Shall we predict?

Well with less than 24 hours to go for the second round of the 10^th edition of the game's major event to kick start, a close look at the teams would be worth the time spend I suppose. The first game that would happen in 24 hours would be the 1^st quarter-finals between Pakistan and West Indies. As all of you would have by now predicted or had your bet upon, winner is definitely going to be Pakistan though as a rare case, a 2007 sort of thing can be repeated once again. But, there is no Brian Lara to bind the team.

Pakistan are not the team gifted with players having a midas touch. The second quarter-finals that would obviously be happening a day later between India and Australia. This would be a tough call for the betters for both the teams out there are gifted with the most sophisticated players like Sachin Tendulkar & Dhoni for India with Shane Watson and Michael Clarke having done the job for Australia. If anybody speaks for India, one can go through the encounters between India and the Aussies in the 1996 and 1987 editions where Australia had an upper hand. And, all is not lost for both the teams.

I just give this game a pass and moving on to our next game i.e between the Proteas and the Kiwis, I can just say that the Kiwis have an edge with big hitting Ross Taylor and Brendon McCullum compared to the out-of-form Graeme Smith and a slow and not-steady Jacques Kallis from South Africa. Both teams have only one notable wins in their league stage matches with New Zealand winning over Pakistan and South Africa winning over India. South Africa's win over West Indies cannot be taken into consideration for, they are just a team that has been written-off by one and all.

It is to be noted that both South Africa and New Zealand have wins only against arch rivals-India and Pakistan. Coming to the last but not the least quarter-finals between Sri Lanka and England, needless to be said, Sri Lanka have all odds favoring them with their wins against New Zealand and a close encounter against Pakistan and with players of the likes of Mahela Jayawardane, Kumara Sangakkara and Thilan Samaraweera who can do miracles with the bat and though not in his all time form, Muttiah Muralithran can surprise the Englishmen at least with his presence in the playing XI.