I would personally put money on Ireland beating Zimbabwe, they are a good outfit and are under-rated by many. William Porterfield should score some runs, as should Eion Morgan and the two O'Brien's. Niall O'Brien's a good wicket-keeper as well.

As for Kenya, they've come into a bit of form, Ravi Shah has started hitting some big scores and the bowlers are looking quite reasonable; Ongondo has become a McGrath in terms of accuracy, with a hint of swing as well. So Ireland and Kenya are my two bets for causing a "great shock".

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"Being second is to be the first of the ones who lose."
- Ayrton Senna

Rachael I think this is a fair question - what difference will it make if Vaughan is absent? - he is a good captain, possibly as good as Jardine and Illingworth - but his form has been gone for far to long.

He will get out to early, and that sets the tone for the rest of the young team to follow.

After Australia (not in the best of form) it boils down to any from New Zealand - England - India or Pakistan, also the Windies can't be wrote off yet.

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Ern

What have you got against the South Africans? They have chosen the team well (although I might have considered Johan van der Wath in place of Roger Telemachus), have had a good recent record and are led well by Smith considering their team requirements. I still think that they'll win.

I think the greatest chance of an upset is .... Kenya beating England in the group stages.
After the last series winI'm sure the English team...are blindly disillusioned as well as overconfident...
I think this just may be confidence before I great fall

Probably becase the Saffers will choke in the semi .

Seriously, i cant see SA getting past the semis. They are a good, solid, all round team but IMO they lack a bit of spark in their play.

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Mark.

That is true to some extent considering their past World Cup record. But under the annoying chirpiness of Graeme Smith on the field and Jonty Rhodes' work with the already good fielding they look a better knit team and are showing a lot of sparkle. If you think about it, take the dour Ashwell Prince out of the equation and the rest of the squad look quite animated. Andre Nel is one of the characters of the tournament.

As for choking, I hope that the trait is a thing of the past. It may seem silly to give such importance to one game, but after the '438' win agaist Australia, I feel that the entire South African team crossed a threshold and have more self-belief than ever before.

Perhaps...we will see... not long to go...

Though looking at the forum and that England have gotten quite far in previous World Cups...I'm not going to say that they choked...but will politely say that they didn't quite rise to the occasion on each and every occassion.

And it also seems that every 4 years a bunch of English fanatics are convinced that England will win 'this time'.

Maybe I few more match-winning performances from Duckworth and Lewis would be needed, if England were to win a WC.

Although England could/should have won 2 of the finals they lost, you cant say they choked as they were never "dead cert winners" in those games.

I think you'll find that most England supporters feel we will have done well if we get to the semis. It is in our nature to be wildly optimistic, but it would be a major shock to most of us if England won.

Was that last statement a dig at the '92 WC, when England would have won anyway even without the rain?? 20 off 12 was a tough ask in those days and the fielding team would have won 99 out of 100 and like i've said before SA would choke on the 100th .

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Mark.

Nothing at all - it was an oversight on my part, of course South Africa have every chance .

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Ern

Yeh just having a bit of fun...

...but in all honestly '92 hurts more than anything else, it was just that SA were the new boys... and in the 70s many believed we had the best team in world, with many potential greats not in the records...so it was felt they had a big point to prove in their 1st World Cup...there was a feeling of self-belief...and the SA public most certainly did not feel that 20 off 12 balls was unattainable...call it blind ignorance but I still would of backed Macmillan with support from Richardson to get that score...99 out of 100 is a bit harsh?!?

But note I won't be suprised if they don't win the world cup...i think we have a good side...but we've sent good sides in the past the WC.

OK...and back to the topic...