World Cup Series....BEST OPENERS

In the biggest cricket tournament,the men who take guard first up with the willow hold the key for success.A terrific start, a great foundation, pressure straight away on the opposition is what every captain would look for.Most of the top teams have their opening combination more or less fixed and its up to others to come to a decision sooner than later.Among the top 8 test teams(no Zimbabwe and Bangladesh), here is the Top 8.

1. AUSTRALIA ( Adam Gilchrist and Matthew Hayden)

86 times they opened the batting (till date), 4149 runs at an average of 49.39 with 13 hundred partnerships and 20 fifty partnerships.Gilly without doubt is the all-time best wicketkeeper batsman and will make it any all-time ODI squad. With Haydos finding some form of late, the Kangaroos as usual have the best pair.

2. WEST INDIES (Shivnarine Chanderpaul and Chris Gayle)

37 times they opened with 1813 runs at an average of 53.32 with 5 hundred partnerships and 10 fifty partnerships.In their own backyard, the carribean pair are all set to fire.Beware Pakistan!(WI face Pakistan in the opening match of WC 2007).

3. SRI LANKA ( Sanath Jayasuriya and Upul Tharanga)

22 times with 1227 runs at an average of 55.77 with 4 hundred and 3 fifty partnerships.Australia and WI have just one dasher but SL in Sanath and Upul have two blazing batsmen. Very much the form partnership.

4. INDIA (Sourav Ganguly and Virender Sehwag/Robin Uthappa)

Ganguly and Sehwag opened 40 times with 1593 runs at 40.84 with 5 hundred and 6 fifty partnerships.Still not certain who will take guard in the first WC match. Either way, very formidable since Uthappa is in the best form of his life.

5. SOUTH AFRICA (Graeme Smith and AB deVilliers/ H Gibbs)

Smith and Gibbs opened 52 times with 1913 runs at 37.50 with 5 hundred and 9 fifty partnerships.Smith and Gibbs on their day are the most destructive pair. On flat wickets and small grounds, this pair can rip apart the best attacks.If SA prefer deVilliers, he is not too bad either.

6. NEW ZEALAND (Stephen Fleming and Lou Vincent)

A very new opening partnership but finding some decent form of late. Fleming is a proven customer and Vincent is having a good run in Australia now.

7. PAKISTAN (Mohammed Hafeez and Shoaib Malik/Imran Farhat)

Very raw opening pair, very unpredictable though! Predicting Tsunami is way easier than predicting how a Pakistani opening pair would perform.

8. ENGLAND (Andrew Strauss and Loye/Joyce/Bell)

Some may say Ouma/Obuya (Kenya) or Nafees/Aftab Ahmed (Bangladesh) are better. England i must say are rock-bottom and i dont see them recovering in time.

Australia, for me hold the edge in the opening category.
Next up in my series, the middle-order(3,4 and 5)!!! Australia might not the hold top position here.Will update in few days!!!!!