Super Eights : Right now

God.. I'd lost the pace (like Irfan had), as soon as India crashed out of the world cup and various incidents that had taken the spirit out of the game. But, I'm so happy to witness the spirit of the Sri Lankans (Kumar Sangakkara seems to be their spiritual leader, always creating something behind the stumps, he is a match-winner).. Check this video out from youtube, which emphasises the importance of such a player in such a side, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PlFF98dM8sA. And, wow ... is Bangladesh making a name for itself or what. If they improve their consistency with the bat from now on, they can beat any team in the world on a given day and can fight till the last ball. Their bowling and fielding is god-like at the present, something I would expect of my own Indian team. Well anyways, here is how the points table looks like:

Super Eights	Mat	Won	Lost	Tied	N/R	Pts	Net RR	For	Against
Australia	4	4	0	0	0	8	+1.510	1053/161.1	864/172.0
Sri Lanka	4	3	1	0	0	6	+1.549	1057/196.0	747/194.2
New Zealand	3	3	0	0	0	6	+1.437	567/109.4	560/150.0
South Africa	4	2	2	0	0	4	-0.629	855/179.5	996/185.0
England	4	1	3	0	0	2	-0.062	955/200.0	911/188.2
West Indies	4	1	3	0	0	2	-1.177	776/188.1	993/187.2
Bangladesh	4	1	3	0	0	2	-1.775	641/168.0	778/139.1
Ireland	3	0	3	0	0	0	-0.934	566/133.0	621/119.4

After India went, I started to support Sri Lanka. Well, they were my second favorites anyway to win the world cup eventhough I had the feeling, Australia's world cup winning streak will take some doing to break. When Sehwag got out in the most dubious fashion with a slow throw from Sangakkara during their India tour, I believed that he would create such opportunities in the world cup and he did. Brian Lara's stumping off Vaas was un.... believable! Malinga's 4 in 4... Murali's performance against India, Jayasuriya's 100 against the West Indies, Ashraful's tenacity against the world no. 1 team (his scoop over fine-leg, I mean..), Aftab's amazing sixers, Tamim Iqbal coming down the wicket against Ntini (and Zaheer Khan of course, who can forget that... no Indian who was awake that night can forget that.) etc.. send a strong message to the world, that now, the sub-continent has 4 world class teams who believe they can win at the highest level (well, two of the teams haven't proved themselves of late.. but they will eventually as soon as other petty/off the field issues get solved and they concentrate more on the game) .

Well, I hope either Sri Lanka (which seems all set for the semis), or Bangladesh do well in the next stage.. and who knows we might as well have a sub-continent world champion. And if Sri Lanka manages to do it.. it will be the first sub-continent team to win the world cup twice!..

Go Sri Lanka.. take the world cup!