Watson, Watson, He's my man.....

No post Saturday - it was date night. We had a lovely time, thanks for asking.

Saturday: England beat New Zealand and Sri Lanka took the West Indies.

Sunday: South Africa v. Australia. South Africa batted first and did not look good. Seems they can't handle the Dohertys spin and he took 3 quick wickets. Levi went out for a duck (I had him), Kallis only got 6. Watson also got 2 wickets and help keep SA to 146 runs. When Australia went in to bat they didn't have to try to hard. Watson got 70 runs and along with Hussey they carried Australia to an easy win with 8 wickets and 14 balls remaining.

Pakistan v. India. Pakistan batted first and went all out after 19.4 overs. They only managed 128 runs. The ghost player Balaji took 3 wickets and there were two a piece for Ashwin and Yuvraj. Once India went in Gambhir went out for a duck (I had him) but then Yuvraj continued his good game with a bunch of runs to add to Kohlis 78 giving India an easy victory with 8 wickets and 18 balls remaining.

Us: James is still in the lead - how does he do that? But I am gaining on him despite some of my poor choices today. Bazinga seems to be bazunk and needs to rethink their pivot. The middle order is, well, still the middle order without much change. There is big news in the bottom pack as Missy is comfortably out of last place! Do you think James took pity on his poor old mother and shared his pivot? Doubtful, but it does raise questions.

Tomorrow the Super Eights continue everyone has played 2 matches with one more to go. Sri Lanka and Australia look good to go through to the next round but its not set in stone. New Zealand needs to win and have England lose, The West Indies need to win and have England lose. England needs to win and have someone else lose. And then it all depends on the net run rate. Cause if you lose but not to badly that could be good but if you win but not by much that could be bad............oooh hell, I can't keep it all straight. 4 teams will progress - shout for whomever you wish.

worm worm

Watch out for your windows

cause the Balls are hitting the Walls!

I awoke this morning to discover that my blog post from last night was only half written and not published. So, yeah, there you go.

Ok, down to business. yesterday: Sri lanka and New Zealand tied - yes, tied. I mean really with scores like 170 you would think one team could win outright. But anyway, they tied. So, there was a one over eliminator and Sri Lanka takes home the victory. As for England, they lost to the West Indies.

Today: South Africa faced Pakistan. SA batted first and put up 133 runs for 6. The top 3 of their order fell pretty quickly - they should look into that. Duminy did manage to hang on and log 48 - to bad he just missed a half century. Pakistan was able to answer that with 2 wickets left, giving them a win. The two Umars did most of the work. Akmal scored 45 and Gul got 32. SA of note today was Steyn who racked up 3 wickets and then went off the field with an ankle injury - we will have to watch how that goes.

While SA v. Pak may have been a close match, India v. Australia was not. India batted first and put up a paltry 140 for 7. This did give Watson a chance to get his whistle wet with 3 wickets. Then Watson and his buddy Warner took care of all but a few of those 140 runs. 72 for Watson and 63 for Warner. SO........ Australia crushed poor India in 14.5 overs with 9 wickets remaining.

As far as our little tourney goes: The big news is......I have overtaken Bazinga and am hot on the heels of the HoG. No, no, the big news is that James is in the lead, well done James. But seriously, I changed my captain and it has made all the difference. So I say, GO AUSTRALIA. Moira, come on, you need to get over your hatred. If we had an updated worm I sure we could more clearly see all the other jostling. Ooh Michael..... I do know Michael is still in 5th going no where fast. I guess his boom stick has a crack. And it appears that while Henry and Richard are on the rise, Bob is faltering. And Missy, OOh Missy, are you still playing? I think maybe Missy secretly has her eye on the sweaty teddy award.

Tomorrow: England v. New Zealand, in a must win for both of them. And, Sri Lanka v. West Indies in a battle for the top of the group.

wednesday blahs

no cricket today - boo. Anyway, yesterday Pakistan solidified their place in the super eights but I have to say Bangladesh did not go gentle into that good night. The batted first at put up a respectable 175 for Pakistan to chase, and 84 of those were from Al Hasan - anyone have him? Oh yeah, I did! But Pakistan came back in good stead with Nazir countering Al Hasan and scoring 72 - anyone have him? In the end Pakistan won with 8 wickets and 8 balls remaining.

So now we wait, have some coffee, contemplate your super eight team. Who is going to the finals? There have been no real surprises yet, are there upsets yet to come? How many trades do you have? Have you been budgeting them or winging it? Is it time for a captain change? (this is my big question but since my guy has only played one and a half rained shortened games it is hard to know if he is in a slump or ready to unleash some balls to the walls - I think I'll hang onto him) Enjoy your coffee (or tea) and use this time to comment below - let us know what you are contemplating.

Thanks for the Worm

Michael I would like to say Thank you on behalf of everyone for the worm - much needed bit of insight.

Today? There was cricket? Seems sort of wrong that I spent all those precious trades stacking my team with West Indians and then they don't even get the chance to bat, this includes my captain, shame. Any who, the game was rained out, they called it a no game and sent the West Indies through to the super eight round anyway.

So, tomorrow we have the last of the group stage matches this one between Bangladesh and Pakistan. Then no game on Wed. and the super eights start on Thursday. So, the super eights shape up as follows:

A1 England B1 Australia C1 Sri lanka D1 TBD (Pakistan)
A2 India B2 West Indies C2 South Africa D2 New Zealand

D1 is to be determined but Pakistan will go through unless they lose by more than 36 runs.

So your first super eight games on Thursday will be SL v NZ and E v WI


Since not much cricket happened today not much changed on the worm except the Thought Pads didn't think to put any Irish or West Indians on their team so the Fours and Sixes along with Ashland surpassed them.

Lets see what fun tomorrow brings

The worm

Ok ok already, here is the worm.

We're back

What happened to yesterdays blog? It got rained out just like the two games. South Africa beat Sri Lanka in a 7 over aside game. What the hell happened to the Sri Lankans? Did they forget to bat? Sorry Bob but your Thought Pads were squashed. And then Australia beat the West Indies in a game decided by Duckworth Lewis. What is Duckworth Lewis? Who knows, I don't even think the ICC people know. Google it if you care that much but the end result is a win for Australia.

OK, so today- India beat England by 90 runs. India batted first and put up a respectable 170 for England to chase. batters of note: Sharma earned himself a half century with 55 runs. and where was Yuvraj? Listen up Yuvraj, I spent a lot of points on you for today and you got me a big fat zero. What's Up? Next time I'll stick to the E players like England's bowler Finn who got two wickets. Anyway, England was only able to answer with a meager 80 runs! again, what's up? Kieswetter did ok with 35 but then................wickets falling all around. They went all out after only 14.4 overs. I guess they were stymied by H. Singh's spin. He got 4 wickets - well done to the man highlighted in orange - this by the way propelled Sean past his grandmother once again. Catherine, at least he has one granny he can look up to.

As for Pakistan and New Zealand, Pakistan won by 13 runs. Close match. Jamshed got a half century and propelled Pakistan to 177 runs. New Zealand fought back but could only answer 164 of them. And a big well done to Saeed Ajmal for a 4 wicket haul. Now that was an A player worth his budget.

In our competition there seems to be three packs forming. I am sure it would all be super clear if we had a worm......................................... anyway, the HoGs got Bazinga'd and it is starting to look like it will be a duel of the pivots with the rest of us battling for 3rd. I think i need to Google "pivot table"...... in my spare time I'll get right on that.

Tomorrow only one match that no one cares about - Ireland will be trounced by the West Indies. Go Pollard!!!!

And a very Happy Birthday to You

Did you all hear the sonic boom as Bazinga soared to the top of the charts? Well done Anna and a Happy Birthday to you. First place is your gift - enjoy! Do to Birthday festivities I am going to keep this short. Anna is in the lead, Missy in the bottom - outdone by her 3 year old grandson who picked his captain because his name was highlighted in orange.

No surprises in today's games. England trounced Afghanistan knocking them out of the competition and New Zealand trounced Bangladesh. Tomorrow we have Sri Lanka v. South Africa and Australia v. West Indies. Finally my captain gets to play - lets hope he plays well.

That's all for now, Katy

Was that a game?

Or just a South African practice session? Seriously did Zimbabwe leave their players on the plane? I knew they were underdogs but really, they didn't even show up to this match. And my only Zimbabwian got me a golden duck. Lucky for me I had some Proteas to get me a few points which I sorely need since my captain has yet to play a game.

Not much changed in our little comp except Catherine seems to have had a bit of a surge. Now that we have a few data points maybe I can convince Michael to break out the worm. What do say Michael? We need a worm! I mean, we need a worm please!

Tomorrow my captain will still not be playing, but other folks will. Folks like the Kiwis and the Bangladeshis. Also the Afghans and the Brits. Good luck to all.

The Helicopter Shot

Did you see it? The helicopter shot was all the rage on the commentary in the India Afghanistan game. Personally I fell asleep without seeing much. This was not due to the cricket but rather two small helicopters that live in my house. Anyway, India did indeed beat Afghanistan but not by much. It was actually a semi close game and Afghanistan definately held their own there. As for Australia and Ireland. Australia pretty easily shut Ireland down. Apparently in a not so sportsman like fashion as the umpires had to squash the taunting more than once. But that's OK, we all know the Aussies are low class - just ask Moira.

As for our verbal lashings? Here goes: Sorry Moira but I love me the Aussies and they hit plenty of balls to the walls for me. Unfortunately some of my Indians fell short and lost a few points. Leaving me in much the same place as before. James seems to have HoGged all the points for the day while The Superheroes stopped the Balehouse Busters from doing any damage. Michael's Boomstick sounds more like a dink and the Thought Pads must still be thinking cause they didn't do much. All in all, except for James the rest of us are pretty much in the same place as yesterday. Sorry, Missy you are right, The Winners did win a few. But its early folks, really early. So, as the tourney goes on it will be critical to manage your trades. Don't spend them all to soon.

Tomorrow its just South Africa against Zimbabwe. I have high hopes for Zimbabwe, so I stacked my team with South Africans. good night.

No Mendis?

don't worry, most of us didn't pick him. But well done to Henry and Anna for doing so. I suspect Abdullah picked Mendis as well but we don't know that guy. He's an interloper who snuck in before I made our competition private. So, we can all use him as a gauge of how we are doing, the other end of the gauge will be Sean. Yes Sean has created a team. His team was named by him - any guesses what he's going to be for Halloween? And he also choose all the players himself. I did not coach him in anyway. The only thing I did was to offer him only the players who were from squads playing in matches tomorrow. I had highlighted the batsmen in yellow and the bowlers in pink. He had to choose 6 yellows and 4 pinks. It might be helpful when using Sean as a gauge to know that he choose Harbhajan Singh as his captain because I had accidentally highlighted him yellow and then went back over his name in pink - creating an orange color. Any guesses what Sean's favorite color is? So there you go.

Anyway, Sri Lanka pretty easily beat Zimbabwe by 82 runs today and obviously Mendis was the man of the match. He had like 6 wickets, 43 runs, and was not out. so there you go. Tomorrow we see two matches. Australia v. Ireland and Afghanistan v. India. Australia and India should both win comfortably but you never know when there might be an upset. Should be fun to watch no matter what. Enjoy!

Ooh by the way, Michael will be bringing out the worm just as soon as we have a few data points to make it with so don't worry. I am diligently recording our scores in an excel spreadsheet for his use later on.

The Games have begun

please return your seatbacks to the upright position and stow your trays, we are taxing down the runway and about to take off. Zimbabwe is out on the field bowling to the host nation Sri Lanka. Dilshan and Munaweera, the starters, are currently not out and doing well. I now have to decide, do I try and keep up via cricinfo or wait until I have an opportunity to catch some of the actual game? Seems it will be broadcast via ESPN 3 which we get on the xbox! And since its on the xbox you can watch live or tape delayed. Oh, how to convince Sean and Imogen that this is what they want to watch??? Anybody in the area who wants to catch a game - come on over. And definately plan on a little cricket watching party for the finals. I'm thinking bloody marys and coffee cake............

World Twenty20 2012 Begins

I just cut and pasted the first post from our last tournament. Seemed like a good place to start:


OK, so here we go again. I have updated all the links on the right so don't hesitate to use them often. And don't hesitate to post comments - that's half the fun ya know?

To get us going I will put some questions out there for you to ponder and reply to:
1. What will your team name be? Does it have any special meanings?
2. What is your strategy for this tournament?
3. Other than yourself, who would you most like to see win our competition? Who would you like to see fail? (I know that's not nice but come on, there is someone you secretly want to be on the bottom) Who do you really want to make sure you are ahead of?


Discuss........


Also, keep in mind that this is a Twenty20 tournament. So they play shorter games (20 overs) as opposed to the 50 overs of a 1 day international game like they did in the World Cup. So expect batters to be going balls to the walls (hey, that would be a good team name - I may have to change) and not holding back - this could lead to high scores or a duck.

final note: matches get underway on Tuesday the 18th with the host nation Sri Lanka taking on Zimbabwe. Don't discount Zimbabwe, I think this might be their year.