🏏ICC WC 2023: M1 - England vs New Zealand on 05/10/23 at 2 PM IST🏏 - Page 3

We've had quite a few matches leading into this tournament that could be indicative of where the teams are at. India, the hosts, the winners of the Asia Cup, start as one of the favourites after a dominant lead-up into the tournament. Not to forget that the trend of the World Cup being won by host nations started with them back in 2011. Will it come full circle 12 years later? England, the defending champions, might have a thing or two to say about that. Brimming with batting depth and hitting ability, the methods that led them to the title in 2019 are very much alive and kicking as they showed against New Zealand recently. That's not to discount New Zealand's chances. Runners-up in 2019 and 2015, and semifinalists in 2011 and 2007, you just know they're going to bring their best cricket here. And the same goes for Australia. But can you say that for South Africa? Let's wait and watch. Pakistan are also there as ever, and every bit as unpredictable. The rest of them - Bangladesh, Afghanistan, Netherlands and Sri Lanka - don't feature in too many top-four lists of experts, but definitely have the ability to throw a surprise or two.

A few facts in this World Cup --

There are 10 teams: all but three of the International Cricket Council’s full member nations – the Test-playing countries – and one associate member. The missing trio are Ireland, Zimbabwe and West Indies, who won the first two World Cups, reached the final of the third and have never failed to qualify before. Only the top two in this year’s final qualifying round, played in Zimbabwe in June and July, made it to the finals and West Indies finished fifth in the Super Six stage, losing to everyone they faced except Oman. Sri Lanka and the Netherlands, the one associate nation, emerged from the pack, the former with a 100% record, the latter courtesy of a net run rate slightly better than Scotland’s and quite a lot better than Zimbabwe’s, all three sides having finished level on points.

West Indies is not qualified and that is really painful.

Next what? Cricket doesn’t just offer thrilling sport, you see, there are exciting maths to do as well. In addition to popular group-stage tiebreaker, net run rate (the average number of runs a team scores per available over minus the average runs per over scored against them. The word available is key here, because if a team is bowled out after, say, 22 overs the calculation is made using the full 50 they might have faced had they been less clumsy) there’s also the Duckworth-Lewis-Stern method, or DLS to its friends, used to calculate a fair target score in a rain-interrupted match, which would be far too complicated to explain here even if we understood it well enough to try but seems to do its job reasonably well.

Wasn’t there another wacky tiebreaker when England won the last World Cup? There was indeed. The 2019 final between England and New Zealand ended in a tie, so the teams played a super over – each facing six more legal deliveries – at the end of which they were still tied. So there was a boundary countback, which involved totting up the number of fours and sixes each team had scored across the day, in which England triumphed 26-17. Everyone agreed that was jolly silly, so if the same situation happens again in this year’s knockout rounds the teams will just play as many super overs as are required to split them.

Having said all that, the buzzword around these tournaments seems to be "pressure". The captains were regularly reminded of it by the media during their briefing yesterday. Not surprisingly, Rohit Sharma and Babar Azam got most of the questions, if not all, and a request had to be made to spread out the questions a little more. It's also around this time you'll see former players talking about handling the big game pressure across TV, digital and print. It's one of those intangibles that may or may not have a huge bearing on performance, but it makes you just admire the show put on by these teams even more.

The day we've all been looking forward to is finally here. 10 teams, 10 venues, one big prize, and it all starts today in Ahmedabad. For the next 46 days, all the apprehensions about the ODI format and its future, however valid they might be, can wait. As much as the interest levels in the format may have dwindled, a lot of people would still concede that the World Cup, or rather - the ODI World Cup, remains the biggest prize in the sport. For this is the stage where legacies are born, champions are made, and magical realism is unleashed (looking at you, 2019). You want to watch the best in the world in action? Look nowhere else. Want to see players fight hard for every inch? You got it. Iconic scenes? Well, duh. Electrifying crowds? Okay, stop. Just see it for yourself as the spectacle unfolds.

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Feb 1996 wc at Ahm'd >> eng vs Nz >> nz won by 11 runs >> 27 years later at Ahmedabad again! Same two teams ✍️

The mushrooming of franchise T20 leagues has changed the landscape of cricket altogether. Is this the last World Cup that is this big a deal, wonders Osman Samiuddin. And you can follow Alagappan Muthu's Live Report of this game right here.

Dhaval S: "Can't get better teams to start this WC from where it left the previous one. One Fire. One Ice. At the Largest Cricket Stadium. In the country with the biggest fan following of the game. Let the WC begin with a bang."

Balaji: "ARs are going to rule this WC. Likes of Pandya, Stokes, Green, Maxwell, D Mitchell, Neesham, Bas De Leede, Miraz are going to play huge role."

Chinmay Jariwal: "Being and Indian, of course I want India to lift the trophy, but if that is not destined, then I would like to see Kiwis vs Proteas in the final."

Ahmad Ali: "A big day here, hope for some exiting cricket in the next month and half period."

A to Z: what has changed since the last time the World Cup was in India. By Sid Monga. How to win a World Cup in India? Monga also has some tips for you. And Karthik Krishnaswamy lays out everything you need to know about this World Cup.

Sunny: "Two of the finalists of CWC 2019 kick starting the inaugural game of World Cup 2023. Look out for a cracker today."

Chinmay Jariwal: "Luckily, this time they have corrected the bizzare rule from last world cup of awarding a match to team with most boundaries in case of tied super over. I am still not over that match. Hoping for Kiwis to crush England today."