I'm in Trouble

 Michael and I turned on the game as we booted the  kids out the door for school.  It was the last over of the England Innings.  They had put up a decent score to chase of 166/4, we settled in for some cricket.  Initially it did not look good for New Zealand, they lost a few wickets pretty early and things were just a bit slow.  But, Mitchell and Conway had a pretty good partnership going and their total steadily climbed.  It was still showing only a 17% chance of them winning well into the 2nd half of the inning.  Then Neesham came in.  And Jordan was bowling.  And boy oh boy did the tide make an abrupt turn around.  Neesham was only in for a few overs but he managed to earn 27 runs off of only 11 balls.  And when he went out, Mitchell carried on as if his name was Neesham, he started cracking boundaries like no bodies business.  So in the end, with 6 balls and 5 wickets remaining, New Zealand won, and we had to say goodbye to my captain.  Its a sad sad day.  I feel very vulnerable just now. no captain for these last two matches.  Its so close, any of you people can surge ahead of me, well anyone but Sean.  I'm getting out the super glue to try and hang on.

Australia / Pakistan tomorrow.  No need for a captain, really, you'll be fine

Keep on Worming

 

On the eve of great things

 We all sit on the eve of great things, of winning a tournament, of beating a brother or a sister, or a dad.  On the eve of worming our way out of the pack, surging ahead, picking just the right guys.  England and New Zealand tomorrow.  Get some sleep.

Any worm could do it.

 

A Whole Lotta Converging Going On

 New Zealand Beat Afghanistan and Pakistan beat Scotland.  So the Semifinal games are set.  England will play New Zealand on Wednesday, then Australia will play Pakistan on Thursday.  But don't forget that there is a match tomorrow as well.  India play Namibia for no reason whatsoever, but someone will score points so you may as well make some trades.

In our friendly group the worm is starting to look like there's only three lines, everything is converging.  It's tight, real tight. How are you planning to separate yourself from the others?  Can't all pick the same people.  What big plans do you have?  Planning on a captain change or two?  Banking it all on one team? What are your secrets?

Worming our way in.

 

Getting down to it

 South Africa beat England today, it was their first loss.  I'm not sure what happened with England's bowlers, they let SA put up 189/2, yes, 2.  van der Dussen with 94 and Markram with 52.  They did manage to claw back 179 of those but if my maths is correct, that's 10 short.  3 wicket haul to Rabada.  Other than a bruised ego England didn't suffer for their loss and still end the round at the top of their group.  SA unfortunately misses out and will be going home, they did finish with 8 points but lost out to Australia on net run rate.

Australia meanwhile secured there berth in the semis by beating the West Indies.  Although from what I hear, it was more of a party atmosphere rather than a hard fought cricket match.  International cricket will be saying goodbye to the Windies Bravo and Gayle.  I don't know much about cricket but I did get a chance to see them both play in person and Gayle cracked a 6 that smashed a window.  So congrats boys on you careers, you will be missed.

meanwhile in group 2 Pakistan is through (I think there is a very small chance that if the stars aligned just so they would go through  but ...) there are 3 teams however that could feasibly take the 2nd spot, New Zealand, India, and Afghanistan.  NZ has the best chance but they are playing Afghanistan tomorrow so it won't be easy.  

Has your captain gone through?  Do you have enough trades left? Lots of worming left to be done