[FinanseMikky]

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!)

[uniopaypamp]

Hey rabbit, thanks for this.

I've only been watching us play occcassionally (time difference sucks). I fell asleep during the match against Sri Lanka the other night but considering our performance that was a good thing!

I don't like our chances against South Africa either but fingers crossed as always.

[FinanseMikky]

Pakistan vs. West Indies going on right now. Nice text commentary here: http://www.espncricinfo.com/icc_cric...ch/433600.html. Live stream here: http://www.cricket-365.info/

Disaster for West Indies. West Indies decided to bat first. Out of its 11 batsmen, 8 are already out while making only 71 runs!! Unless there's a tremendous miracle, West Indies is going to be all done with less than 90. For comparison, this is like a good basketball team scoring 40 in the whole game. Pakistan's not going to find this any challenge at all when they come out to bat.

[FinanseMikky]

Pakistan on the way to a very easy win. West Indies got done with 112 runs. Pakistan is now at 99 runs, no outs, and and using only 20 of the 40 total overs. Right now, they seem to be the team most in form.

[FinanseMikky]

Australia v. India livestream and text commentary.

Seems like it's going to be an exciting match. Australia batting first and right now, is 143 runs for 3 wickets in 31 overs.

[tweriaroats]

Not an expert, but completely surprised by that Windies score. So low indeed.

[FinanseMikky]

Not an expert, but completely surprised by that Windies score. So low indeed.

Yeah, totally. There's no reasonable explanation.

Australia finished their innings with 260 runs. India right now is at 158, with 60% of the innings gone. They should be able to reach the target unless they start collapsing like they have been recently

[FinanseMikky]

India beats Australia!!! Sorry, Justme

[BigBobdd]

Ahhh figured it would happen. The Aussie team is hopeless now.

[FinanseMikky]

New Zealand vs. South Africa today. South Africa were the clear favorites going in. They beat India during the group stage and were pretty close to beating England before they choked badly. New Zealand, on the other hand, is not such a strong team right now.

NZ batted first and reached the score of 221 runs. It seems pretty low, a score SA should definitely be able to beat.

SA is batting now. They are at 125 runs with 31 of the 50 overs gone. The run rate is fine, but problem is 5 of the 10 wickets have already fallen. SA is prone to sudden collapses, and if NZ can make them do that, it will be a big win for them.

Text commentary here and livestream here.

(Go Kiwis!! )

[FinanseMikky]

South Africa lived up to their choker reputation They are all out by 172 runs. NZ goes on to the semis!

[uniopaypamp]

:happy: Go Black Caps! Well done lads!

I kept falling asleep through the South African innings. I thought they'd get there easy.

[CicyHannyCeli]

South Africa lived up to their choker reputation They are all out by 172 runs. NZ goes on to the semis!

LOL! Be nice Rabbit. Honestly though I was shocked when I found to late this afternoon that they lost the match I was so sure they had it in the bag.

:happy: Go Black Caps! Well done lads!

I kept falling asleep through the South African innings. I thought they'd get there easy.

I've always been partial to the NZ team for some reason luvs and even thought I like SA more I was rooting for NZ to make enough runs, so that SA would not win easily. Little did I know, NZ had more that enough.

but GO INDIA, my second team with WASTE Indies giving me heartaches.

Foxy

[CicyHannyCeli]

Not an expert, but completely surprised by that Windies score. So low indeed.

If you know the latest crop of WASTE we have playing for the Windies you would not be surprised.

I honestly don't even know why I bother with them. Most West Indies fans just root for other teams now to be honest.

Foxy

[FinanseMikky]

England vs. Sri Lanka going on now. Here's the link to the text commentary.

England batted first. It was an unspectacular effort. Nobody got a century. Their final score was a low 229 runs (at the cost of 6 wickets).

Sri Lanka should be able to chase down England's score just by sticking around and maintaining their run rate. Right now, they are at 89 with no wickets fallen and making about 5 runs per over. The required runrate now is only 4.23 per over. England needs to get some wickets soon in order to make this a contest.

[CicyHannyCeli]

England vs. Sri Lanka going on now. Here's the link to the text commentary.

England batted first. It was an unspectacular effort. Nobody got a century. Their final score was a low 229 runs (at the cost of 6 wickets).

Sri Lanka should be able to chase down England's score just by sticking around and maintaining their run rate. Right now, they are at 89 with no wickets fallen and making about 5 runs per over. The required runrate now is only 4.23 per over. England needs to get some wickets soon in order to make this a contest.

And Sri Lanka put a beat down on England. Won by 10 wickets

Foxy

[FinanseMikky]

Unless NZ can come up with something extremely special, it seems SL are a sure shot to go to the finals.

[CicyHannyCeli]

Unless NZ can come up with something extremely special, it seems SL are a sure shot to go to the finals.

Agreed.

Loved the England beat-down.

Foxy

[FinanseMikky]

Loved the England beat-down.

Haha, me too! It was even getting kind of pathetic at the end.

[CicyHannyCeli]

Haha, me too! It was even getting kind of pathetic at the end.

Hehehe, I know. I even started feeling a wee bit sorry for them but then reality hit me and returned to my gloating state.

Foxy