ICC Super Series
Posted by Rajesh on October 6, 2005
I got a chance to watch the first match between World XI and World #1 (Australia). It was a decent match. Here are my thoughts…….
This was my first match where I witnessed Super play and super substitute. Also there were some new rules tested during this series. THe Super play was understandable. The captain has a choice of 2 sets of 5 overs more to opt for restricted fielding. Pollock, captain of World XI opted for consecutive power plays. This kept me thinking…. If he has not take a single wicket in the first 10 overs, and with Glichrist and Katich in the crease, why not introduce spinners and opt the power play for later overs. This would restrict the australians. Actually thats what happened. When vittori and muttiah were bowling austrailans lost wickets to both of them and also slowed down a bit in scoring.
The other option of super substitute got me thinking even more. In the World XI side, Afridi was the super substitute. So muttiah bowled his overs and was replaced by afridi to bat. Funny thing is none of the great batsmen in the World XI team score significantly. Lara, Dravid, Sehwag, Pollock, Kallis scored in single digits. Now how can afridi make a difference? I mean before the match began, it makes sense to decide on that Afridi will be brought in. But he was sitting in the crowd all along and possibly when he came into play did not have any clue of how the game is shaping up. He might have been tooo cool to play 
. If it was Mr.Cool Inzy in that situation, he might have scored better, but we do not have him in the team.
Any way… atlast it was a good game to watch and I was late to work today
