As long as the minnows exist

Well in the 1st encounter, Bangladesh did everything well but at the end lost its way to India en route to a failed chase of 371 runs on the board. Since then, if not for the match between England and Ireland, no other minnow team has ever been able to stand up to the occasion and show their guts. One need not highlight their new entry or lack of cricketing standards to be the reason behind this. Every player has a first time in his life and here it is an entire team that is facing a first time in world cups.

There are teams which have been playing world cup games since more than a decade or so but unable to produce the epected results. Instead, expectations are needed to be changed regarding these teams. Kenya have been playing cricket since the 1996 world cup. One need not cite their victory against West Indies in 1996 and against Sri Lanka in 2003 for it was the other team's loss rather than a Kenyan win. They lost all their four games in 1999 world cup to India, South Africa, Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe though nothing different was expected from them, that was obviously not the one.

This is the fourth world cup for Holland since 1996 and Holland have so far won just 2 games out of 14. They won their game against Namibia in 2003 and a game against Scotland in 2007. Of course, no one expectes them to beat teams like South Africa or India but, they can have an upperhand against say Zimbabwe or Kenya. Yesterday as well, New Zealand recorded their 10 wicket win against Zimbabwe adding to another such feat when they can not even ask for a run for their money against other strong teams. New Zealand are yet to win a crunch game in this world cup.

Zimbabwe's hunt was a well justified one when they amassed 162 runs on the board unlike some Kenya or Canada who couldn't get something past a hundred. A ten wicket win for any team brings in a lot of satisfaction but if the opposition is given a closer look at, neither will the team nor the star player be worthy of any praise when the same team or player happens to be a flop against strong nations. One thing that needs to be applauded is that New Zealand didn't go in for the kill right away and instead took time to settle down and have some practice.