So, two good matches today. First was Pakistan and England. Pakistan batted first and there was pretty steady wickets falling throughout. No one really able to get any super high numbers. The one Pakistani batsman of note, Afridi. He went in and then went right back out carrying with him a huge Golden Duck! First of the tourney I believe. So bummer if you had Afridi. Despite that they ended their 20 overs with 147/9. Then England took their place at the bat and it was really more of a loss by Pakistan than a great win by England. Don't get me wrong England played well, I'm not saying otherwise (Geez Catherine don't get so touchy, they're lovely gents). But Pakistan missed a LOT of fielding opportunities that they should have had. Especially my man Saeed Ajmal. He dropped a bunch and just plain missed a bunch and one point it looked as if he might need to catch a ride home with England rather than ride the bus with Afridi. But anyway, his crappy fielding was England's gain and they easily won by 6 wickets! Of note: Pietersen who finally showed up at the tourney with 73 runs and Ajmal did gain back some redemption with a good time bowling earning two of the wickets and a 5.14 econ rating (I was kinda shocked they let him try). So England gets props and next they will take on South Africa on Saturday - I hope no family rifts form from that one!
The second match of the day saw South Africa and New Zealand but you'll have to wait till later for my great commentary as Sean is crying. I'll be back...........
OK, I'm back. Here's the scoop: SA batted first and pretty much went wild. AB de Villiers got 47 then ol' Albie went 40 off of 18 balls! Let me do the math for you....that's 2.222 runs for each ball - pretty amazing stuff. SA ended up with 170 and only dropped 4 wickets. Then New Zealand came up and they made a go of it but couldn't quite muster enough umph. They fell short by 13 runs and Oram had a duck. So South Africa wins.
In our competition Bob made gains, as did Paul (maybe my slight jab was enough to light a fire...) Missy, Katy S, and Michael surged while Catherine was a bit flat leaving her in the weeds. The worm? Michael got a new camera lens and has been playing with it all night - you might not get a worm. Things are getting tight with trades, make sure you plan ahead you don't want to be left out cold in the end.
Tomorrow Australia and India followed by Sri Lanka and the West Indies. Good Luck everyone.
