This Week In Cricket (24/1/2011 - 30/1/2011)

Australia - England One Day Series

For the audience's and organizer's(mainly) sake, England won the last match to keep the series alive but tough to keep the interest levels high in a 7 match series in this fast paced world. England have some injuries that could prove beneficial in the world cup preparations. Flower and co must be relieved after Prior's knock in the 4th match else their pragmatic decision would have looked like utter foolish; this is the kind of fine line between good and bad decision in sports.

World Cup Thoughts
1. India and SA seem to be front runners at this point of time considering the kind of batting and all round fire power they posses respectively.
2. It might actually come down to teams with match winning bowlers with pitches favoring batsmen and this is where Australia have a chance with Lee and Tait with their express pace and swing.
3. Bangladesh will be the team to watch with conditions favouring them.
4. Batting second will be an advantage with due problem in the evening but interestingly this could balance out the ever present batting first advantage in cricket.

finally..
World cup could be an opportunity for players to impress some of the IPL franchises; this is true if you follow football and have noticed how players use FIFA world cup as launch pad for their professional careers.