SL are certainly a good bet. On their day they can beat any team, as they have a number of matchwinners with both bat/ball - Jayasuriya, Sangakarra, Jayawardene, Murali, Vaas and Malinga.

Pakistan are due to have things 'click' for them by the time the World Cup starts. Past form doesnt really mean much when it comes to them.

As far as the bookies are concerned, Australia will be favourites, with South Africa second favourites, followed by India, and then Pakistan.

Order of favouritism-

Australia
South Africa
India
Pakistan
Sri Lanka
England
West Indies
New Zealand
Bangladesh, Zimbabwe, and the rest

For me:

Aus
SA
SL
Pak
WI
India
England
NZ

Aus will lose in the semis...

South Africa for me.

aus
sl
eng
pak
wi
ind
sa
nz

quote:

For me:

Aus
SA
SL
Pak
WI
India
England
NZ

Aus will lose in the semis...

Bit of a contradiction. Surely then Aus should be third on your list?

Saffies are bloody' habitual WC chokers. This time they will face more quality teams than before, so i won't rate them fer this one. Indians are too inconsistant at the moment to really make an impact. An' they make fer worse chokers than the Springboks. Barring their top 3, the Indians are full of bloody' FTBs. They will undoubtedly struggle consistantly against good bowling attacks.

My bets are on:

Aus
WI
SL
Pak
NZ
SA

quote:

Originally posted by The reticulated sage:

quote:

For me:

Aus
SA
SL
Pak
WI
India
England
NZ

Aus will lose in the semis...

Bit of a contradiction. Surely then Aus should be third on your list?

Those are the bookies odds I would expect to find (Aus are definitely favourites). However even though Aus are the best (ie favourites) I feel they will slip up along the way. After all overwhelming favourites often fall short (Brazil WC 06), and any team can lose in a one-off game (semis).

I'll take the outsiders Holland at 500/1 to beat Australia in the finals by a margin of 110 runs.
Holland 152
Aus 42 for 6 ..

Rain - D/L method awarded the game to Holland.

MOM - de Witt.

The first team to show consistency over the latter stages of a WC can win it.

quote:

Originally posted by JGK:
Although with the form Pak is in, they are probably going to win it.

Not if they "play" like they did in Cape Town today. Pakistan all out for 107 SA won by 10 wickets with 36 overs to spare.

quote:

Originally posted by Vermin of Rottnest:
By ‘anyone’ I assume you mean ‘anyone, apart from Bangladesh, Bermuda, Canada, Ireland, Kenya, Netherlands, Scotland and Zimbabwe’.

Well you never know, didn't Greece beat the favourites to win the Euro cup in 2004? Awful moment!

Greece beat France (reigning champions) in the QF, Czech (form team) in the semis and Portugal (hosts) in the final. They subsequently failed to qualify for WC 2006.

quote:

Originally posted by Mo-Mo:
For me:

Aus
SA
SL
Pak
WI
India
England
NZ

Aus will lose in the semis...

if aus will lose in semis then why you got them as 1?

quote:

Originally posted by *England*:

quote:

Originally posted by Mo-Mo:
For me:

Aus
SA
SL
Pak
WI
India
England
NZ

Aus will lose in the semis...

if aus will lose in semis then why you got them as 1?

see my earlier post...those are the list of favourites based on form/ability. Even though Aus are the best on paper (favourites), I still believe they will slip up...

Aus are harder to beat in the final and semi-finals
Aus not qualifying for the semis is the best chance for someone else winning the world cup

Aus are easy to beat, you just need to up the game a bit more. McGrath ain't no threat no more. He's lost quite a bit and his action has changed a bit(I suspoct a lil chuck). And their main man Warne has hit the OAP queue.

South Africa to beat Australia in the final, at a guess.
Senior and myself are flying out at the weekend to see the World Cup.
Should be good fun.

You sure Lenny and Karl will be able to look after the power plant all by themselved?

quote:

Originally posted by Adelaide Al:
South Africa to beat Australia in the final, at a guess.
Senior and myself are flying out at the weekend to see the World Cup.
Should be good fun.

it is the WI part of the caribbean not orida

Plunkett is the new Gough.

OMFG.
'Festive in-crowd' members in stoooopid replies shock!
LMFAO.

As it happens, ya sooks, pa and i have been doing 60 and sometimes 70-hour weeks, since the new year, to get stuff finished to allow us to take almost 2 months off now and, since the four of us have never spent any time in The Caribbean, we're doing it whilst the WC is on.

But PLEASE don't let thought of you and all the other 'fic' members working away at the library, whilst we are at the World Cup, in the sun/on the beach/at the cricket/doing exactly as we please for 58 days, spoil your year!

Just continue to make the highlight of your day/week constant unfriendly replies here, you know, so you don't break any moulds or anything!

Sri lanka will win back the World Cup...if not then maybe South Africa but I just don't see that incompetent team called Australia win. Their glory days ended with McGraths decline.

Pakistan are capable of the odd shock result, they have too much individual talent not to be the case, but you just don't see them stringing enough good results together to win the WC.