With the last eight stage done and dusted, it’s safe to say that the four best teams of the World Cup find themselves in the semi-finals. Fittingly, Australia, India, South Africa and New Zealand are also the top four ICC ranked ODI teams at the moment. So while the quarter-finals were largely disappointing, I’m fairly confident the semi-finals will be a much different story.

If there was one quarter-final final that got exciting at one stage, it was the Australia-Pakistan clash at Adelaide. And that was mainly due to an inspired hostile spell of fast bowling from Wahab Riaz.

As a former fast bowler, I’d have been able to appreciate it that much more had it come against any other side. But when he dismissed skipper Michael Clarke to leave us three down for 59, there would surely have been butterflies floating around the tummies of any Australian cricket fan.

Watson was next in the firing line and things certainly could have got more tense had Rahat Ali not spilled what should’ve been a routine catch.

Where Pakistan really lost the game was with the bat. Without taking anything away from the Aussie attack, Pakistan were often guilty of some ordinary shot selection.

They ended up with 213 when they needed at least 260 to 270 to stand a chance. And when you’re defending a score that low on a relatively good wicket, your bowling and fielding have to be near perfect which, in Pakistan’s case, wasn’t.

The last quarterfinal between West Indies and New Zealand also witnessed a costly error in the field that led to one of the finest knocks you’ll ever see in one-day cricket. Martin Guptill was on three when he was dropped by Marlon Samuels.

He was in no generous mood thereafter and went on to finish unbeaten on 237. The highlight of his innings was the way he resorted to normal cricket shots till he got to three figures and then went on to improvise.

I can’t pay him a higher compliment than say it was simply a masterclass in how to build an innings and then finish it.

Chasing 393 is clearly a monstrous task but West Indies would have done well to emulate Guptill’s approach. Instead it seemed like they came out to the middle without any basic batting plan.

They needed to keep wickets in hand till the 30th over or so and then try to maximize in the final 20. But they came out just looking to have a go from ball one. And, as we saw, that approach is only going to prove effective till a certain point.

Ahead of the tournament, I had predicted a final between the two host nations. That possibility very much exits, and though fans in India and South Africa are surely going to disagree with me, I’m sticking with my original call.

By Special Arrangement for Dawn

Published in Dawn March 22nd , 2015

On a mobile phone? Get the Dawn Mobile App: Apple Store | Google Play