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**FinanseMikky** · 03-21-2011, 03:40 PM

I know a few of us here follow cricket, and hopefully others are interested in hearing about the craziness!

The World Cup, held every four years, is going on now, being hosted this time in Bangladesh, India, and Sri Lanka jointly. 14 teams entered the tournament, divided into two groups: (Group A) Australia, Pakistan, New Zealand, Sri Lanka, Zimbabwe, Canada, Kenya, and (Group B) India, South Africa, England, West Indies, Bangladesh, Ireland, Netherlands.

The group stage just got over yesterday. In this stage, every pair of teams in the same group played a match...so 42 matches in total! There were some shockers. Biggest was probably Ireland beating England. Most Irish people didn't even know that they had a team (just like most Canadians and Dutch probably don't!). And the way the match was going, an Irish win seemed totally unlikely. But Kevin O'Brien hit 113 runs off 63 balls, the fastest century (100 runs) in World Cup history, to beat the pretty high target score of 327 England had set earlier. Another shocking result was Bangladesh beating England. Bangladesh is not as unknown a team as Ireland, but then Bangladesh hit only 58 runs in total against West Indies, which made their win against England really weird. 58 is the fourth-lowest total ever made in a World Cup match. Other weird results:
- Netherlands nearly beating England but failing to in the last over
- New Zealand destroying Pakistan (NZ won by 110 runs)

The most dramatic match was probably England vs. India. India has the most talked-about batting lineup but a kind of undependable set of bowlers. England is solid all around but susceptible to weird losses. So, it was very unclear who would win. India batted first and set a pretty high target of 338, with a century by Tendulkar, who some call the GOAT of cricket. But then, the Indian bowlers showed up. The English opener, Strauss, himself hit a really solid century (158 in total), and that led to England standing firm. The match was really tense and went down all the way to the last ball. At the end, the scores were dead even and the result was a tie.

Here is the score table after the group stage. The top 4 teams from each group go on to the quarter-finals stage.

Group A:

Group B:

*: "No result" means the game was stopped because of rain or something.

In the tie between Bangladesh and West Indies, West Indies win because they won the head-to-head.

The quarter-finals begin again on March 23. First match up is Pakistan v. West Indies. Then, India v. Australia, New Zealand v. South Africa, and Sri Lanka v. England.

My predictions of the semifinalists are: West Indies, India, New Zealand and Sri Lanka. Foxy, I and luvs represent the first three teams

(I'll try to update scores as the tournament goes on, but if others can too, that would be great!)

03-21-2011, 03:40 PM	#1
FinanseMikky Join Date Oct 2005 Posts 435 Senior Member	World Cup Cricket 2011 I know a few of us here follow cricket, and hopefully others are interested in hearing about the craziness! The World Cup, held every four years, is going on now, being hosted this time in Bangladesh, India, and Sri Lanka jointly. 14 teams entered the tournament, divided into two groups: (Group A) Australia, Pakistan, New Zealand, Sri Lanka, Zimbabwe, Canada, Kenya, and (Group B) India, South Africa, England, West Indies, Bangladesh, Ireland, Netherlands. The group stage just got over yesterday. In this stage, every pair of teams in the same group played a match...so 42 matches in total! There were some shockers. Biggest was probably Ireland beating England. Most Irish people didn't even know that they had a team (just like most Canadians and Dutch probably don't!). And the way the match was going, an Irish win seemed totally unlikely. But Kevin O'Brien hit 113 runs off 63 balls, the fastest century (100 runs) in World Cup history, to beat the pretty high target score of 327 England had set earlier. Another shocking result was Bangladesh beating England. Bangladesh is not as unknown a team as Ireland, but then Bangladesh hit only 58 runs in total against West Indies, which made their win against England really weird. 58 is the fourth-lowest total ever made in a World Cup match. Other weird results: - Netherlands nearly beating England but failing to in the last over - New Zealand destroying Pakistan (NZ won by 110 runs) The most dramatic match was probably England vs. India. India has the most talked-about batting lineup but a kind of undependable set of bowlers. England is solid all around but susceptible to weird losses. So, it was very unclear who would win. India batted first and set a pretty high target of 338, with a century by Tendulkar, who some call the GOAT of cricket. But then, the Indian bowlers showed up. The English opener, Strauss, himself hit a really solid century (158 in total), and that led to England standing firm. The match was really tense and went down all the way to the last ball. At the end, the scores were dead even and the result was a tie. Here is the score table after the group stage. The top 4 teams from each group go on to the quarter-finals stage. Group A: Group B: *: "No result" means the game was stopped because of rain or something. In the tie between Bangladesh and West Indies, West Indies win because they won the head-to-head. The quarter-finals begin again on March 23. First match up is Pakistan v. West Indies. Then, India v. Australia, New Zealand v. South Africa, and Sri Lanka v. England. My predictions of the semifinalists are: West Indies, India, New Zealand and Sri Lanka. Foxy, I and luvs represent the first three teams (I'll try to update scores as the tournament goes on, but if others can too, that would be great!)
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