Team of the Quarterfinals

          

                                       Team of the Quarterfinals

An honest analysis of the ICC Cricket World 2015 reveals there is neither any such thing has so far happened and nor going to happen, that could be called upset or unexpected. The eight teams qualified to the quarterfinals all are Test playing nations and the four that has reached to the semis all were pre tournament favorites.

And also, all the quarterfinals were more or less one-sided, as the hosts Kiwis and Kangaroos faced little resistance from West Indies and Pakistan, defending champion easily knocked out Bangladesh and ever- favourite Protease didn’t give any margin to Sri Lankans to survive further.

Martin Guptil’ record 237 runs were the reasons that New Zealand piled up a hefty total and as usually their bowlers defended it well specially the leading wicket taker Trent Boult who took 4 for 44. Both of them are included in the Team of the Quarterfinals.

In similar manner India’ Rohit Sharma (137 runs) together with Suresh Raina (65) set before Bangladesh a tough target and Umesh Yadev was pivotal in defending it with his 4 for 31. This Indian trio is a definite component of the team with Suresh Raina (having small experience of captaincy) to lead it.

The Aussies bowlers Hazlewood and Glenn Maxwell didn’t allow Pakistan batting lineup to pile up any handsome total by notching 4 and 2 wickets respectively and while chasing Steve Smith kept his nerve calm and composed in his defiant 65-run inning.

Similarly the South African wicket keeping opener Quinton de Kock’ not out 78 runs did matter most while chasing a meager target after South African bowlers demolished the strong Sri Lankan batting line up, and amongst them the leggie Imran Tahir was the main destroyers with 4 for 26 figure.

In the last, Pakistan’ Wahab Riaz, though, belongs to a losing side of quarterfinal team but his fiery and perhaps one of the events best spells cannot keep him outside from this team. Although, he is credited with just two scalps in that match but he was unfortunate as if a set of catches were not dropped on his bowling, the outcome would have been different.