Pakistan's fortunes.These 3 have a combined 33,000 ODI runs between them.
- Lower middle order comprises of Sarfaraz, Oram and Vettori along with Johnson for one match.. Sarfaraz has proved to be capable of both steadying ship and scoring quickly. Oram also was a powerful hitter and scored a memorable match winning 100 vs Aussies in Perth. Vettori too has a good S/R of 80+. Given the strength of our middle 3, we don't see need for our middle order to bat long, so they will be primarily doing quick hitting.
Bowling:
- For pitch #3 and #5 where there is assistance for spinners, we are going with a bowling attack of McGrath, Gillespie, Vettori and Swann as 4 key bowlers with Sehwag and Aravinda as support bowlers. We don't see need for Oram to bowl on these pitches.
- For pitch #2, where there is assistance for pacers, Johnson will come in for Swann. The key bowlers here will be three pronged Aussie pace attack, supported by Oram. Vettori will be the 5th bowler.
+ McGrath and Gillespie: Opening duo. Dizzy and Pidge formed a legendary bowling partnership and complemented each other fantastically. Mcgrath is arguably the best bowler in this format with career average of 22 and economy of just 3.88. Holds the record for most wickets in world cup with 71 in just 39 matches at average of 18. Gillespie too in 2003 averaged just 12 with bowling. At their best, they are a very formidable duo and not easy to get away with.
+ Vettori: One of New Zealand's finest. Coming from a country which is more about swing bowlers, he took over 300 wickets in ODIs. One of the finest left arm spinners ever, has ability to deceive batsman in flight as well as possesses arm ball.
+ Swann: A relatively short ODI career but has very respectable numbers with average of 27 and econ of 4.5. His ability to generate turn and bounce will be very useful. He will be playing on spin assisting pitches.
+ Johnson: A fiery fast bowler, his ODI record may get overlooked due to his legendary Ashes performance. 239 wickets at avg of 25 and SR of 31 he is adept and taking wickets when most needed and will be playing on pitch which has assistance for pace. Although it has to be pointed that his bowling figures are consistently good across countries. He has 25 wickets in 15 world cup matches, at average of 22 and S/R of 29. Another big match player like his compatriots in our team.
Support bowlers:
+ Oram: Delivering balls from height of 1.98m, a very handy support bowler for pace suited pitch. 173 career wickets at average of 29 and econ of just 4.38
+ Sehwag and Aravinda: Both of these will be doing support bowling on spin assisting pitches. Both have ~100 wickets in ODIs. Sehwag quite often delivered India wickets when nothing else was working. Aravinda also was one of key support bowlers in Lanka's big spin department of 90s. Had figures of 9-0-42-3 in 1996 world cup final, dismissing both Taylor and Ponting who had put on century partnership of 100 and were poised to take game away from Lankans.
