5 Things: India's well-rounded play, more bad calls, empty seats

Here are five things we learned from India's quarterfinal win against Bangladesh on Thursday at the Cricket World Cup:

1. India 2015 more well-rounded than India 2011

India's run to the 2011 title was influenced by a number of factors, including home-field advantage in particular. They also had one of the best batting sides in the tournament led by the opening combo of Virender Sehwag and Sachin Tendulkar. However, their bowling attack and fielding were weak and several wins were influenced by posting big totals after batting first to put the opposition under pressure. India's bowling weakness was highlighted by the fact that part-time bowler Yuvraj Singh was their second-leading wicket-taker behind pacesetter Zaheer Khan.

But even without a pair of legends like Sehwag and Tendulkar on this year's side, India are arguably a much more potent threat because of a stronger bowling unit and sharper fielding. India's first-change fast bowler Mohit Sharma has been consistently bowling above 90 mph, allowing no respite for batsmen after the opening spells of Mohammed Shami and Umesh Yadav are done. In 2011, India took 10 wickets in four out of nine matches while winning the title -- against Ireland, Netherlands and West Indies in the group stage and Pakistan in the semifinals. At this tournament, they've taken all 10 wickets in all seven games so far. It's a phenomenal achievement.

2. Another bad call that could have been avoided

On the opening day of the tournament, Aleem Dar and Kumar Dharmasena drew unwanted attention for a serious error at the end of the Australia-England Pool A match by ruling James Taylor out on what should have been a dead ball. It was worrisome because Dar also had been at the center of another officiating debacle that ended the 2007 Cricket World Cup final. Many in the media, including ESPNcricinfo's Brydon Coverdale, called for the Australia-England crew to be disciplined, but Dar and his colleagues have carried on without reprimand.

If his competency as an umpire was under scrutiny at the start of the tournament, it hasn't waned after Thursday's quarterfinal. Dar was standing at square leg when he controversially signaled for his umpiring partner, Ian Gould, to call for a no ball on a full toss to India's Rohit Sharma in the 40th over of the first innings. However, replays indicated that the ball was below waist height, not above. Yet, despite being caught off the delivery, Rohit was allowed to bat on by virtue of the no ball call. He went from 90 to finish on 137. The moment was a huge momentum shift in India's favor.

India likely would have won the match anyway had Rohit been given out on 90, but the fact that Dar was there on the field opened the door for more unwanted attention on poor umpiring, something that could have been avoided. At the very least, Dar and Dharmasena should have been kept out of the knockout stage.

3. Bangladesh on the rise

The next four years leading into the 2019 World Cup hold plenty of promise for Bangladesh, despite Thursday's result. One of their biggest missing pieces in the competitive jigsaw puzzle has been finding fast bowlers capable of threatening strong batting units. In Taskin Ahmed and Rubel Hossain, Bangladesh have finally developed a tandem that can bowl at 90 mph and stand toe-to-toe with cricket's heavyweights. Such resources are certainly the envy of teams such as Ireland, who were exposed because of major pace bowling deficiencies.

On the batting side, the emergence of Mahmudullah and Soumya Sarkar in the middle order has eased the pressure on longtime stalwarts Shakib Al Hasan and Mushfiqur Rahim. All Bangladesh need now is a bit more consistency and they should be confident enough to move past West Indies in the global pecking order before the next World Cup arrives in England.

4. Where are the close games?

India's big win Thursday followed South Africa's blowout against Sri Lanka on Wednesday, reinforcing the trend of one-sided contests. There have been 12 matches in which the winner batting first has won by at least 100 runs. Twelve teams have won by at least six wickets batting second, including four by a nine-wicket margin. That means more than 50 percent of the 43 games so far have been lopsided, while only three matches have stretched into the final over.

There have been a handful of tense matches, including Ireland holding on for a five-run win against Zimbabwe, Afghanistan's one-wicket win versus Scotland with three balls to spare, New Zealand's one-wicket win against Australia, and Bangladesh's dramatic 15-run win versus England to seal both teams' fates for the knockout stage.

Only one out of every six matches has kept fans on the edge of their seats. With just five matches to go, hopefully the remaining teams will buck the trend when the skill and entertainment level should be at its peak.

5. Empty seats

The first two quarterfinal matches have been played in stadiums that were essentially half-empty. The attendance at Wednesday's Sri Lanka-South Africa match was 27,259 at the 48,000-capacity Sydney Cricket Ground, while 51,522 were at the India-Bangladesh match at the 100,000-seat Melbourne Cricket Ground. Those numbers are a fraction of the group-stage attendances at the same venues -- a crowd of 86,876 showed up to see India play South Africa at the MCG, while a pro-Sri Lanka crowd of 39,951 turned up for the match against Australia at the SCG.

While weekend matches tend to draw larger crowds than those matches held during weekdays, half-empty stadiums point once again to the 6½ week duration of the tournament being unfriendly to traveling fans who don't have the requisite income and vacation time to follow their team throughout the entire World Cup.

It will be very difficult for the Cricket World Cup to match the FIFA World Cup in popularity unless the event is trimmed down to make it more attractive to traveling spectators.