Mystic Morgan’s World Cup Tips

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The World Cup is about to begin and that means one thing: it’s time to don a stupid costume, put lots of eye make-up on and gaze mystically into a crystal ball. Who will be crowned world champions at the end of March? Which players will light up the tournament? How badly will England lose to Scotland?

I’m sure you’ve all read plenty of tournament previews by now. You’ll find undoubtedly the best World Cup Preview on this page (I can’t recommend the author more, wink, wink); therefore there seems little point in doing an identical thing here. Instead, I’ll just give you some random thoughts and predictions.

Like many observers, I can’t see past Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. And as I expect the Cricketboks to collapse in a heap when the pressure’s on, just like they do every World Cup, I really think it’s Australia’s to lose.

Although I love the idea of New Zealand upsetting the hosts in front of a packed MCG crowd, and I imagine the Kiwis will reach the semis at least, I’m still not convinced they believe they can win it all. Somehow I suspect they’ll be happy just to reach the final.

I am full of admiration for Brendon McCullum, and believe Kane Williamson could emerge as one of the stars of the tournament, but it’s incredibly difficult for a traditional underdog to take that final step. Cricket is a mental game in many respects, and it will take something special for the Kiwis to beat their big neighbours in a grand final.

I know this will make me about as popular as an extra training session at the end of a long ODI, but I think it’s inevitable Australia will triumph on home soil. Normally it takes an Asian nation to knock them out; but I can’t see that happening this time.

In fact, after watching England beat India twice in the tri-series, it wouldn’t surprise me if all the Asian nations get knocked out in the quarter-finals. It would be sad if this happens, but it could be on the cards.

I would love to be proved wrong, as India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka have some of the best batsmen in world cricket and are always entertaining to watch, but I expect the likes of Mitchell Johnson and Dale Steyn to intimidate their lesser players. There will be odd moments of brilliance from the likes of Misbah and Sangakkara, but these guys can’t carry their teams on their own for long.

Furthermore, as the ICC crackdown on illegal actions, and the pitches are likely to favour seam bowlers, I can’t see mystery spin playing too much of a role. Orthodox finger spinners also tend to struggle somewhat down under. India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka look short of firepower.

As I think few people will disagree with the above – although please feel free to call me a clueless muppet – I thought it would be interesting to discuss who could be the individual stars of the tournament. Obviously we all expect the likes of Johnson, Steve Smith and AB De Villiers to perform miracles, but who are the under-the-radar players to watch?

I’m going to stick my neck out here and predict that Jos Buttler could make a big impact – and end up with a tempting IPL offer to boot.

I don’t expect England to progress past the semi-finals at best, but I can see Jos playing a few blinders along the way – especially now he’s our official vice captain (which should have given him a confidence boost).

Although we’re all familiar with what Jos can do, I still think he’s a relative unknown (or at least unproven) on the big stage. Temperament is incredibly important in World Cups, and I think we’ve all seen enough of Buttler to know that he thrives under pressure. I have a sneaking feeling that some Jos magic might just win England an important match they’re expected to lose. Hopefully this will come in the quarter-finals.

Other players I’m looking forward to seeing are Quinton de Kock (which roughly translates as Quinton the Chicken according to my Afrikaans-to-English textbook), Umar Akmal (who is a distant relative of Admiral Ackbar), and Imran Tahir (whose name is just a little too hard to take the piss out of).

I also have a sneaking suspicion that Eoin Morgan will …. score no runs whatsoever. I hope I’m wrong.

Enjoy the cricket everyone. Feel free to revisit this thread in six weeks time when all my predictions go belly up and Bangladesh romp to a ten wicket win against Afghanistan in the final.

James Morgan
Written in collaboration with 888 Sport

27 comments

  • I’ve got a sneaky feeling Sri Lanka will be really poor. Of course the way the tournament is set up even that should be good enough for the Quarter Finals but I think they could throw in some shockers.

    Big England hope is the return of Finn. This was the tournament we all hoped he’d shine in. It’s been a rocky road but somehow he’s got here.
    Hoping he comes good.

  • I really do think England have been hiding their light under a bushel, and have more than enough ability to surprise a few. I’m not brave enough to predict they’ll win it, but, could certainly predict they’ll get knocked out in the semis. Considering where they were after Sri Lanka a semi final knockout would be as good as a win in my book! :-)

  • Have you got the same Afrikaans – English dictionary as Strauss?

    De Kock would either come from:
    dutch (De Kock = The Cook) that will please Alistair or
    french (du coq = the cock) that will upset Strauss:

    Know your chicken from your cock
    or your doos from your c…

    So at least one Cook is playing…

  • Mystic Morgan,
    Firstly may I say that the picture is a “beauty” and dressed like that you would not have been out of place at the Australian opening ceremony.
    After a day at work and looking for some light entertainment I came across a replay of the Aussie event in Melbourne. The venue is a marvelous place, even if it is more suited to Carols by Candlelight ( an event I have attended there) but the content ? Well can anyone tell me if they have ever sat and watched a programme/event on their own and felt so embarrassed that they cringe. I Cringed and glowed red. Luckily I did not see all the acts and don’t know if England were represented by Morris Dancers or not but as a Scot the performance of the band and dancers made me shout in anguish. The Afghanis sang, the Bangladeshis danced as did the Sri Lankans and three Aussie girls supposedly from the AEU but the most ludicrous was the West Indian performance by an oil drum calypso band composed of white Australians. The Saffers did a fairly entertaining Gum Boot dance until one of the dancers lost his electronic mike link and the Zimbos (white girls) sang a song that was thankfully cut short. Even the Aussies were poor. It really was abysmal and I can only hope that the Cricket we are going to see will be entertaining enough to erase this spectacle from my mind. Thankfully I am in my 60s so probably won’t have these memories too long.
    As I finish this diatribe the programme is coming to an end with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra playing the William Tell Overture. I did’nt even know the Swiss played cricket let alone were at the competition.

    May you all enjoy the cricket.

  • Oh ffs I have just been listening to BBC 5 lives preview of the World Cup. Agnew interviewed Morgan, and afterwards Agnew was asked how he thought Morgan was doing?

    I’m not making this up …..Agnew said he (Morgan) comes across as very confident, “but he is not a leary Irish person.”

    Is Agnew f**** retarded or something?

    He also could not contain himself with pointing out how poor his batting form has been. When it was pointed out he did score a hundred recently Agnew said “yes, but if you take that innings away he is averaging 9.” Funny I don’t seem to remember Agnew wanting to take away certain innings from Cook to reduce his average.

    He really is the new Alan Partridge.

  • On the IPL, I believe the player auction is on the 16th. Morgan, Bopara, Hales and Carberry are going for it that I know of.

    Players to not shine at this WC – anyone I’ve chosen in my alloutcricket Fantasy XI. Except Corey Anderson.

    • Surely Carbs might be a reasonable bet for the IPL after a fine big bash, but whether or not those franchises take notice of that I don’t know. The others recent form should rule them out if it is done on merit.

      As for players not to shine, Virat Kohli.

  • Taylor my tip to top the England run scoring chart. Will grind us to a few decent totals when the rest of the top order thorw it away. Not really had a chance to cut lose yet, but can get quick runs when needed as well (100 off 55 in the one day cup last season was a great innings). Amla for the most runs in the competition (the man is a machine). As for wickets, we are going to struggle beyond Anderson and poor shot selection. The two Mitches will blow away some of the weaker teams and finish top of the pile for wickets, Dale Steyn up there as well.

  • I have a sneaking suspicion that one or two finger spinners will shine. T20’s influence (see ABDV innings) is making it’s way into ODI batting. Only the very best pace bowlers will dominate – the others will just find they are helping the batsmen score boundaries. And so, we’ll see one or two slow bowlers prove valuable in slowing the scoring rate…

    • As a short aside, given all the whining when teams go to play on “raging bunsens” in the subcontinent, it seems odd that we can say that Aussie pitches favour a particular kind of bowler so much and there’s no issue…

  • I can’t believe that no one has called you a “cluesless muppet”; especially as you asked so politely.

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