Zimbabwe started off with COW of 46% but lost 5 wickets in the powerplay overs to be 46/5 after 15 with COW of 37%. Only Taylor, Utseya and to some extent Cremer showed some fight but no one touched fifty as Zimbabwe eventually collapsed to 162 all out in 46.2 overs with a COW of 23%. Any hopes Zimbabwe had of winning vanished as 14 runs came off the first over as McCullum (76*) and Guptill (86*) gave their bowlers no chance to put pressure of them. They put together 166 runs in 33.3 overs as NZ won by 10 wickets.

Canada bowled very well against Pakistan, taking full advantage of slow conditions and the mercurial Pakistani batting. By the 17th over, Pakistan were 67/4 with a COW of 52%.A Partnership between Misbah and Umar Akmal steadied the raft of this Pakistan innings. However Pakistan could not protect themselves against another collapse as they failed to reach even 200, collapsing for 184 with chances even. Canada started slowly, infact too slowly. Once they openers departed the other looked to play for a draw forgetting that there was a target to be achieved. After a half-century 3rd wicket partnership, Shahid Afridi provided the breakthrough. Then the Afridi show continued , mesmerizing the Canadian batsmen. Yet another collapse followed as Canada crumpled to another sub 150 tota. The disappointing fact for Canada was that at point they actually had a half-decent chance of pulling an upset.

Netherlands took advantage of the early morning conditions to prevent South Africa from blasting away. South Africa were restricted to 60/2 with their COW on 55%. The arrival of de Villiers turned things around. Along with Amla, they began to gradually attack the Dutch bowling. At 108/2 at the midway theyir COW was 57%.It never went down from then on. Before long the pair went about toying with the bowling before butchering it ruthlessly. Duminy provided some fireworks later as South Africa hit 243 runs in the second half and ended with their COW on 83%. Netherlands were shell-shocked and after trying to make a fist of the chase, they gave up the ghost and shut shop. Their COW dropped to 1%, with 31 overs and 284 runs to go. Then on it was dreadful viewing because the Dutch folded quickly and rather embarrassingly for 120 all out within 35 overs.

With England’s COW at 52% we were expecting a possible cupset but the English had other plans. A blazing opening stand between KP and Strauss sent their COW soaring and despite Strauss getting out, they had reached 107/1 after 15 with COW of 63%. KP fell soon and COW started dipping but Trott and Bell revived the innings and prepared a platform for final assault and their wuick fifites helped England to 327/8 in 50 with COW of 77%. All hopes of cupset were evaporated. But Irish had other ideas. After a quick start they struggled to score and this led to 3 quick wickets as they were down to 113/5 after 25 with COW of 13%. All over right? But no, that wasn’t to be. Kevin O’Brien scored perhaps the greatest World Cup century ever and definitely the fastest as he, along with Cusack and Mooney took Ireland to victory as they scored 327/7 in 49.1 overs to record the first upset of the World Cup.

Kenya started out with 36%. It did not get netter than that. Kenya lost their openers before the team hit double digits. For a long while, the obuya brothers held the fort. They could not, though prevent the COW from dropping to 27%. They dogged it out and managed to get the COW to 32%, before the partnership was broken. A small partnership between David Obuya and Steve Tikolo was broken leaving Kenya at 120/4. Then in the death overs, Kenya lost the plot completely. More so against Malinga. Maling destroyed Kenya with his Yorkers, he took a hat-trick and finished with 6/38. Kenya had only 142 on the board and only a 17% chance. In the second innings, that evaporated instantly. Kenya’s bowling was below par, which the Sri Lankan batsmen exploited. In 18.4 overs, the match was over, with Kenya being beaten comprehensively.

COW Analysis :

West Indies started their innings and the match with a COW of 56%. That did not change much as the first 36 overs did not show much fluctuation in the COW. West Indies went a fairly sedate run-rate of 5.4. That changed when Kieron Pollard came to the crease following Chris Gayle. At 199/3 with a COW of 57%, Pollard mauled the Dutch bowling with 60 off 7. West Indies ended with 330 and their COW ended up at 68%. The Dutch innings was disappointing to say the least. By the 11th over, Netherlands was 37/5 and their COW was at 82%. The hero of the previous match, ten Doeschate was out for 7. Netherland’s COW dropped to 1% by the 26th over, when they were hopelessly lost at 78/6. A flicker of excitement came , when Kemar Roach took a hat-trick and ended the match. He finished with 6/27 and Netherlands at 115.

Zimbabwe lost Taylor off the first ball and soon found themselves at 22-2 after 7 with COW of 50%. Taibu (98) and Ervine (85) then put together 181 runs before 3 quick wickets saw them stumble to 201 for 5 after 34 with COW of 62% and they ended with 298/9 with COW of 61%. Zimbabwe got off to an even worse start and were tottering at 7 for 3 after 6 with COW of 26%. They could never recover from it and once Cheema fell in the 23rd over it was all but over as they were skittled out for 123 all out in 42.1 overs.

COW Analysis:

The First Tied match covered by COW and one of the most exciting matches for COW as well. This match started innocuously enough, by that we meant tons of runs. From 54% , India ran away with the COW. A brilliant century by Tendulkar allied with marvelous half-centuries by Yuvraj and Gambhir shot the COW up to 64% by the time Tendulkar got out in the 39th over. After that everyone started slogging, hitting a few missing a few, but enough to get India to 338 all out with India’s chances at 67%. Munaf made a slight mistake when he forgot to ground the bat, getting a run short but more on that later. England started positively and by the 10th over, England were 77/1 pushing their COW to 38%. After the wicket of Trott, Bell and Strauss began making a mockery of the total, scoring runs at will. With 8 overs to go, 8 wickets in hand and60 runs to get England’s chances were at 68%. Then the turnaround began, a brilliant spell by Zaheer Khan prised out 3 wickets and England found themselves in deep trouble. A six here and there, got a brilliant tie and in the end, cricket was the winner.

COW Analysis :

After a sluggish start Pakistan’s innings picked up well before Kamran Akmal made sure Hafeez was run out. By then they were 78/2 in 14 with COW of 52%, a 7% rise. After Kamran lost his wicket stupidly, Misbah and Younis set the platform for a 300+ score with their fifties but tight bowling at death restricted them to 277/7 with COW of 56%. After a steady start Sri Lanka looked in spot at 72/0 but 4 quick wickets saw them fall to 98/4 after 22 with COW of just 33%. Sangakkara, Dilshan and Silva all got going but no one stayed till the end as Sri Lanka ended at 266/9, short by 11 runs.

Bangladesh started their innings with a bang, reaching their 50 in the 6th over and getting their COW to 55%. Bangladesh soon fell apart as they lost 4 quick wickets and slumped to 86/4 with their COW on 51%. A 5th wicket partnership took them to 147 in the 34th over before they lost 4 more wickets and left struggling at 172/8 with their COW at 36%. Some streaky shots at the end pushed them to 205 and they ended with a COW at 38%. Ireland started slowly and their COW began to dip and dipped even further when they lost 2 wickets in the first powerplay reducing their chances to 58%. Bangladesh then tightened their grip on the match and inched ahead after they took the 5th wicket leaving Ireland at 111/5. Despite a few hits from Kevin O’Brien, the COW was moving in Bangladesh’s direction. When the 6th wicket fell in the 37th over, Bangladesh’s chances was at 58%. Bangladesh then finished the remaining wickets quickly and won by 27 runs.

New Zealand started with their COW on 46%. From the outset, their chances dropped to 42%, when both openers were dismissed early on. Bigger shocks awaited them later on, when 4 wickets fell in the span of as many overs leaving them on 73/6. Their COW also dropped to as low as 34%. Their innings was later stabilized by How and Nathan McCullum who took the innings to 121 before How was dismissed. Vettori and McCullum combined to give the New Zealand innings a semblance of respectability. They ended on 206 and their COW on 30%. Australia’s innings began was different matter though. Australia’s fantastic start made their COW zoom upwards. By the 18th over, their COW was at 98% and their score was at 133/0. Australia was at such a strong position that 3 wickets later made no impact and Australia won comfortably by 7 wickets.

West Indies started the match with a COW of 41% and that dipped further when Gayle fell in the first over. Darren Bravo and Devon then got a century partnership to put West Indies at 115/1 after 24 overs with a COW of 44%. 3 overs and 3 wickets later, West Indies COW was back to 39%. Dwayne Bravo and Chanderpaul then tried to revive the innings again before Bravo, who was palying well got run-out. West Indies kept Pollard at No.8 at delayed taking the powerplay which backfired after Chanderpaul got out and West Indies collapsed from 209/5 to 222 all out. Their COW also dropped from 39% to 34%. In the 2nd Innings, West Indies surprised South Africa by picking up 2 early wickets. With Amla and Kallis, West Indies chance shot up to 38% in the 5th over. It all went downhill from there as Smith and de Villiers got runs fairly quickly. By the time Smith was out in the 30th over, South Africa’s COW was at 75%. From that point , Duminy and de Villiers clinically finished the match very easily with de Villiers getting a match-winning century.

COW Analysis :
Pakistan started off as if they had traveled back in time and were facing Marshall and Garner at Kingston. They struggled against Kenyan attack and stumbled to 12/2 after 7 with their COW down to 54%. Kamran and Younis scored sedate fifties to lay a solid platform and then Misbah and Umar raised the momentum with their fifties as 70 runs came in 3rd Power Play. Pakistan ended with 317/7 with COW of 72%. Kenyan resistance started crumbling in 10th over when Waters was run out with Kenya at 37/1 with COW of 20%. At 79/3 after 27 overs they looked like they drag it to the full fifty overs but 7 wickets fell in 6.1 overs as Afridi ripped through them with a 5/16 and the match ended with Kenya all out for 112 in 33.1 overs.

COW Analysis:
When Netherland chose to bat we thought we were in for an early trip home. But few overs in to the match we were glad it wasn’t to be. Kervezee, Barresi and Cooper all got starts but couldn’t convert them. After 4wickets fell, NED were 149/4 in 33rd over with COW of 39% and it looked like a collapse was imminent. But a whirlwind century by Ryan ten Doeschate and cameos by de Grooth and Borrens saw NED fight back and post a fighting 292/6 with a COW of 48%. England started off at a blistering pace and by the time KP got out for an unusually slow 39, England were 105/1 after 18 overs with COW of 55%. But once Strauss fell for a rapid 88, NED’s slow bowlers started tightening the things and in the end in boiled down to 33 runs off 24 balls and the experience of Collingwood and Bopara saw them squeeze home.

Australia started the match with the COW in their favour at 59%, but Zimbabwe used the innovative policy of opening with their miserly spinners which stifled the Asutralian scoring rate reducing their COW to 52% by the 18th over, when Australia were only 52%. The arrival of Ponting brought some life in the innings as they played their shot and got Australia to 140/1 after the 31st over, increasing their chances to 58%. When both of them went in quick succession, the innings slowed again and dipped to 50%, before Clarke displayed some long overdue shots along with the middle order to take Australia’s score to 262 and their COW to 60%. After some initial resistance, the Zimbabwean innings slipped, fell and never rose again. When the 5th wicket fell in the 22nd over, Zimbabwe’s COW was at 90%. Australia however did not manage to finish off the match till the 47th over, by which time the COW had been locked at 1% since the last 7 overs.

Sri Lanka won the toss and batted first . While they might have expected a run fest, Canada’s bowlers bowled a good line and length that did not allow Sri Lanka to break free and after 21 overs, Sri Lanka was at 97/2 and their COW had dropped to 59%. From then on Sangakkara and Mahela began to build a humongous partnership. By gradually accelerating, Sri Lanka managed to get their COW from 59% to 73% by the time the partnership was broken up in the 40th over. A few hits here and there ensured that Sri Lanka’s ended with their chances on 78%. Canada was always going to find the going tough and after they lost their first 3 wickets for 12, their chances had dropped to 15%. Jimmy Hansra then proceeded to push Canada’s COW downwards with an a masterful display of pointlessness scoring 10 of 49 balls. Hansra fell and Bagai followed soon after, and with that Canada’s COW fell to 1%.The point of interest from then on was going to be the margin of defeat and a few hits from Cheema got that down to 210 runs.

COW Analysis:
New Zealand started the match with a with a huge pre-match COW of 60%. Kenya did not help their chances playing too slowly in the first powerplay. The horror show was yet to begin and Kenya by the time Kenya lost their second wicket with the score at 40, the COW was still at a respectable 36%. 12 overs later, their innings was in utter shambles while the Kenyan batsmen spent longer time walking back to the pavilion than running between the wickets .Kenya crumbled to 69 , and COW gave them only a 14% chance of winning at that point. 2 overs into the New Zealand innings, Kenya’s chances was at 1%, thankfully the butchery ended quickly and New Zealand won extremely easily with 42 overs and 10 wickets in hand.

COW Analysis:
Bangladesh won the toss and decided to field. That was the only positive for Bangladesh in the match as it went downhill from then on. Sehwag showed crackling form from the 1st ball on, which he smashed for four. From then the COW went climbing skywards as Sehwag, allied with Tendulkar, Gambhir and Kohli tucked into the Bangladesh bowling. Kohli in particular helped COW go upwards by 16%. By the time Sehwag was dismissed, India’s COW was at an impregnable 75%. India ended with a total of 370/4 and a COW of 78%. Bangladesh needed something really special to even give them a glimmer of hope (It turned to be an over by Sreesanth that increased their COW to 25%). Bangladesh fought valiantly but the required rate shot upwards and their chances dropped downwards. By the 22nd over, their chances were in single digits, and by the 36th over, their chances dropped to 1% and flattened out from then out. Bangladesh’s chances were not helped by a restrained Tamim Iqbal and a very delayed batting powerplay. By the time Shakib Al Hasan got a fighting half-century the result was a foregone conclusion and the only thing to look forward to was whether Munaf Patel would get his maiden five-for (he didn’t). Bangladesh batted till the end scoring 283 and losing by 87 runs.