“Four to look out for in quarter-finals at ICC CWC 2015!”

Mar 15, 2015 Sports

---

Colin E. H. Croft  
Bangladesh’s Shakib al Hasan, No. 2 ranked all-rounder in the world, always contributes

positively to his country’s determined efforts.
He could easily play for any team, be that magnificent India, marauding Australia, embarrassed England or hopeful West Indies, but he will never defect.  He is too valuable to the Tigers!
Batting, the dynamic left-hander plays like most modern batsmen when driving straight or on off-side, moving his front (right) foot away from the ball’s length and line, allowing more space for his arcing bat to make proper contact with the ball.
Shakib does not hit many sixes, but his strokes dissect fielding positions with great precision.  With his athleticism, he completes two’s and three’s often if strokes do not produce boundaries.  In another life, he could well become a Land Surveyor!
Bowling, Shakib tantalizes batsmen with generous flight from looping left-arm deliveries.  With spells usually economical, he confuses batsmen with extreme slowness more than with turn, allowing batsmen to

hit up more often than out, giving catches while trying to hit sixes.
Relatively sedate to date, expect Shakib to be much more productive now that Bangladesh has qualified for quarter-finals, as they try to get to semi-finals for the first time ever in their history!
Sri Lanka’s Tillakaratne Dilshan is one of my favorite present-day opening batsmen, possessing all of the aggressive shots in the book, especially when facing outright fast bowlers.
Taller but just as fearless, Dilshan reminds many of that diminutive, pugnacious SL opener, Romesh Kaluwitharana.
“Little Kalu”, with legendary left-hander Sanath Jayasuriya, totally changed general attitudes and approaches as to how the first 15 overs in ODI’s should be played, setting the stage for Sri Lanka’s ongoing galloping starts, allowing them to win ICC CWC 1996.
Similar to Shakib, and aptly demonstrated recently against Australia’s Mitchell Johnson, Dilshan is clinical and classical in his unique way, with lithe feet movement, removing left foot and pad from general lines of deliveries, thus making way for his viciously swinging bat.
Matador-like, Dilshan cuts, drives, parries, thrusts, hooks and pulls with tremendous aplomb, power and outright abrasiveness.  He will need them if SL are to win in 2015.
He almost always uses that magnificent, unforgettable stroke he invented for fast but short deliveries, the geometric and correctly-aligned “Dill-Scoop”, cunningly using the balls’ speeds and lengths as aids to lifting and helping them to boundaries behind wicket-keepers.
Dilshan’s ultra-aggression and sometimes carelessness often cause his dismissal, as was also evident v Australia, with slower deliveries occasionally getting him out bowled or LBW.
Complementing his devastating batting prowess, “The Dill-man” is an excellent fieldsmen, especially in the slips region.
He is also a useful off-spinner who does not turn the ball much, but, with quick-armed flexibility and wrist movements, regularly fools batsmen into driving too early and too straight at his deliveries, presenting return catches.
Australia’s Mitchell Starc is one of the world’s more underrated bowlers, fast or slow.  Many expected left-handed namesake and team-mate Johnson to produce better statistics, but Starc has been ahead simply because he stands up much more erectly on delivery than Johnson.
One of Johnson’s basic problems, an aspect that also negates his accustomed swing, is that he is now trying to bowl too quickly.
Hence, his last stride is extra-elongated, resulting in a drop of his lead (right) shoulder and bowling left-arm, causing him to bowl almost round-armed, short of length and being expensive.
The taller Starc has been consistent, with good pace, and has actually been trying to elongate that height into being even taller on delivery.  Therefore, he could control his lengths better, his “yorkers” working well, as seen in that dazzling losing effort against New Zealand.
2-47, 6-28, 2-18 and 2-29 in Australia’s first four preliminary games give a perfect picture of Starc’s effectiveness to date. He could be a tremendous force when Australia tour West Indies later this year for two Test matches, before they go to England for Ashes 2015.
Before that, though, Australia will want Starc to play his important part if one of the pre-tournament favorites are to lift that trophy.
Brendon McCullum, New Zealand’s captain, has been a revelation, with outright disdain for bowlers and tenacity as captain, putting his country on that road to perhaps winning its first CWC.  He is vying, with South Africa’s A.B. De Villiers and Sri Lanka’s Kumar Sangakkara, to be ‘best player to the end of preliminary stages.’
McCullum’s captaincy is reminiscent of 1970’s and 1980’s, when close-in fielders by Australia, WI and England complimented fast, aggressive bowling, a phenomenon that NZ presently has in great abundance.
Not since perhaps (Sir) Vivian Richards, recently voted “The best ODI cricketers ever”, has a batsman come out with obvious malicious intentions of obliterating bowlers, regardless of what they deliver, as has McCullum in this CWC.
Bowlers are deathly scared to bowl to McCullum right now!
The man is not possessed, as suggested somewhere, but supremely sure of his abilities, especially for 2015’s competition, which, for him, realistically constitutes mostly home games.
Along with these four, expect the unexpected from other players in the quarter-finals too!  Enjoy!
(e-mail : [email protected])

---

---