Saturday, April 5, 2008

A Major Upset Waiting to Happen In ICL-II

Well the last time I had posted a topic which was in all praise for the new entrants- Lahore Badshahs,who had been unbeaten until Friday,when Hyderabad Heroes grabbed an upset win by 6 runs to go 1-0 up in the best of three finals of the second edition of the Indian Cricket League.And,if this happens no one on earth i believe would ever forgive or forget the Lahore Badshahs .

That would be the last thing that any true cricket fan would ever want to happen.And another fact is that the team is one of the best contenders for the title,for its completely balanced team consisting of experienced players in Inzy,Mushtaq Ahmed,Azhar Mahmood and others.All of us hope they emerge as Australians of world cricket rather than ending up as the unlucky South Africans-who are found to make a mess of their game whenever it comes to the big stage.

After the initial loss of the Lahore Badshahs to the hands of Hyderabad Heroes,I was found to think of a situation where a team beats each and every opponent it faces,only to lose the finals of the same.One such instance that I can quote is the famous Wills World Cup-1996,where South Africa won all of the 5 games in the league stages before losing to the Windies in the QF.And the same South Africa who won all games in the 1999 edition before losing to Australia in the super sixes & eventually in a tied semis.

Also the same South Africa had won all 6 games against Australia & India in the Titan Cup before losing to India.And some similar exchanges between India & Australia where both did the same to each other,first by Australia to India in the Pepsi tri series involving Zimbabwe,followed by India to Australia involving New Zealand at Sharjah-which is known for the memorable innings of Sachin Tendulkar's back to back hundreds.

Last but not the least,there was a quadrangular series involving South Africa,India, Kenya and Zimbabwe in 1999 at Nairobi and this time it was India who was at the receiving end of South Africa.

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