And The World Cup Goes To…

The World Cup, biggest cricketing event of all time, is back this year and is bigger and better. This year’s winner will get a record 4 million dollars and the runners up will receive 2 million dollars.

The top eight teams in the ICC ODI rankings and the two finalists of the ICC World Cup Qualifier 2018 will be participating in this tournament. Those ten teams are- England, India, South Africa, Pakistan, Australia, West Indies, Sri Lanka, New Zealand, Afghanistan and Bangladesh.

The 48-match long tournament will begin on May 30 and will end on July 14. Ten warm-up games will be played before the tournament with each team playing two matches, starting May 24.

The tournament will be played in the round robin method which was used in the ’92 world cup. In this method, each team play a match with every other team, that is, each team here will play nine matches. The top 4 teams will qualify for the semi-finals. Winners of semi-finals 1 and 2 will compete for the title in Lord’s.

The flat-as-pancake pitches in England will serve the batsmen greatly. Scores of over 300 will be no big deal. The current England-Pakistan series has had scores of 373, 361, 358, 359, 340 and 341. The highest and second-highest ODI team totals have been scored in England. Scores of over 500 are expected this World Cup.

Hosts England will be starting as favourites with their amazing batting line-up. India will be no less with the world’s best batsman, best bowler, best keeper, best finisher, and best openers on their side. Australia is performing brilliantly as they had beat India 3-2 and whitewashed Pakistan 5-0 recently. Pakistan has always been one of the difficult teams to beat and they were the winners of the last ICC Champion’s Trophy. The Windies have the big guns in the form of Chris Gayle, Andre Russell, Shimron Hetmyer, Evin Lewis and Shai Hope. New Zealand has a great top order and the likes of Trent Boult, Ish Sodhi and Mitchell Santner. South Africa is a dangerous side with their key players in great touch. Clearly, no one can tell who will win the World Cup this year.