Your Men’s’ Cricket World Cup Cliché Guide so far

A week in and it’s been open season on all the normal clichés you’d hope for in a tournament like this.

Banana Skin

20 years ago when the World Cup was last held in England Bangladesh upset Pakistan in pool play and therefore earned test status.  Ignoring the lack of logic in that, there were eyebrows raised at the time.

In 2007 they beat India in Pool Play meaning that format would never be used again.  In 2015 they eliminated England.

So it shouldn’t really be the huge shock that they are totally in the mix in 2019. A composed win over South Africa followed a really tight loss to New Zealand.  They are very much in the hunt for a semi-final spot.

Darling Team

That’s typically New Zealand’s domain, but Bangladesh are now the current champions there too.

Chokers

South Africa apparently.  But you only really choke when you do well early on only to fail in the big games; something the Proteas have done so well.  This is not choking, it’s just a not very good South African side.

Pressure of Expectation

There are two obvious candidates here.  The hosts have already lost a match, and India has only just got started.

Wait for this one to develop over the next 19 weeks of the competition.

Mercurial

Pakistan has been keen to maintain their control over this cliché.  They have scored the lowest total of the tournament so far (West Indies) and the highest (England).

Someone needs to find an Urdu translation for mercurial.

Controversial

Yup; that’s still Australia

Dark Horses

New Zealand entered the tournament with its traditional mantle in place, but the West Indies are starting to challenge.

The Sad Demise of…..

Speaking of the West Indies, they’ve owned this moniker for over 20 years now, but three time finalists Sri Lanka is giving it a good nudge.