World Cup 2019: Rating the performances of the teams at the halfway point of the tournament
World Cup 2019 is well and truly into its business phase and despite few games being washed out due to rain, it has lived up to expectations in terms of cricketing standards if not for the surprising performances of few teams. We got to see how certain experiments and plans tried out by teams fared while we have got few injuries which have threatened to seriously expose the team in that area.
And with 25 games of this World Cup done and dusted, teams like South Africa and Afghanistan might as well be going back home after abysmal performances saw them get knocked out, although the Proteas have a slim mathematical chance of going through.
On the other hand, we have also seen some inspiring performances from teams who have performed very well.
With the points table shifting after every fixture and every game growing in importance, let's take a look at the performances of the teams thus far and rate them.
South Africa
Games Played: 6 |Games Won: 1 |Games Lost: 4| No Result: 1
Rating: 4/10
South Africa are in a really bad place in the points table with 1 win from 6 games and are virtually knocked out of the tournament. The Proteas' only win came against bottom-placed Afghanistan with injuries to key players plaguing them along with some poor batting shows and lack of intent. They opened their tournament with 3 losses on the spin against England, Bangladesh and India before getting a point against West Indies due to a washout.
Their campaign virtually ended when they lost to New Zealand at Edgbaston and with their opening combination not clicking, middle order lacking intent, things don't seem to be getting better for them. Kagiso Rabada, Andile Phehlukwayo and Chris Morris seemed to be the only good players for South Africa in a largely disappointing show so far.
Afghanistan
Games Played: 5| Games Won: 0| Games Lost: 5
Rating 4/10
Afghanistan, as predicted by many have been the weaklings of this World Cup, unable to win a single game despite having a clear chance to beat Sri Lanka in a rain-affected game only to be thwarted by Nuwan Pradeep and Lasith Malinga. Apart from that game, they have been beaten quite easily with oppositions bowling them out with ease and adding to their net run-rate.
Their spinners, apart from Mohammad Nabi, have struggled with Rashid Khan clearly finding it hard to cope with bowling to the top teams. Their batting has largely revolved around Rahmat Shah and Hasmatullah Shahidi with Najibullah Zadran chipping in with runs.