Cricket World Cup: Round One Predictions!

The 2019 Cricket World Cup has finally arrived! The tournament will begin at the Oval tomorrow morning when hosts England face South Africa in the first of many round-robin group stage games. Ten teams will be battling it out meaning each nation is guaranteed nine CWC games before the top four progress to the semi-finals. England are widely seen as favourites because of their impressive recent ODI form and home advantage but India and Australia are both serious contenders who have the previous CWC winning experience that England lack.

Here at Superbru, we have two games for you to enjoy throughout the tournament. Firstly, you can join our Predictor game to pick the team you believe will win each Cricket World Cup match along with their margin of victory (narrow, comfortable, easy or a thrashing). The parameters for these margins are visible when making your picks and as always in our games, the idea is that you can take on friends in a private pool and see who comes out on top following the final at Lords on July 14th.

The other tournament we have available is our fairly unique Cricket World Cup Daily Fantasy game (you can of course play both)! In the daily fantasy, you select two batsmen, an all-rounder and a bowler for each and every day of CWC action. So, on Thursday you'll be picking the England and South Africa players you expect to star in the tournament opener, but then on each Saturday throughout the tournament you will have a wider selection of players to pick as there will be two matches taking place. Again, you can view all the scoring actions and rules on the game info page.

Let's move on to my thoughts on how things may play out then and here are my picks for each of the six games in 'Round One' - the lack of any actual round structure in a big round-robin format means it can be tricky to stay on top of your Superbru picks so make sure you check back regularly and/or look out for e-mail reminders!

England vs. South Africa

Both England and South Africa will be very strong in this tournament but you'd be brave to go against the hosts in this opening game. There are two things I think the Proteas have in their favour for this tournament - their very strong bowling attack and the fact there is slightly less pressure on them in terms of expectations in comparison to previous World Cups and other teams at this tournament. However, I feel they're short of a batsman or two that can win you a game from an unlikely position or really extend a first innings total in the final overs. In comparison, England have lots of such batsmen with Jos Buttler standing out as the best. I can only see England winning if they're chasing but even if batting first they should have enough. Prediction: England (comfortable)

West Indies vs. Pakistan

A very tough game to call. Both sides can be excellent on their day but they each lack consistency. The West Indies have had good prep for this one by scoring over 400 against New Zealand yesterday and if Pakistan bowl like they did for a lot of their series against England, the Windies will manage a similar total. Pakistan haven't been bad with the bat themselves though, even in those losses against England, so it's with some hesitation that I'm picking West Indies. Gayle, Russell and Holder are just three of their players that can win a game with the bat and since they have so many t20 specialists, they'll also be a good team to back in any game that is expected to have a reduced number of overs. Prediction: West Indies (narrow)

New Zealand vs. Sri Lanka

I think you have to go for New Zealand here. I can see them doing really well in this tournament given the ability and experience possessed by Guptill and Williamson with the bat and Boult with the ball. Sri Lanka will struggle throughout in my opinion and they certainly don't have a squad that can compare with the teams they were selecting in previous World Cups. Looking at their fixture list, they're going to need a very good start in their opening four games to stand any chance as things get very tough very quickly after that. Prediction: New Zealand (easy)

Afghanistan vs. Australia

Afghanistan look very dependent on Rashid Khan and Mohammad Nabi bowling the spells of their lives in every game of this tournament, but as much as I love watching Khan bowl, I have to agree with the general view that they're going to struggle to compete in the majority of their CWC games. England thrashing them so easily at the Oval a couple of days ago won't have helped confidence and there's every chance Australia will find things as easy in this one. As with all of the games, I'll be reviewing my pick and margin after the toss and if the conditions are right then a thrashing might be on the cards but let's go with easy for now. Prediction: Australia (easy)

South Africa vs. Bangladesh

Bangladesh are another underdog in this tournament but I feel they're more capable of an upset than Sri Lanka or Afghanistan. South Africa should win this game though regardless of their result against England. It sounds as if Dale Steyn is 50/50 for this one with his shoulder injury but I expect Ottis Gibson will be keen to give him a bowl and see what his fitness is like before such a big game against India. Fortunately for the Proteas, they do have plenty of other strong bowling options anyway. Prediction: South Africa (comfortable)

England vs. Pakistan

We have the advantage of a very recent ODI series between these two to go off and the fourth match of that series was even at Trent Bridge! The Superbru result for that ODI would have been a 'narrow' England win as they had just 3 balls remaining but I think the rest of the series proved that things should be more comfortable for England in this game. Prediction: England (comfortable)

Feel free to let me know how your picks compare in the comments and make sure you've invited everyone to your pools in time for England v South Africa! Best of luck to you all in Round One..