World Cup 2019: Five surprises from the first week of the tournament

The first week of the ICC Cricket World Cup is over and we have witnessed some good quality cricket. There were some one-sided games whereas some went down to the wire. There have been some great performances in the first week by both the batsmen and the bowlers. We have not only seen a lot of runs from the bat but also a lot of wickets from the bowlers.

New Zealand and their neighbours Australia have just started from where they left in the last World Cup as both the teams are sitting in the top half of the table after winning their opening games. India might have started their campaign late but they started on the right note after defeating South Africa. Most of the other teams are stuck in the middle whereas South Africa and Afghanistan have lost all their games.

After a successful first week, the tournament will head into the second week with lots to look forward to. But before moving forward, let’s have a look at the five surprises which we saw in the first week of the World Cup.

#1 Imran Tahir bowling the first over of the World Cup

The World Cup started with a surprise as Imran Tahir bowled the first over

2019 World Cup started with a surprise when South Africa captain Faf du Plessis handed the ball to Imran Tahir to bowl the first over of the World Cup. It came as a surprise on two counts. Firstly, South Africa had two great pacers in Kagiso Rabada and Lungi Ngidi who are accustomed to open the bowling. Not only that but also it was an early start and Faf had mentioned at the toss that there will be something for the fast bowlers in the pitch.

It also became the first instance of a spinner bowling the first ball of the World Cup. Faf later mentioned that the 40-year-old was bought to surprise the English opening pair of Jason Roy and Johnny Bairstow. The England openers definitely didn’t see this coming and as a result, Bairstow was dismissed in the first over. Jonny Bairstow was dismissed for a golden duck on due to a surprising move from the South African captain.

#2 Bowlers dominating the batsmen

The scores of 280 have been scored and defended as well

Before the World Cup started, all the talk was about the high-scores in England and how this will be high-scoring World Cup. There were even talks about a team scoring 500 for the first time. Let alone 500, not even 350 has been scored consistently in this tournament. Apart from a few games which have been high-scoring the rest have been fairly low-scoring. The scores close to 280 are being scored and defended as well.

Australia defended 288 against West Indies, Sri Lanka defended 187 against Afghanistan and even Bangladesh made it difficult for New Zealand to chase down 245. It looks like the pressure of the World Cup has got to a few teams. Even the pitches seem to offer something to the bowlers. There is some swing right at the start for the quicks. Some of the teams have found their own ways of restricting the teams like the West Indies bouncing out the batsmen. All this has resulted in low-scoring matches which have come as a surprise.

#3 South Africa losing three in a row

South Africa has a tough road ahead

South Africa weren’t the favourites to win the World Cup this time but still, they had a great chance to make the top four. Even though they had a tough schedule upfront with three games in seven days you didn’t expect them to lose all the three games. There were moments in all the three games where they showed glimpses of what they can do.

They restricted the strong England batting line-up to 311 in their first game. England seemed to be 20-25 runs short in that game and it was a chase-able score but their batsmen failed to do so. They looked completely off-colour against Bangladesh as their bowlers conceded 330. Against India as well, their batting didn’t click as they were restricted to a below par total.

The luck isn’t going their way as Dale Steyn has been ruled out of the World Cup whereas Lungi Ngidi isn’t available for a few games. Suddenly the news of how AB de Villiers wanted to return is coming out. All these things are not going to help the team. It’s a tough road ahead for the South Africans but let’s hope they find a way out of that.

#4 Finger Spinners performing really well

Finger spinners have picked up a lot of wickets

There was a word going around that in limited overs games it’s the wrist-spinners who are effective and the finger spinners are slowly going out of the game. You get picked as a finger spinner only if you can bat. That was the case with all the teams. But in the first week of the World Cup, we saw something different.

Even though the wrist-spinners like Yuzvendra Chahal and Imran Tahir are there in the mix, the finger spinners who were written off are picking a lot of wickets. Mohammad Nabi picked up four wickets against Sri Lanka out of which three came in one over. Moeen Ali picked up three key wickets against Pakistan. Shakib Al Hasan with three wickets in three games and Mehedi Hasan with five wickets in three games are doing a great job for Bangladesh. Even the likes of Mohammad Hafeez and Shoaib Malik picked up a wicket each against England. They are sticking to their plans and bowling tight and that’s what is working for them. It would be interesting to see whether they have the same impact going forward in the tournament.

#5 Unpredictable Pakistan defeating favourites England

Pakistan stunned the favourites England

It seemed as if Pakistan were totally down and out after their game against West Indies. Before the World Cup started, they had lost the five-match series to England 4-0, they had lost their practice game against Afghanistan. They were on a huge losing streak. They way they lost to West Indies it seemed as if Pakistan won’t be contenders in this tournament.

On the other hand, England was going quite strong. They have a terrific home record and had just beaten the same opposition so they were high on confidence. There was no way Pakistan was going to win that match. But as always, the Pakistan team surprised everybody and defeated England in a closely-contested game at Trent Bridge. Their batsmen batted brilliantly and set up the game nicely for the bowlers.

The experienced bowlers, Mohammad Amir and Wahab Riaz delivered and bowled really well. It is just fascinating to see as to how unpredictable this team can be. Even they themselves might not know which Pakistan team is going to turn up.