The tournament

So I promised a breakdown of how the tournament is structured. Here goes. The teams are broken into two pools of 7 (pool A and pool B). Each team will play a One Day International (ODI) match against all the other teams in their pool. A win earns them 2 points, 1 point for a tie or no result, and 0 points for a loss. Top 4 teams in each pool advance to the quarter finals with A1 playing B4, A2 vs. B3, A3 vs. B2 and A4 vs. B1. Qaurter finals is a knockout round with winners moving on to the semi finals. Winners of the semis move onto the final match.

An ODI is a shortened version of the game in which each side plays 50 overs. An over consists of 6 balls. So one team will go in to bat and will face 50 x 6 balls, scoring as many runs as possible. Of course the inning will be over early if the bowling team can get 10 outs before the 50 overs are up. Then we'll have a drinks break, tea anyone? Then the second team will go in to bat and again face 50 x 6 balls (or until 10 outs), hoping to score more than the first team.

Everyone clear? If not, study up with the "cricket 101" link on the right.

Pool A
England (1)
Australia (4)
Sri Lanka (5)
Bangladesh (8)
New Zealand (9)
Afghanistan (12)
Scotland (13)

Pool B
South Africa (2)
India (3)
Pakistan (6)
West Indies (7)
Zimbabwe (10)
Ireland (11)
United Arab Emirates (14)