Day Nine: Big Day

When Jayasuriya had a word with Tharanga in the first over and they started dropping down balls and running, I expected that they would try to unsettle the inexperienced opposition. How different the bowlers looked, erring in line and length when the batsman took the attack to them. Jayasuriya made merry joining in the sixes fun, like the other teams.They went quickly onto a 96 runs at nearly 7.00 per over, With Jaysuriya having made a 50 already. The experienced Rafique then got the breakthrough by taking Tharanga, but looked like the damage was already done. After having made 318 runs of their 50, Sri Lanka wrapped up the Bangladesh innings for 118 runs, with Ashraful the lone survivor and Malinga picking up 3. Jayasuriya was adjudged man of the match.

Day Seven: Ohh! my God!!

What is in store for us here?? Sehwag saved.. (That was about time) Yippee Yuvi and savior Saurav. Dhoni, Sachin and Dravid too in the end coming to the party. One memorable loss to another memorable victory, India have performed once again when they were cornered. Only Robin Utthappa missed out. For India, it rained sixes and fours as they sent the Bermuda bowlers' balls out of the ground many a time and they reached 413/5 in their 50. Then even though Zaheer made the early breakthroughs, Bermuda put up a brave batting display with Hemp shining, but everyone else failed. India breathed a sigh of relief as the umpire finally adjudged an LBW for Kumble after turning down really plumb ones and beat Bermuda by 257 runs a new ODI record. A lot of World Cup records fell, with India posting the highest score, the 8th 200+ partnership in ODIs, when India features in 4 of those.. etc..

While West Indies made sure they made it to the super eights with a safe win with Zimbabwe, Lara taking the Windies home with a four and a six to finish in emphatic fashion. It was really an up and down contest. First Zimbabwe slumped with 2/2 and then fought back to post 200 odd runs.. and the West Indies took their time to get there, maybe getting some practice. What matters is that they have reserved their berth in the super 8's the 2nd team to do so after the Aussies.

Day Six: On the field

Australia played like they should against Netherlands and made 5 more runs than what South Africa made in 40 overs. (358 runs) Brad Hodge let his bat do all the sweet talking and made 129 off 83 balls and Michael Clarke made 96 , while Gilly made a 50 too. Australia won this one quite easily eventhough there was a positive aura about Holland's batsmen today, they saw the back of batsmen quite frequently and never let anybody settle down too much. Brad Hogg picked up four, while McGrath and Bracken took 2 each even while they went for over 4 an over to wrap it up quickly.

England having to win this one and leaving Flintoff out of the side, after sacking him as Vice Captain, went about their business, not as blistering as Australia, but good batting by Vaughn, Joyce and Collingwood /Nixon to take England to a very defendable 279. Canada's 5th wicket partnership between Samad and Mulla posed a slight threat but England fielded well, kept their nerves and kept Canada down to 228/7 to post the points in a must-win match.

Day Six: What ??

As a very close follower of the events of the world cup, besides the gloomy conditions which have perturbed the cricket quite frequently a filthy shadow was surrounding the Carribbean right before the world cup. A world cup where a lot of money was involved, there are battles all over the place not on the field, but off the field. Like world history shows, people's minds are poisoned when three things are involved: money, women and land.
How big a loss was yesterday to everyone who put so much effort/money into the world cup? You never know. Starting with Shoaib and Asif's exclusion and ending with sacking of Flintoff as vice-captain under nasty circumstances it was getting quite dramatic off the field, while Gibbs was burning record books on the field. But, today morning when I glanced at cricinfo.com as I always do, I was aghast. "Bob Woolmer unconcious in hotel room... " it read. It had just one line which was surprising in itself and looked bad enough. Then after a while, it said something about vomit around him.. then the article completely changed with the disturbing news of his death. After a while, nothing in the initial article was found, except that now it read he collapsed and died, while there was a life history going on about his life.

Now the same article says something about the medical report not ready yet.. and that the team is not sure, if he died of a heart attack. If that is so, it is so unlucky for his family, for Pakistan cricket and world cricket, but its quite a coincidence for it has come just after Pakistan's worst loss ever at a very important time.

Day Five: Triumphant Bangladesh & A Sad Pakistan

India batted first on a track that seemed to do a lot for the quick bowlers. Mortaza hit the deck consistently and picked off Sehwag and Utthappa quite softly while Razzaq followed it up with a great arm ball to get Tendulkar. Then Dravid missed a quick one from Rafique first up and was lbw while Ganguly stayed at the crease all along this drama. Yuvraj and Ganguly played cautiously and paced the innings properly and India was set to score around 220 - 240.. but, India lost 5 wickets for 2 runs.. from 157/5 to 159/9 when finally Munaf and Zaheer put up a valiant effort to make 191. India's woes continued when, Tamim went berserk coming down the pitch to Zaheer hitting him for a six after being hit in the neck with a short one. Bangladesh youngsters Tamim, Mushfiq. Rahim and Shakib Al Hasan powered Bangladesh with awesome shots and calculated risks to reach the total slowly but the innings were well-paced with a nice 4th wicket partnership between Shakib and Rahim. Finally, India had lost in a match in which they were dominated right from ball 1.

While Trinidad looked bad enough for a top sub-continent side against a lower ranked side, Jamaica was worse, where Pakistan made an early/sad exit due to the failure of the Pakistani batsmen to either fire or consolidate their innings against a spirited Irish side backed by an equally spirited crowd on St.Patrick's day which restricted them to 132 runs. Even while, everyone hoped Pakistan will win this with a very good bowling line-up and Sami made early inroads removing Bray who had made an impressive 115* in the previous tied match against Zimbabwe, Pakistan struggled to keep the runs down and put pressure on the other ends. Even as wickets fell down, some lusty blows and truly brilliant strokeplay assured that Ireland won this one by 3 wickets. (bad light had stopped play for sometime, but play resumed eventually)

Now, I'm pretty sure no one will use the word "minnows".

Fourth Day: Godzilla Gibbs & Sensible Styris

South Africa displayed world class batting as it should be while Netherlands had no answer to the onslaught of the likes of Graeme Smith, Jacques Kallis and Mark Boucher. But, it was the effervescent Gibbs who overshadowed even a century performance by Kallis, by becoming the first batsman in the history of international cricket to hit 6 sixers in an over off Van Bunge. With an enormous total of 350 odd runs off 40 overs(the match overs being reduced due to overnight showers and a wet outfield), they easily won the match by 221 runs.

England batted inconsistently with partnerships being broken quite often with the upper and middle order struggling to score quickly in a quite slow pitch where Bond bowled a good line eventhough not at the pace he's expected to bowl ending up with 2 wickets and 19 runs off ten. England eventually being bowled out for 209 saw a glimmer of hope when Anderson struck in the beginning removing Lou Vincent and Fleming cheaply while Plunkett took care of the talented Mr.Ross. But, it was Scott Styris (87) along with Craig McMillan and Jacob Oram who plugged the hole in a sinking ship and made sure the sails and masts were intact as the Kiwis cruised slowly but surely to a good win.

Third Day: Impressive Ceylon & The Fighting Irish

Ireland's tall and bald(?) opener, Bray made his presence felt against Zimbabwe in their opener. A game which was very weird and a last ball tie. Sibanda missed a sitter(or was it a stander) when in 2nd slip, but had made up for it by hitting 60 odd, when he was dramatically hit out. Matskinyeri tried well, but after his fall, Ireland had everything going their way, with half-naked fans and their leprechauns backing them all the way. Was a good game to watch. Never know how that might affect the group.

Sri Lanka lost Jayasuriya and Tharanga early, but the Sangakkara/Mahela duo batted sensibly and briskly to take Sri Lanka to an expected score of 320 odd runs, with C Silva and Maharoof joining the party in the end to get them above the 300 mark. Then the bowlers picked off Bermuda's batsmen one by one while Malinga missed out on a hatrick and Maharoof got four. Bermuda finished at a dismal 78 all out.

If the opener, was anything but exciting with the likes of Samuels, the Dwaynes and Lara giving great work to their willows, while Pakistan struggled with inconsistent bowling and to get the partnerships going, I can't wait to see more. Even the Ireland/Zimbabwe match was quite exciting to watch. The battle of the lesser teams and upsets will be the most memorable of the group stages I think. And, fans will be longing to see their star players coming to form.

Earlier yesterday, Tikolo led his side like a king amassing his troops with a warcry against an ordinary looking Canada side who didn't try enough to a very good win. Ponting on the other match again led from the front with a blistering 113 in quick time while the bowlers made merry with Glenn McGrath taking three, while Brad Hogg impressed with a 15 ball 40 which came from the last two overs when Scotland looked like they would restrict the Aussies below 300.

Cricket World Cup 2007 is upon us. The carribbean sets up a very special stage for the world's most exciting cricketing event this year.

The West Indian batsmen were cautious and beligerent at the same time, with
Marlon Samuels, Dwayne Smith and Dwayne Bravo kicking off an aggressive start to their world cup. Then when Pakistan batted, they bowled and fielded like champions to register their first win of the world cup with much more to come I suppose. Dwayne smith was man of the match with a fast knock and 3 wickets 2 of which were Yousuf and Inzi.

We haven't seen a very one-sided game just as yet, except the trouncing of Scotland by Australia by 203 runs which should have been around 40 runs less, if not for the last two overs when Brad Hogg and Watson went berserk. Scotland bowlers had very good deliveries coming once in 10 overs and taking wickets too.. they were wavered otherwise. The stumping of Hussey was especially impressive.
Ponting was the king with a win and 100 odd runs under his belt.

Kenya's Steve Tikolo gave nothing away as a captain, bowler, batsman to the Canadians who looked like they needed some inspiration of some sort to get going. Dhaniram's quick hit helped them to score 199, but he was involved in one runout too many. Kenya got there easily with capt. Tikolo scoring 70 odd runs.