The World Cup final will be played in India on Saturday between Sri Lanka and India. The teams are fairly evenly matched. Although I am rooting for Sri Lanka, I think India is the slightly better team and given that they have the home field advantage, they have to be considered the favorites. You can see a live video stream of the game here, with the game starting at 5:00 am Eastern and ending around 1:00 pm. That pretty much takes care of my Saturday morning.
If you do watch, one thing to bear in mind is that in the one-day format in which the World Cup is played (unlike the five-day Test matches), each team bats for just one inning lasting for 50 ‘overs’, with each over consisting of six balls (pitches). So the batting team faces a total of 300 deliveries or until they lose ten ‘wickets’ (i.e., ten batters get out), whichever comes first. On the fielding side, any given bowler is limited to a maximum of ten overs (60 deliveries). The team batting first has to score at least 250 runs to be competitive and over 300 to put real pressure on the team batting second. (For those who want to know more about how the game is played, see my post from 2006 here and you can also see a short video explaining the game here.)
In the first semi-final game, Sri Lanka defeated New Zealand as expected. New Zealand batted first and scored 217 runs from 293 deliveries before losing their tenth out terminated their innings. Sri Lanka surpassed that score in 287 deliveries while losing only five wickets. Although on paper it looks like a comfortable win, they received a scare at one point when New Zealand seemed to be about to repeat their upset win over South Africa in the quarter finals by causing a dramatic collapse in the Sri Lankan batting just as they seemed to be cruising to an easy victory. But unlike the South Africans, the Sri Lankans did not completely fold but recovered to win.
In the other game, watched by an more than one billion people worldwide, India beat Pakistan in a fairly close game. India batted first and scored 260 runs off 300 deliveries while losing 9 wickets in the process. Pakistan started off well and looked to have a chance to beat the more favored Indian team but could not maintain the pace and managed to score only 231 runs when they lost their tenth wicket on the 299th delivery.
This game had some political overtones. India and Pakistan have had conflicts over Kashmir and other issues that have lasted for more than a half-century so any contest between the two nations takes on a significance well beyond the game itself, like the athletic competitions between the USA and USSR during the cold war. Relations between the two nations reached a nadir with the attack on the Taj Mahal hotel in Mumbai in 2008 by elements from Pakistan. In a gesture towards rapprochement, the Indian Prime Minister invited his Pakistani counterpart to watch the cricket game with him and the offer was accepted. Whether this will go beyond being a merely symbolic gesture and leads to a real thaw in relations remains to be seen.
The championship game will be the final international outing for 38-year old Muttiah Muralitharan, who has for nearly two decades been Sri Lanka’s ace bowler and is recognized as one of the greatest bowlers in the history of the game, whose career record of 800 test match ‘wickets’ (i.e., the number of batsmen he has got out) is far ahead of the next highest total of 708. In addition, his ebullient personality and obvious love of the game have endeared him to fans worldwide. He is not fully fit but you can expect him to put forth maximum effort and to be given a grand farewell, whatever the result, though he would obviously like to retire with a second World Cup championship, having been part of the Sri Lankan side that won the trophy in 1996.
In cricket, the bowler pitches the ball is such a way that it bounces once on its way to the batsman. This allows the bowler to spin the ball so that it can turn to the left or the right after bouncing, or even keep low or rise higher than expected. The condition of the ground can thus also play a crucial role. Muralitharan’s skill lay in his ability, on good days and with suitable ground conditions, to produce not only prodigious amounts of turn but also disguise its direction, which resulted in batsmen flailing away at the air while the ball went elsewhere.
Watch a few of the highlights of Muralitharan’s career to see what I mean.
On India’s side is Sachin Tendulkar, one of the greatest batsmen to ever play the game who, at almost 38, is also in the twilight of his career and whose career record of 14,692 runs is also far ahead of the next highest career total of 12,263. Tendulkar is actually quite small in stature (5 ft 5 ins in height) but in cricket this is not so important and he more than makes up for this by superb technique, good eye, quick reflexes, and exquisite timing. In cricket, aesthetics are much appreciated by the fans (even the fans of their opponents) and Tendulkar’s style is so good that he has been bestowed the title of ‘The Little Master’. Tendulkar will undoubtedly want to win the championship too since this is likely his last World Cup. India’s only other win in the tournament was in 1983. You can watch him and judge for yourself.
The records set by Tendulkar and Muralitharan are so far ahead of their nearest competitors that they are like the one set by Bob Beamon in his spectacular long jump in the 1968 Olympics in Mexico that broke the previous world and Olympic records by nearly two feet.
That leap was so far ahead of everyone else that I for one was certain that it was a freak event, the result of an unlikely convergence of circumstances that would never be repeated and that the record would last forever. But human beings keep achieving the seemingly impossible and just as Beamon’s world record was eventually surpassed in 1991 (although his Olympic record is still unbroken), so will those of Tendulkar and Muralitharan, though they too will likely last many decades.
Whatever the outcome, competing against each other in World Cup championship game is a fitting reward for all that these two great players have contributed to the game.
Thanks for the elucidation on the rules of 1-day cricket matches -- I had assumed that the World Cup matches were played under normal test conditions. (Should have looked that up, I suppose.)
How does Sachin Tendulkar’s performance match up against Donald Bradman’s?
HRK
HRK,
It is always hard to compare people from different eras who played against different opponents under different conditions.
The list of career totals of the leading batsmen can be seen here. In his career, Bradman scored 6,996 runs, less than half that of Tendulkar but they played far fewer matches in those days. But the number of runs Bradman scored per at bat was almost 100, which is phenomenal. No other player, including Tendulkar, gets above even 60.
The consensus seems to be that if one had to pick, Bradman was the best batsman of all time.
In the case of bowling records, not only is Muralitharan’s total wickets the most of all time (again partially a product of people playing a lot more games these days), his average of 22.72 (the number of runs conceded per wicket taken) is also very near the top. So he has a good claim to being the greatest bowler of all time.
Dhoni becomes one of the greatest Indian captains. It was really good of Dhoni to promote himself up the order and come up with that knock in the final. His interview was very good though I think playing sreeshanth was a bad decision. Winning with a six – it doesn’t get better than this.
I think he was saying it seemed a bit predictable having both the hosts in the final. They may have been the best teams and they both performed pretty professionally in the final but having an outsider or underdog in there makes it more interesting and gives you someone to back as a neutral.
I was confused when I first read this post thinking it was describing baseball. This is the first time reading on the sport of cricket. Interesting and informative post.
Thank you for your excellent insight on Cricket. It looks like a fun game.
I am not familiar with Cricket but I am learning. It’s always amazing to me that countries that are at odds with one another can come together in a sport and somehow dialog opens and things begin to get better. The power of any sport I guess.