5 things that this World Cup proved

There are many things that we have known for a long time, but this World Cup tried to prove all those things again. We have found a few things here that most would agree were proven in Sri Lanka in the last few weeks:

1. South Africa are chokers

Whether they admit it or not at the start of the tournament, they have to admit it at the end. Played like a champion side in the first stage, only to choke in the very first Super Eights game. Not only did they choke themselves, but they choked India as well.

2. Australia is always a favourite

They started the tournament at number nine in the world (a week before that they were at number 10, below Ireland), and therefore everyone predicted the West Indies to have an easy group. But it would be stupid to count out the Aussies, who won each of their first four games. However, when it mattered to India how the Australians performed, they played like minnows, and just about reached their preliminary 112-run target without worrying about original one, thus entering the semis.

3. Rohit Sharma can play only in the IPL

He does it, and does it big in the IPL, but when it comes to the international stage, instead of scoring hundreds, he scores zeros. He might have a split personality disorder, as he becomes someone else once he plays in the Indian jersey. Maybe he doesn’t like the Indian blue jersey, and should be given his IPL jersey so as to let him play his ‘natural’ game.

4. Pakistan can never win against India in World Cups

Pakistan were ecstatic when they won their warm-up game against India, but they didn’t realize that the World Cup hadn’t started yet. From now onwards, Pakistan and ICC should accept that they will not win against India, and give the points directly to India to save the time.

5. Afridi is a bowler now

He scored the fastest-ever hundred on his debut game, but as time has passed, he has slowly converted into an all-rounder, and now a bowler. The World Cup was the ideal platform to prove that he still had his batting skills with him. He batted at number seven or eight in his first couple of games, and then against SA went back for a first-ball duck. He should have been demoted to number 11, or at least below Umar Gul, but guess what! He came at number three in his next game against India, but still did nothing to prove his batting abilities.

There are two more things that didn’t made the list:

1. Pietersen is a hit with words as well

KP wasn’t allowed by the ECB to play in the World Cup, so he decided to play with words and became a TV pundit. He turned out to be very good at that too. His question and answer sessions with the likes of Gayle and Kohli were so funny and frank that he should be made a full-time expert. The other Peterson, called Robin, tried to fill in for KP by attempting switch-hits. He failed miserable though, and in the match against India got out twice (once off a no-ball, and the other off a free-hit) in two balls attempting switch-hits.

2. England can never play spin

They tried and tried hard, they changed a number of players, they came to the sub-continent many times, and experimented in order to play spin effectively. However. they certainly did not succeed. They even tried to drop their best player in KP to have a positive effect, but all in vain. They struggled against spinners from every team, even the lesser-known Afghani ones, and against India played bizarre strokes.