world cup five-fer: day eight

Styris - great start to the tournament.

By Tristan Holme

1. Bowling at the death
South Africa showed their first sign of weakness today as they were put to the sword by Scotland in the closing overs.

Dougie Brown and Paul Hoffmann smashed 55 from the final 30 deliveries as Charl Langeveldt in particular took plenty of stick.

The assault served to highlight South Africa's weak point of not having a decent spinner, something which could be far more costly as the tournament progresses.

Some pitches like Sabina Park have been seam-friendly, but most of the others have suggested that sides will need at least one spinner in their line-up to have any impact midway through the innings.

St Lucia will host one of the semi-finals, but the spin-friendly conditions mean that the use of two spinners is favourable, something which could turn out to be South Africa's downfall should they finish first or fourth in the Super Eights.

2. Graeme Smith and AB de Villiers
They put on an incredible opening stand to take the game away from Scotland after that late blitz had given the Saltires something to bowl at.

Smith took plenty of abuse over the South African summer after a string of failures, but he now seems to have bludgeoned his way back into form while de Villiers recovered from his two-ball duck against the Netherlands.

These two have now scored four century partnerships in their last seven innings and will have the Aussies scratching their heads as to how to deal with them.

Particularly as the two batsmen seemed to be able to hit boundaries all around the ground, with de Villiers' improvised flick over midwicket becoming something of a trademark.

3. Scott Styris
Aside from Lou Vincent, all of New Zealand's top five batsmen made 60 or better which will be a big confidence booster for the next round.

However Styris has been their most impressive batsman so far and is an early candidate for player of the tournament after starting off with two excellent innings.

He seems to have adjusted to the pitches in St Lucia as well as anyone and can go through the gears as the innings progresses, an essential ability on slow wickets.

Craig McMillan's recent return to form has been a surprise to me - I thought he was lucky to make the squad to be honest - but he's helped the Black Caps to a point where they really are in cruise control.

4. Slow going
Damage limitation is a tactic one often comes across in football, but it seems that several sides are employing it at this World Cup.

After 45 overs Scotland had only made 131 runs at less than three runs to the over, until Brown and Hoffman added a touch of respectability to the score.

Worse were Kenya's efforts to chase down 331. Fair enough it's a big score, but what's the point in playing if you're not going to have a go at making the runs?

I can appreciate that there are mismatches and that many of the tracks require sides to make a solid if unglorious start to set themselves for a push later in the innings, but it would still be good to see the minnows giving the big sides a proper run for their money.

5. Zimbabwe's chances
Mushtaq Ahmed derscribed Bob Woolmer's death as "the biggest blow in the history of Pakistan cricket". Big words indeed.

So it will be interesting to see how the Pakistanis bounce back from what has been their most disastrous World Cup ever - can they save a bit of face and pay tribute to the man who guided them since 2004?

With the West Indies looking too strong for Ireland, Zimbabwe will know that they have one last crack at reaching the next round if they can take advantage of their wounded opponents.

Wednesday's tie in Group D therefore looks like becoming a tight one as Prosper Utseya's young troops face a Pakistan side bolstered by the return of Shahid Afridi from suspension.

Team Ireland will certainly be watching very closely.