Ian Chappell: Australia v Pakistan final likely

GoldenAsif · Oct 1st, 2009, 06:20 PM

After getting his semifinalist predictions horribly wrong (3 out of 4 to be precise!), Ian Chappell is seeing an Australia-Pakistan Final. Chappell had predicted before the tournament started that Australia, India, South Africa and Sri Lanka w'd progress to Semi-Finals from their respective groups

http://www.cricinfo.com/talk/content/multimedia/427645.html

Osman Samiuddin: Hello and welcome to Cricinfo, with me is Ian Chappell. Ian, interesting semi-final line-up: Australia and England at Centurion and Pakistan and New Zealand at the Wanderers. Australia scraped through but they are still in the semis
Ian Chappell: Yes they will be pretty pleased to get through and they will be happy to have a game against England since they just had the better of them - but that was in England. The conditions are different here. Both sides have played a bit at Centurion so they are used to the conditions there but from what I hear it is going to be a new pitch. It will be interesting to see what that produces. England are obviously playing a hell of a lot better than what they were playing a couple of weeks ago. But I still think I would favour Australia, because the 6-1 advantage has got to count for something. So I would favour Australia in the Centurion game.
At the Wanderers, with the Pakistan bowling attack - even if the pitch is a bit dicey - if you line the two teams up, New Zealand has got a pretty decent seam attack as well but I think Pakistan has the better balanced attack. And I am absolutely certain that Pakistan have the better batting line-up. The New Zealand batting without Jesse Ryder is a bit light in their top-order batting and I think their middle order could struggle against those [Pakistan] spinners. So I favour Pakistan in the semi-final at the Wanderers which brings us back to another Australia-Pakistan game in the final. OS: Which can't be bad for the tournament.
IC: Well if it produces another game like the one we have seen at Centurion it will be fantastic.
OS: There was a lot of talk coming into this tournament that South Africa and India would be the teams to beat; Australia having slipped back a little. But neither India nor South Africa are here while Australia are still in the mix. What is it about this team? Whether they have lost players or are in the middle of change; they are still there, scrapping for everything.
IC: The big thing about Australia is that they don't beat themselves - you have got to beat them. They won't make too many mistakes to help you out whereas India can be a bit inconsistent and they can give you a bit of help. And is seems that when South Africa play in a world tournament at home, they get stage fright. So I would say that is the big difference with Australia. They are very competitive and the Australian system produces cricketers who have a lot of experience in all the situations you can get in. So having confronted and handled it and having got to the international level, they are fairly well trained for whatever comes along.
OS: Do you think this tournament could start something for England? They have been a pretty horrendous ODI team for the best part of the last 15 years; they haven't really cared about the ODI game so much. Suddenly they have come here and they have beaten a couple of good sides and are in the semis - do you think it could be something they could be build on?
IC: I'd hate to stay at this stage that it is the start of something big for them. Having seen them play in all but the last one in those seven games, they were pretty horrendous in the first six games. Okay, they turned it around, but I still think they make too many mistakes. They have some players there who do some things that you shouldn't be doing in one-day cricket. And another thing is they tend to concentrate on peripheral things: trying to be innovative while batting; trying to play all these fancy shots. Play the proper cricket shots and play them well and that will stand you in much better stead than all these fancy shots. I think it would be a bit hasty to start talking about something big for England if they do well here.
OS: And New Zealand have reached yet another semi-final. Nobody really expects them to, but they are always there, somewhere in the mix.
IC: Yes, they fight hard but I am really not sure how they got to the semi-finals.
OS: The injury list they have got is horrendous.
IC: Exactly. I admire them for their fighting qualities. India was in a tough group and one of them - India, Australia and Pakistan - would miss out. If I was in the South African side and I was sitting down to watch the semi-finalbetween Pakistan and New Zealand, I would be telling myself: we should have been ahead of New Zealand. If you line the two teams, man-to-man, its not even a contest really. I think if I was a South African player and I sat down to watch that semi-final I would give myself a good kick in the bum.

OS: And finally Pakistan. They are there again; somehow they have made it through. Younis Khan seems to have had some effect over them over the last couple of months.
IC: I think Younis has a unifying effect - not a lot of Pakistan captains can say that - he holds them together very well and he is also a calming influence. They can get very excited in tense situations, but you could see him in the end of that game against Australia in Centurion trying to calm them down. I think he has a very good effect on the Pakistan side. They are very talented. I think they have the most variety and perhaps the best bowling attack in the competition. There is a bit of a question mark over the batting and sure it can be unpredictable. But they have some pretty useful batsmen there as well. Pakistan are quite mercurial and I find it quite enjoyable to watch them because you never know what you are going to get from them. With Australia you know you will always get a good performance out of them but Pakistan bring some excitement to the game because you are just never sure what you are going to get there. The other thing I like about Pakistan cricket is that they have this unbelievable ability to produce young talent. I like it even more because they actually play them when they are young and not many teams do that anymore. Pakistan is the one major nation that keeps feeding these young players, telling them: look boys, we are going to throw you in the deep end, lets see how you do. And they do very well
OS: Just before we go, pick a winner.
IC: I think I will go so far as to say I predict an Australia -Pakistan final but after having seen that [their last encounter], picking between the two will be very difficult.
OS: That will be good enough for us. Thanks very much Ian.