Team of the tournament
There's some tough selections when trying to work out the team of the tournament, but I've ended up going for a team with 9 of the 11 coming from the semi-finalists.
Honourable mentions for those that got edged out go to Murali, Ajantha Mendis, Ray Price, Lee, Malinga and Kemar Roach in the bowling department, ten Doeschate in the batting all-rounder department, and Tharanga, Trott, Jayawardene, Dhoni and Clarke as batsmen. In fact, how about this for a World Cup 2nd XI: Tharanga, Trott, Jayawardene, Clarke, Dhoni (c), ten Doeschate, Lee, Roach, Mendis, Price, Murali? Perhaps a bit of a long tail so you could potentially drop Lee and play Watson to open with Tharanga and drop the other batsmen down a slot, while still keeping a (lesser) bowling option.
1st XI:
Dilshan (SL)
Tendulkar (India)
Sangakkara (SL (c) - edges out Dhoni with an average of nearly double Dhoni's 48)
de Villiers (SA)
Yuvraj Singh (India)
Taylor (NZ)
Oram (NZ)
Afridi (Pakistan)
Khan (India)
Southee (NZ)
Tahir (SA)
3 from winners India, (surprisingly?) 3 from New Zealand, 2 from Sri Lanka, 2 from South Africa and 1 from Pakistan.
Any glaring omissions? Looking at it again I wonder if ten Doeschate should play ahead of Oram to lengthen the batting even more, given that the top 6 already includes two all-rounders who'll bowl plenty of overs in Yuvraj and Dilshan....
World Cup batting total runs list.
World Cup bowling total wickets list.
3 comments:
One glaring omission. Who would you rather face - Dale Steyn or Timothy Southee?
I would also have Dhoni ahead of Oram. No reason to not have him in the side as well as Sangakkara. The guy is an absolute legend after all. Did he, or did he not, just hit a six to win the world cup?
Both fair shouts. I'd like to get Dhoni in, but Taylor was significantly better in this particular tournament than Dhoni when it comes to batting alone, without taking into account the constant pressure Dhoni was under. An average of 15 more with 6 higher strike rate per hundred balls and the most sixes in the tournament. However, Dhoni's captaincy would be great to add so I'd always have him in my world side (as opposed to the team of the tournament). I went for Taylor but I'm persuadable!
Steyn - very valid point. Steyn played less matches so had less wckets, but bowled very well and I overlooked him!
Despite your comment Pete, I definitely think my XI is superior to Cricinfo's! They have 2 Englishmen in it for starters - I don't think many would have one in there.
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