**Official Cricket World Cup Thread**

[skp]

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I really like South Africa this year as they have sooooo much talent and their batting order is ridiculously good.

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I think that RSA will not do as well as expected even though they are ranked No. 1 at this time. The West Indian pitches are going to assist spinners. RSA is one of the few teams that lacks a top notch spinner. Guys like Ntini are going to bleed runs on these pitches. Pollock should however be very effective given his ability to bowl in the corridor time in and time out.

I love India's chances. Their batting has alaways been good but on spin-friendly pitches, their bowling is going to look pretty good too. They have two top notch spinners in Kumble and Singh and can get some useful spin overs from Tendulkar, Sehwag, and Yuvraj.

For Sri Lanka, Murali and Bandara are going to be a handful with the ball.

I pick India, Sri Lanka, Oz and RSA to make the final 4. For the final, it depends on how the semis match up:

I like India over RSA and Sri Lanka but not over Oz (OZ have the wood on India).

I like OZ over RSA and India but not Sri Lanka.

I like Sri Lanka over RSA and OZ, but not over India.

Now that those predictions are out of the way, I sure hope that the Pakistan vs. England final turns out to be better than the last two finals [img]/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img]