Posted by We might have made our point in the title.
The first match of a seven-match one-day series nobody cares about. There are plenty of matches in which to recover, even if your team loses.
The second match of a seven-match one-day series nobody cares about. There’s still plenty of time to recover.
By the third match, either it’s 1-1 or 2-0. At 1-1, there’s nothing in it and your team can still recover if it loses. At 2-0 you’re losing interest whether your team’s winning or losing.
At 3-3 with one match to go, people care a bit. The next match has something riding on it. It will decide the series. There is jeopardy for both teams and that breeds excitement. However, all that’s being decided is a one-day series that no-one has cared about for the first six matches for the reasons given above. Does anyone really care who wins?
Today, India play Pakistan in a World Cup semi-final. The winner will be in the final, the loser gets knocked out. Jeopardy, consequences, excitement.
Did you say that India and Pakistan are playing today? How did I miss that?
Does this mean that the World Cup has started?
One match ‘winner takes all’ contests suck out all the money that the ICC could otherwise be making if this were a 7 match series to end all series”s’ss