Nannes Aplomb

Ok so we finally had a full day of games, Yeah! Missy came over and we watched both games with Sean - it was a good day. It began with Australia taking on Bangladesh. Australia was up to bat first and I have to say did not start out well at all. It got to 65 for 6. How was Australia going to get out of this mess? Enter M. Hussey and Smith. The finally got a good partnership going and left Bangladesh with 141 to chase. Now comes Australia's turn to rack up wickets left and right. The first two went out for ducks and the third eked out 1 run. The man of the match if you ask me was Nannes who had a four wicket haul and an econ rating of 4.0. SO if you had Nannes - good on you. Australia was able hold Bangladesh off and won by 27 runs.

In the second game South Africa was batting first and Afghanistan played a great inning holding South Africa to 139 runs. None of the SA batsmen did anything huge. Kallis was the biggest scorer with 34. Hats off to Afghanistan for keeping things in reach - sort of. Once the innings changed Afghanistan went from holding their own to dropping all their wickets. It began with wicket after wicket, leaving Afghanistan at 32 for 8! But then they had a few guys hang in there and would up with 80 runs. So SA won by 59 runs. South Africans of note today were the three bowlers Steyn, Langeveldt, and M Morkel. Morkel got 4 wickets!

SO, the first round comes to an end and we are all hoping the we can finally leave the rain behind. Teams that are advancing: A1 Pakistan, A2 Australia, B1 Sri Lanka, B2 New Zealand, C1 South Africa, C2 India, D1 West Indies, D2 England. Tomorrow we have Pakistan V. England and South Africa V. New Zealand.

For us? Well check out the worm:



As you can see we have 2 groups kinda forming. If you're in the bottom group NOW is the time to make the jump before it gets out of control. Come on Paul, Don't make me change your name to the Lame London Legless Losers. And watch out for the Chiloquin cause they are starting to surge. In the top group JiminyPivots and the Dusters were both a bit flat while the Volcanoes, Big Brother, The Hillbillies and The Drag Ons all had a pretty steep slope. The top? Michael thinks I should mention that I am currently ranked 22 in the Global Competition but I think that's a bit like gloating so I'll just say that I managed to hang on to the lead.

Lets play cricket already

So the last four matches have all been ruined by rain. The dreaded Duckworth-Lewis struck again crowning New Zealand winners over Zimbabwe. Zimbabwe were at 58 for 1 doing a fine job of things and then Oram made a brilliant field move taking Masakadza out. After that the wickets just fell one after the other and Zimbabwe ended their inning all out at 84! Should be no problem for New Zealand to chase 84 but the rain prevented them from really getting the chance. The win anyway and move on to the next round.

Then the England game began. England was up first and put up a modest 120 runs. The Irish fielders had something to be proud of as did my man Morgan who was the only real big hitter for England with 45. Ireland goes to bat and everyone is thinking they might actually be able to chase 120. But we'll never no cause after 3 overs it began to rain. The game was called a draw giving Ireland and England each 1 point. So England goes thru since they had a much better run rate than Ireland.

So what is the lesson here? Well, if you could predict who would win the coin toss you could just plan on one side batting and the other being washed out. Stock up on batsmen from the coin toss winning team. Anyone know how to rig a coin toss?

In our tourney I, Katy Robinson, defending champ, have taken the lead. I credit it all to my Zimbabwean picks - to bad I now have to ditch them. With all these half matches it seems like everyone is sort of jockeying around their same spot and no one is has really been able to put the gas on except Moira's Hillbillies (anyone know how to make moonshine?). Here's hoping to dryer weather.

Tomorrow Australia v. Bangladesh in a must win for Bangladesh and South Africa V. Afghanistan where the winner moves on.

Who is Duckworth and what is a Lewis?

So lots of rain and not a lot of cricket today as both matches were rained out and the winners determined by some arcane mathematical algorithm called Duckworth Lewis. It began with Sri Lanka who put up 173 for Zimbabwe to chase. Jayawardene made a century! Only like 3 others have done that in Twenty20 matches. Then Zimbabwe needed to get 44 from 5 overs but only managed 29. So Sri Lanka wins. It was not a total loss as my sleeper Zimbabwean bowlers did quite well for me. In the next game England put up a staggering 191 (I'd like to note my pick of Eoin Morgan was brilliant as he had the highest score for England with 55) then WI were declared the winners with 60 runs from 6 overs. Why? Who knows.

In our match Duckworth was no where to be found as Missy's Dusters shot to the top plugging up the works for Catherine's Volcanoes. Seems to me that Missy is playing fast and loose with her captain changes (Raina yesterday and Jayawardene today). Hope she doesn't run out of trades before the end. My stealth Zimbabwe choices propelled me into second and I'm wearing a mask so the dust shouldn't be a problem - Watch out Missy!

Tomorrow lets hope for sunny skies as we watch New Zealand take on Zimbabwe and England hopes for redemption over Ireland.

Date Night

Tonight was date night so this will be short. I didn't see either game really but did catch Raina going wild in the early part of the day. Hurray for Raina! Boo to those who have him as captain (Missy). Other than that South Africa lost to India but this shouldn't impact their chances of moving on and Australia trounced Pakistan big.

Lots of movement in our part of the world. Catherine made a huge leap to first place overtaking Missy on her way. I'm sure Missy is miffed as she was all a dither over the fact that Raina was her captain. Bob has an interesting strategy that involves no trades and seems to be working quite well for him.

Tomorrow Sri Lanka returns against Zimbabwe while The West Indies take on England.

I squirm, you squirm....

we all squirm but where's the worm?!? Come on Michael get going on that worm! (he's sitting their munching on watermelon complaining how one needs at least 3 scores to make a worm - seems to me that only two points are needed for a line....)

Well there was one good match and another match. Afghanistan really tried to make a go of it but fell hard. They put up only 115 before going all out. India was easily able to chase it conceding only 3 wickets. In the more exciting game Pakistan hung on to beat Bangladesh. The two openers for Pakistan, Akmal and Butt went for 73 a piece and set Pakistan up with a nice total of 172. But Bangladesh did not go quietly and they had Pakistan biting their nails as the duo of Ashraful and Al Hasan put a big dent in the numbers. But once Al Hasan went out the wickets just get falling.

In our exciting little tourney: The Outhousers are really starting to stink things up for the rest of us increasing their lead by 70 points over Anna's JiminyPivots. And watch out cause Arvinder has made a huge jump up into 3rd place. My strategy of picking Afghanistan's up and coming star did not work out when he went out for a DUCK! Ooh well, I will be bringing it tomorrow so get ready!

Next matches are: India v. South Africa and Australia v. Pakistan

Sammy anyone?

Well, the first day has finished up with some exciting cricket. New Zealand took down Sri Lanka in a close match winning by 2 wickets with just one ball remaining. appraently it was a real nail biter. It wasn't all bad for Sri Lanka and if you had Jayawardene you picked up some points. On the other side McCullum (nathan that is) did quite well and some guy named Ryder. Brendan McCullum went out for a duck so bummer if you had him. Look for Ryder on Catherines next sqaud. As for the other game, West Indies easily beat Ireland by 70 runs. And none of the Irish really did anything of note except the youngest kid in the tournament. Dockrell is all of 17 and managed to come up with 3 wickets. However, Sammy for the West Indies was the hands down points scorer for the day. He has 3 wickets, like 4 catches, and 30 runs. SO did you have Sammy??? You may want to snatch him up. Rampaul also had a good showing for the West Indies.

So how's it going so far in our tournament? Well Katy S's Outhousers took an early lead with 151 points. Followed closely by Anna and Missy. But its early folks so they should not get to comfortable at the top! If you want so inside dish let me just say that Michael has a top secret strategy - if you read this very quietly I will share it with you........he plans to pick players that will earn a lot of points....shhhh....don't tell him I let the cat out of the bag. Personally I think with 100 trades it is going to come down to some of the less popular players who surprise us. So look for the next Sammy or Ryder and you could be on top.

Tomorrow we see Afghanistan (did you know they had a team?) play India and Bangladesh will take on the defending champs Pakistan.

Confusion and Excitment

Ok, so here's the confusing part. I know that my mom and I both got emails from cricket web saying that the competition was starting and mentioning that they were making a change with all rounders. The email said you would get 7 batsmen, 1 wicketkeeper, and 3 bowlers. No all rounders - they were all going to be classified as batsmen. So I went to cricket web and checked my team. Sure enough it now has my 2 all rounders classified as batsmen and I looked to see what my choices were if I wanted to make some trades - again it was as the email said with all the old all rounders now slotted in with all the batsmen. BUT, when I look at anyone elses team it says they have opener1, opener2, 3 batsmen, 1 wicketkeeper, 1 all rounder, and 4 bowlers????????? I don't get that at all. SO......check your teams. Just to be sure you've got the players you want in the slots you want.

Other than that I am getting pretty excited to get this party started. I am looking forward to once again showing Paul just who is the better cricket fan. Good Luck to everyone and may you have all your ducks in a row - I'm planning on NO DUCKS!