2015 Cricket World Cup

[jens]

Looking at history, I just realized New Zealand has never won the Cup though I have got the impression they have always been a competitive team with a strong tradition. Meanwhile Australia is the most successful team ever.

So perhaps from that angle it would be good if NZL won for once.

[Storm]

NZ vs Aus and NZ to win.

^jens they have always been competitive but being such a small nation with a small talent pool has often been an obstacle. (of course that never stopped Holland being good at football )

[jens]

NZ vs Aus and NZ to win.

^jens they have always been competitive but being such a small nation with a small talent pool has often been an obstacle. (of course that never stopped Holland being good at football )

Incidentally Holland has never won the football World Cup either even though as you say, they have always been very competitive. Then again Uruguay with even a smaller talent pool (3-4 Million inhabitants) has two football World Cups...

Anyway, as you say, the amount of people and talent pool certainly limits some things. So all things considered newzealanders are doing great.

[anfield5]

I don't like the Australian team, and would prefer to see NZ get up. anfield5 offends me more by being a Liverpool supporter.

SO when I tell you I am not just a Liverpool supporter, but a born and bred scouser, I might tip you over the edge completely

[anfield5]

Looking at history, I just realized New Zealand has never won the Cup though I have got the impression they have always been a competitive team with a strong tradition. Meanwhile Australia is the most successful team ever.

So perhaps from that angle it would be good if NZL won for once.

NZ have never even been to a final. Beaten in the semis 6 times until this week

[anfield5]

FINAL.

Aus v NZ.

Difficult to predict. As a Kiwi obviously every fibre of my being wants to see a NZ victory. Hugely difficult task though. For the first time in this cup NZ will be the underdogs. Playing Aus in Aus was always going to be the biggest threat.

The two best teams are in the final, both can easily win (not win easily). For NZ if McCallum gets a decent start and Guptil, Williamson and Taylor add the backbone, the likes of Anderson and Elliot can take NZ to 300-350. For the first time in a long while NZ have the batting power to recover from a bad start and bat all the way to 11 (Trent Boult is no mug with the bat). Aussie has some great bowling options and are capaable of doing some serious damage, although arguably the best opening bowling pair were South Avfricas, and look what NZ did to Steyn!

NZ has the best bowling attack unit it has possibly ever had with Boult and Southee, backed up by the pace of Henry (sad loss not havong the impressive Adam Milne available). Backed up by the old man (Vettori) and the aggression of Anderson. This is balanced out by a damn good Aus batting line up. FIinch played very well against India. Warner is a total arse-head, but still a tremendous talent. Smith is hitting top form and can win a game on his own. Clarke is due, Maxwell is erm..... enigmatic and can produce miracles, and the rest of the line up are on their day can be world beaters.

PREDICTION
Aus to start odd on. But as with the NZ/S.A. semi, the winner will be the team who makes the least number of mistakes under pressure. NZ to win..... just in an absolute cracker of a match.

*If NZ fall short and Aus win because they are slightly better NZ will be proud. If the result goes the other way, I am not sure how the Aus public will react. For this reason I think (just my opinion) Nz have less to lose and less pressure on than the Aussies, whether or not this will make a difference?

[journeyman racer]

SO when I tell you I am not just a Liverpool supporter, but a born and bred scouser, I might tip you over the edge completely

Nah, you're alright.

- Being a scouser doesn't necessarily mean Liverpool supporter. There are some that support Everton as well.

- I don't know why my post was deleted. But you quoting me keeps my quote on the page.

- Two of your 3 likes so far are my posts.

So you're pretty good actually.

[Storm]

Incidentally Holland has never won the football World Cup either even though as you say, they have always been very competitive. Then again Uruguay with even a smaller talent pool (3-4 Million inhabitants) has two football World Cups...
...

Yes I remembered after I posted that Holland have failed to win a WC too but they have won Euro and always been at the cutting edge of the sport... For cricket to call it's cup a world cup is a stretch so I would say it is on par to a continental cup like the Euro. Most of the teams playing cricket have a lot in common but aren't geographically close.

Also NZ has to put up with cricket not really being the #1 sport in the country while Holland has no such problem

[journeyman racer]

It's better for cricket if NZ wins.

GO NZ!

[steveaki13]

Sadly the Final appears to be an absolute rout really. New Zealand have crumbled at the final hurdle. However Australia deserve it.