All-round South Africa wallop Netherlands

A day after Ireland's heroics in Bangalore gave the Associates a major fillip, normal service resumed in Mohali where AB de Villiers and Hashim Amla reeled off contrasting hundreds to set up a hammering of Netherlands. Peter Borren elected to field under overcast skies, but things unraveled at an alarming rate after a disciplined show in the first quarter of the match. Amla overcame a sluggish start and focused on accumulation, while de Villiers shredded the attack in a blaze of big hits that was reminiscent of Herschelle Gibbs' assault in the last World Cup encounter between these two teams. South Africa's bowlers then backed up the batting with a near-perfect display to set up the fourth-biggest win in World Cup history.


Chasing 352, Netherlands' best chance of getting anywhere depended on the top order's ability to see off Dale Steyn and Morne Morkel. The openers played out six overs from South Africa's fastest bowlers, but Jacques Kallis ruined their efforts by snaring two quick wickets after coming in first-change. With the run-rate under control, Graeme Smith deployed his spinners on the lower order, and Netherlands sank without a trace, losing their last seven wickets for 39 runs against Imran Tahir and Robin Peterson.

The margin of victory completely eclipsed Netherlands' spirited efforts with the new ball. Their steady army of seamers stuck to tight lengths, and their accuracy left Smith prodding uncertainly from the outset, unsure of his footwork and indecisive in his outlook. After 31 balls of struggle, Smith had seen enough, and lost his leg stump while trying to shovel Bernard Loots across the line. Ryan ten Doeschate then won the first round in the battle of the prolific allrounders, strangling Kallis into glancing one down the leg side through to the wicketkeeper Wesley Barresi. At 58 for 2 in the 16th over, South Africa were in some strife. Thankfully for them, their two best batsmen in recent times were on hand to revive the innings. Even their most optimistic fans, though, would not have envisaged the emphatic manner in which the tide was turned.

Restless to put the failure against West Indies behind him, Amla tried to kick off his World Cup career by disregarding the lengths, and punching on the up. He nearly paid the price in Berend Westdijk's third over, when his drive fell just short of the man at short cover. In Mudassar Bukhari's next, he mishit another forcing shot through the off side, getting an inside edge that was pouched by Barresi on the bounce. Amla tightened his approach following the two reprieves, resorting to deflections behind square, and compact drives down the ground. His first eight balls yielded three fours, but he got only one more - a fortuitous inside edge to fine leg off ten Doeschate - on his way to a vital half-century.

As he had done against West Indies, de Villiers checked in with a surge of immaculate boundaries, flicking and cutting ten Doeschate for fours in the 18th over. They were shots of intent that changed the complexion of the game, ending a period of nearly ten overs in which South Africa's only boundary was Amla's edge to fine leg. de Villiers then went on to expose Netherlands' limitations, leaving the accumulation to Amla and throwing punches in all directions. He looted boundaries in all but two of the overs between 27 and 35, pinging boundaries in a comprehensive arc from third man to midwicket, with shots ranging from the revers- sweep to the slapped flick. While his improvisation was top class, the hallmark of his innings remained the trademark crunched cover-drives whenever the bowlers over-pitched.

Netherlands enjoyed a boundary-drought between overs 36 and 41, but it was clearly a case of the batsmen calibrating their guns for a final assault. Amla strolled to one of his quieter hundreds in the 40th over, and South Africa took the batting Powerplay soon after. de Villiers began the carnage by lapping Pieter Seelar for the first six of the innings, before reaching his century off 88 balls. His next ten deliveries brought him 34 runs, as he smashed Loots for three successive sixes and then ten Doeschate for a hat-trick of fours. Netherlands managed to dismiss both batsmen in quick succession, but it was scarce solace as the Powerplay went for 69. The fields fell back for the last four overs, but that did not seem to affect Duminy, who kept getting under length deliveries to swing four gleeful sixes. Netherlands must have known they were out of the game once South Africa finished with 351. Unfortunately, they did not have Kevin O'Brien in their ranks. 

Ponting's men brace for first real challenge

The World Cup is two weeks old, but Australia's challenge is yet to really begin. Only after Saturday's match against Sri Lanka, one of the pre-tournament favourites, will we really know how Ricky Ponting's men are placed in their quest for a fourth consecutive title. Only after they have faced down Lasith Malinga, Muttiah Muralitharan and Ajantha Mendis on home soil will the full picture begin to emerge. 

The points table says Australia have won two from two, and they've played 31 World Cup matches since their last defeat. In the light of Ireland's triumph over England, Australia's wins over Zimbabwe and an out-of-form New Zealand shouldn't be ignored, but nor did they reveal anything new about Ponting's outfit. The Tait-Lee-Johnson triumvirate are a handful for weaker batting orders, Shane Watson makes solid half-centuries, and quality spin can slow the Australians down. No surprises there. 

The two warm-ups were more instructive, coming as they did against the two favourites to win the World Cup. Australia were beaten by India and then crushed by South Africa, and in that company Zimbabwe and New Zealand look rather irrelevant. Ponting knows this clash with Sri Lanka, finalists at the previous World Cup and a team that triumphed down under earlier this season, is the big one, at least until the quarter-finals.

"It's a little bit hard to judge in the first two games, we really haven't been pushed too much in the first two games," Ponting said. "The Zimbabwe game was obviously a very easy win for us and then to bowl New Zealand out the way we did and then pick the runs off pretty easily, we weren't really tested in that game either. It's not so much what we've done in the games that I'm happy with, it's just the way we've approached every session so far." 

Seven days in Colombo has given them plenty of time to work in and, importantly, acclimatise to a more muggy heat than they experienced in India. It's seven years since the Australians have been to Sri Lanka, and although five members of the squad have played internationals there - Ponting, Watson, Lee, Michael Clarke and Brad Haddin - much has changed since then. 

That includes the Premadasa Stadium, which has undergone a major redevelopment, and Ponting doesn't expect the pitch to turn as much as the Australians had originally anticipated. All the same, Ray Price and his Zimbabwe colleagues showed that facing spin is not a strength of the Australian batsmen on the subcontinent. Muralitharan, at a ground where he's taken 107 international wickets, won't be any easier to handle, and nor will the mystery-man Mendis. 

It's in those middle overs against the spinners that Cameron White needs to stand up. The selectors have been impressed with White over the past year and gave him the captaincy for the final ODI against England last month, but this summer he's been scratchy as an old record. In the past, teams had watched White walk to the crease at No. 5 and feared his fireworks; now they see a man they can manacle to the crease.

And if it's not the slow bowlers who keep White and the middle order in check, it could be Malinga. His hat-trick and six-wicket haul against Kenya was a timely reminder that Tait isn't the only source of slingy missiles in the tournament. 

"We've played a fair bit against Malinga over the years," Ponting said. "He had a great game the other day against Kenya, and he looks like he's in pretty good form. He was one of the main focuses for us in the team meeting, talking about the right way to go about playing him. His bowling in the middle overs and with the older ball is particularly good." 

There's also a question over Australia's spinners. Ponting has been talking up Jason Krejza's efforts on the tour, but even against an otherwise wobbly New Zealand, he leaked a few too many runs, while Steven Smith faces a major battle against quality batsmen like Mahela Jayawardene and Kumar Sangakkara. 

It all adds up to an intriguing tussle, and Australia's first serious contest of the tournament. If Ponting's men come through with flying colours, they can justifiably be talked about among the favourites. If not, at least they'll know where they stand.

ICC meeting in May to decide new World Cup format

The ICC will meet in May to draft out the structure of the World Cup from 2015 and beyond, incorporating an ODI league and a clause regarding promotion and relegation into the tournament that could radically alter the course, not merely of the ICC's flagship event, but the 50-over format of the game itself. The decision to trim the World Cup down to ten teams has been vehemently criticised, particularly by cricket's smaller nations, but the new structure will ensure they get some level of participation. 

The ICC chief executive Haroon Lorgat told ESPNcricinfo that the ICC Board had to finalise its last piece of a global ODI league format and arrive at a cut-off for eligibility for the 10 teams due to take part in the 2015 World Cup. The purpose of this "cut-off" is to make both the new league, which will begin after the World Cup, and the ICC's ODI rankings meaningful. The ICC must decide how many teams at the bottom of the top ten ODI rankings will compete in a World Cup qualifying competition with the Associates to enter the World Cup. 

Lorgat said the ICC's board would decide what that cut-off should be. "Somewhere we have to make the cut-off. Who knows what that would be yet - eight or nine or seven. The cut-off means that teams ranked higher than the cut-off directly get into the World Cup. Whoever is left out, goes into a qualifier." 

Using the current ODI rankings to give a hypothetical example, should the cut-off for the next World Cup be fixed at seven, it would mean that Bangladesh and West Indies would not be guaranteed an automatic place in the next World Cup, but must play a qualifier with Ireland, Zimbabwe, Netherlands, Canada and Kenya to determine which three complete the ten-team field. Lorgat said, "That's where the Associates get the opportunity. They (the Associates) have obviously been disappointed (by the 10 team World Cup) because the more teams you make, the more teams can play (in a World Cup), but that's not top competition."

The first two weeks of this World Cup have produced a tie between two strong teams, an upset by the Irish over England and a scare given to Pakistan by Canada, and Lorgat said it had proved what the ICC had always said, that there is nothing wrong with 50-over cricket. What the ICC must handle now, he said, were issues "of context, of the right contest, in other words competitive teams, and scheduling. Those are what we need to address rather than the risk of the game becoming redundant." 

Despite the explosion of Twenty20 leagues after the 2007 World Cup, Lorgat said he did not think there had ever been a risk for the 50-over format. "We've always said three formats are viable, but what I was concerned about were self-fulfilling prophecies. We need to be careful we don't create self-fulfilling prophecies." 

The ODI league will be held over a three-year cycle leading up to the World Cup in its fourth year, with the member nations playing each other at least once over that three-year period, either home or away. The 'home or away' clause gives an allowance to countries like India who continue to keep away from making commitments to host some nations, largely due to reasons of financial unprofitability. 

India, in fact, is the only Full Member nation not to have hosted Bangladesh in a Test and the last time their 2011 World Cup co-hosts played an ODI in India was in 1998 as part of a triangular ODI series. Lorgat, however, said: "We can't ignore the fact that there are only 365 days of the year. There are some series that are bigger than others, we cannot forgo the fact that members determine bilaterally how much competition they have with each other." In the ODI league, he said, "India can choose to go and play Bangladesh in Bangladesh, if they happen to lose, that's the result, but that choice is up to the members." 

Lorgat said the first few games of the World Cup - until Ireland's defeat of England - had vindicated the ICC's decision to have a ten-team tournament in 2015. He said while he understood the frustration of the Associates, the World Cup had to address a balance between competitive games and extending opportunities across cricket. "You are always going to get a diverse view in terms of what is opportunity and what is competition, because you can't have both. If you provide opportunity, you're going to get some teams who are less competitive, because you have grown the field." 

The Associates, he believed, would have a better chance to succeed in the 16-team World Twenty20 because it was a format that "lent itself to competition. There is a bit more spice in that." Fifty-over cricket, he said, made it "difficult" for weaker teams who were trying to grow and yet find a way to "compete on overy occasion." In the 50-over format, Associates, he said, "might pull a blinder once or twice but over a sustained period of time, over a length of a competition, it is unlikely they will compete as strongly as the main teams." 

The proposals being discussed by the ICC are part of a "strategic restructure" that has taken place over the last 12-18 months. The World Cup "cut-off'" decision began in the ICC's working committee and is at the moment with the "governance group" because of the impact it could have on the Full Member nations. Cutting off the bottom three from a direct entry into the World Cup may well be strongly resisted from countries like Bangladesh or West Indies, one emerging and the other struggling, who may consider it a means of reducing their global significance and ensuring that stronger, richer nations can only tighten their clique.

One thing, though, is clear. Cricket's World Cup is never going to be the same again.