ICC Cricket World Cup 2011: Reasons for failures of Top Teams

From the iSport Cricket Pavilion: This edition of World Cup had many turning points that had a huge impact on the Individual teams and their chances of winning the cup. iSporter Jigar Mehta pens his reasons for what went wrong with top teams of the World Cup 2011.

World-Cup-2011

1. England:

The biggest factor that hampered England's chances was injuries. Injuries to key players had the England skipper scratching his head as first Kevin Pietersen left the world Cup midway due to Hernia problem having scored an impressive 129 runs from three matches, then it was the turn of his strike bowler Stuart Broad to leave midway with a side strain having picket up six wickets from three matches including a splendid performance of 4 for 15 against South Africans which helped them stay alive in the tournament. Then it was the turn of Ajmal Shahzad who was ruled out of the tournament with a Hamstring injury. Michael Yardy who could have balanced the team with his blistering batting and slow left-arm spin, pulled out of the tournament citing depression problems after just three matches and with England's strike bowler James Anderson totally out of form giving away 282 runs from 43 overs in five matches England were left with an inexperienced bowling attack (Chris Tremlett, Tim Bresnan & James Tredwell) resulting in a ten wicket loss to Sri Lanka in the Quarter-finals!

2. West Indies:

The biggest factor that hampered their chances of winning was inexperience coupled with overdependence on Chris Gayle and Kieron Pollard who could manage only 350 runs between them without a single century to their name, both of them flopped during the crucial knockout match against Pakistan scoring 8 & 1 respectively.

Secondly they lost their premier all-rounder Dwayne Bravo after just one match with a knee injury, with 10 overs of medium pace to his name and intelligence in batting in the lower middle order; he would surely have been a crucial factor for West Indies in the tournament.

3. South Africa:

The chokers tag coupled with poor show from their most experienced batsmen like Graeme Smith, who scored only 183 runs at a dismal average of 26.14 and Jacques Kallis, who scored only 225 runs at a mediocre average of 32.14, picking up only five wickets, did them in. But mainly it's the pressure of the "chokers" tag that caught up with South Africa coupled with their inability to perform on the big stage caused them to lose composureas they failed to chase a meagre total of 222 in the quarter-finals of the tournament losing out comprehensively at the end by 49 runs.

4. Australia:

Poor team selection cost Australian team dearly, with the selection of Cameron White they were one batsman short, while with the selection of Jason Krejza they were one crucial spinner short. White managed only 70 runs from seven matches at a dismal average of 17.50, while Krejza, being the main spinner in the team managed to pick up only five wickets at a dismal average of 55.60. Instead of persisting with White, who was totally out of form throughout the tournament, they could have better relied on Callum Ferguson lower down the order and instead of Krejza, who didn't manage to pick up a single wicket in the quarter-final against India, they could have brought in Steve Smith, which could have given them a better batting option in the lower order along with his dicey leg spins!

5. New Zealand:

The failure of their main batsmen like Brendon McCullum, Ross Taylor, and Jesse Ryder during crucial juncture like the semi-final game, where they managed only 68 runs among themselves tells the story. None of the New Zealand batsmen was in the top 10 run scorers of the tournament; the only one who came close was Ross Taylor who was 12^th with 324 runs to his name. The quarter-finals match which they won was by the skin of their teeth as they defended a meagre total of 221 against South Africa.

6. Pakistan:

Extremely poor fielding and overdependence on one man who was great with the ball but totally brainless with the bat (Shahid Afridi) was the main reason for Pakistan's failure in the tournament. Forget the game against New Zealand in the group stages where Kamran Akmal gave Ross Taylor the greatest birthday gift by spilling him twice, but on the biggest stage, semi-finals, its India vs. Pakistan, how can you drop six catches? And that too dropping the world's greatest batsman four times. It's a real sin; he went on to make 85 crucial runs and to add insult to injury, obtain a man of the match award too. Not only that, some brainless batting from the skipper Afridi, who should have started hitting big shots after taking the batting powerplay, fell to a rash shot at a crucial time. Clearly someone from India must have told them in the mid innings break "you've surely dropped the world cup mate!"

7. Sri Lanka:

They were one of the best teams until the finals wherein their two Talismans, Kumar Sangakkara and Muttiah Muralitharan failed. They could have posted a pretty big total if Sangakkara would have occupied the crease for some more time as he was in great form and third highest run getter of the tournament. But having posted a challenging total of 274 they would have anytime banked on their Talisman, Muralitharan to deliver the goods but the champion spinner failed to take a single wicket at the last hurdle, which resulted in a bitter farewell for the "Smiling Assassin."

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