World Cup semi-finalists decided

South Africa have joined Australia, New Zealand and Sri Lanka in the semi-final list after whipping England at Barbados. It is fair to say that the four best sides of the tournament will play the semis, for none of the other contenders with a long shot, England and West Indies, have played well enough to deserve a place in the last four.

Although the remaining games are of academic interest since the semis lineup is already decided, what will be of interest is who plays who in the semi finals at Jamaica and St. Lucia. If Australia win against New Zealand, they will obviously top the table. That would also more or less ensure that Sri Lanka would be #2 assuming Sri Lanka whip Ireland today. Even if Australia lose to New Zealand, as long as it isn't a humiliating defeat, their net run-rate will ensure that they will top the table. South Africa's net run rate is the lowest of the four. It is so low that it would take some strange and terrible cricket from the other teams to allow South Africa to improve their ranking. So it is very very likely that the semi-final lineup would be Sri Lanka v New Zealand on 24 April at Jamaica and Australia v South Africa at St. Lucia.

Most of the games in Jamaica in this World Cup have been low-scoring ones, Pakistan v Zimbabwe where Pakistan made 349 being the only time a side made 250 at the ground. St. Lucia seems to have assisted batsmen a little more, with 3 scores above 250.

We're now finally nearing the business end of the tournament, and it feels ridiculous that although the semi-finalists are decided, we've to wait for nearly another week before the first semi-final! I really hope that the ICC and the organizers of the 2011 World Cup do something about the scheduling so that people retain interest in the tournament.

Labels: 2007 world cup, australia, england, new zealand, south africa, sri lanka, world cup