Off Stump

Given that I got only 50% of my semi-finalists right, I'm not going to stick my neck out too much for the last three matches. I will be surprised though if there are no upsets and South Africa go on to face Sri Lanka in the final. Should be great games to watch though and it would be wonderful for their nations if either Pakistan or the West Indies could go through and win two games and lift the trophy. Tough ask though so we'll wait and see. I also have to withdraw my earlier statement around no young stars emerging from the contests. Wayne Parnell, Saeed Ajmal, and Lendl Simmons have all shown that they have the calibre to become top international cricketers, and its heartening to note that two of these guys are bowlers in a format that is supposed to favour the batsmen. I honestly think it puts a lot more pressure on batsmen than bowlers since they are expected to indulge in big hitting and put up tall scores. This format will also I'm sure lead to new metrics such as do...

So the time has come, a day late actually since I was supposed to put these in last night. Anyways, today's games have not changed my predictions so I can honestly say that I did not cheat :-) After a fairly pedestrian first round-robin phase, the tournament has finally kicked off and the ensuing games will hopefully see cricket of a much higher quality. My final four would be South Africa, India, Sri Lanka and New Zealand and an India-South Africa final would be a dream. Pakistan and the West Indies are certainly capable of causing an upset or two but I don't see them sneaking in. England and Ireland should draw up the rear which is a bit of a pity given that its on their home turf (or at least the former's). Its interesting how in cricket, home turf never seems to provide much advantage when it comes to big tournaments. Football is almost the exact opposite and on the face of it, that seems so counter-intuitive. There must be a sports psychology explanation of some sort. ...