Cricket Herald's Dylan Cleaver offers three quick singles from CWC15.
1. 300-plus totals are the new normal. Think back to the last time the tournament was held in this part of the world. Just twice did teams pass 300, and both were in the same game, when Sri Lanka chaseddown Zimbabwe's 312-4 with four balls to spare. That game was played at New Plymouth's Pukekura Park, a ground not much larger than a tennis court. In 2015, teams batting first posted 300+ totals in the first five games but, ironically, Ireland was the only team to launch a successful chase. What we saw in the first four games was a lot of panic chasing. Teams are going to have to learn to structure their chase a lot better as the tournament heads towards the sharp end.
2. What to make of New Zealand. They're unbeaten, that's a positive. They've essentially guaranteed themselves a quarter-final, so that's another positive. However, they did let their standards slip in that small run chase against Scotland, losing seven wickets hunting down 142. The "we were only chasing RPO" argument is a flimsy one, because this New Zealand batting line-up should be able to score at 6 per over against Scotland any day of the week - at Dunedin they scored at 5.87, so that doesn't quite compute. Still, it's only a small blip, don't panic.
3. The minnows deserve their place in the sun and have so far added to the tournament. Ireland won, Scotland fought to the end against New Zealand and Afghanistan worried Bangladesh early before launching an insipid chase. Today's match between Zimbabwe and UAE at Nelson is not one to set the pulses racing, but Zimbabwe showed enough in their loss to South Africa to make their worth keeping an eye on.
