The coveted trophy

As the ICC World Cup starts in under two weeks on what are going to be batsman friendly pitches of the subcontinent, a lot of records are going to be broken and new ones made. Considering the small grounds of the subcontinent and the hot weather, it is expected that bowlers will take the heat and a lot of batting records are to be made. Below I am trying to predict some important statistics and records that this world cup might see. I will evaluate these figures again at the end of the world cup.

There are 14 teams participating this time in the World Cup hosted by India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. There will be 49 matches in total, two less than the 2007 world cup. The format will be similar to the 1996 World Cup, with a knockout round of quarter finals, semi finals and a final after the round robin league of two groups of 7 teams each. The tournament starts on 19th Feb 2011 and ends with the final on 2nd Apr 2011. Lets now get to the predictions…

• Most sixes in a single over – I reckon there will be at least two overs during the tournament where all balls of the over will be hit for sixes. There was one such instance during the 2007 WC.
• Most sixes in an innings by team – My bet is that there will be more than 25 sixes hit in one or more of the innings. India and SA hit 18 sixes in an innings in 2007 WC
• Most sixes in an innings by 1 player – Ten, yes at least one player will 10 sixes in an innings in this WC. Watch out for Pathan, Afridi, Pollard and others
• Most sixes in tournament – I think the tally will be around 25 sixes by any one player.
• Fastest Fifty – 20 or less balls
• Fastest 100 – 65 or less balls
• Highest Total – My bet is there will be a minimum of five 400 plus innings in this WC
• Highest Individual Score – I am sure Sachin’s 200 not out will be equaled or bettered in this WC, either by the GOD himself or somebody else.
• Hat-Tricks – I am counting for only 1 or 2 hat tricks in this event due to the batsman friendly pitches
• Most Wickets in WC – I think the top contenders are Steyn, Malinga, Muralitharan, Zaheer, Harbhajan, Anderson, Brett Lee and Sohail Tanvir with the highest number of wickets going to be between 22-25
• Most Runs – My top bets are Sachin Tendulkar, Gambhir, Hashim Amla, Sangakara, Jayawardene, Misbah Ul Haq, J Trott, Shane Watson and Michael Hussey with the tally being somewhere between 650-700 runs
• Best strike rate with runs over 300 – My bet is the highest strike rate for players scoring 300 or more runs to be about 125-135

My line up for the semi finals would be Australia v South Africa and India v England with Sri Lanka and Pakistan being wildcards, and Australia / India being my favorites to lift the trophy.

Now, after the cup is over I will again go over these predictions and compare them with the actual statistics. Obviously there will be some surprises, some new records created, some disappointing performances and some consistent ones. Let me know your comments on these predictions and we will see how they pan out over the whole tournament.