ENGLAND

In the first place, the home team will be a happy bunch that they are here after their disastrous start to their campaign. Return of Kevin Pietersen did the trick for England and after their drubbing of Pakistan the team’s moral will be high. However England should be wary about tight match situations where a relaxed approach will do them good.

WEST INDIES

West Indies are definitely the dark horse in the tournament. Gayle’s brutal hitting saw them blew Australia out. Gayle-less West Indies batted brilliantly to score 170 chasing 192 against Sri Lanka which shows batting is no worry for the Caribbean team. They are too much depended on new ball pair of Jerome Taylor and Fidel Edwards to do the bulk of the damage.

SOUTH AFRICA

Tournament favorites alongside India, South Africa has simply been superb despite threats from New Zealand in their group matches. The team is certainly rich with T20 experience and gained big from their IPL experience. Roelof van der Merwe is their biggest find, so is Jacques Kallis in the opening role. Expect them to come up with ruthless performances.

Group F – Ireland, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and New Zealand

IRELAND

While no upsets expected to happen, the Irish team should be happy to be in the Super Eight. They have competed hard whenever they found a chance otherwise they have played in a make or break style. Against India, despite losing quick wickets none of their batsmen tried to apply themselves and they are too depended on O’Brien brothers to provide the big hits.

PAKISTAN

Handed with a massive defeat by England, Pakistan came back strongly with a huge win against Netherlands. Thanks to some ruthless performances from Shahid Afridi and Kamran Akmal. However, Pakistan appears a wobbling side as they are yet to make a serious statement in this tournament. Their body language looks shabby and their outlandish fielding efforts are not helping them either.

SRI LANKA

With two wins against two quality opposition, Sri Lankans appears in great shape and are beaming with confidence. Magician Mendis played crucial role in both these matches, so did Murali. Malinga who seems to spray the ball everywhere has been expensive. Tillakaratne Dilshan is an ominous form, so is their skipper Kumar Sangakkara. Jayasuria’s innings against West Indies, who was out of sorts until then, will bring lot more smiles to their dressing room. The Lankan lions are hungry for more.

NEW ZEALAND

A team with lot of potential, New Zealand are finding themselves difficult situation to pick eleven men standing! Captain Daniel Vettori is yet to play, while Jesse Ryder has been ruled out due to groin problem. Ross Taylor is set to miss a match or two with a hamstring injury he picked up during the match against South Africa. New Zealand is a good batting side but their bowling is next to nothing in the absence of Daniel Vettori.