What do you reckon Warne’s penalty means? I think it means that they believed his story - that his Mum gave him the tablet and he took it to look good at a press conference. A year in those circumstances seems sensible. Others I’ve talked to today think they didn’t believe him. If that’s so, the penalty is far too light IMHO.
England owns Pakistan, wait a minute, …they did.
I think they believed him, in that they didn’t think he was masking anything, and as such they had to leave a greater penalty available for when a more serious use comes down the pipe.
While I wouldn’t’ve minded them giving him two years, I can see the point that they wouldn’t want to give the maximum when it’s conceivable that there are worse offenses that would receive the same charge.
The Sunday papers here have been full of coverage, it seems the New Zealanders were very boozed and had been asked to leave after stripping down to do a haka on the dance floor. Apparently they were celebrating Cairns’ wife being pregnant…
There doesn’t seem to be any real harm done, and Cairns is expected to be available for New Zealand’s next match.
Skogcat New Zealand’s next game is on Wednesday night against Bangladesh. Their last pool match is against Canada. If NZ win these two games they’ll end on 16 points. They could still miss out on the Super Six, as the other teams in the group all have three games in hand.
Currently Sri Lanka has 12 points, Kenya 8, the West Indies 6 and South Africa 8 (but only two more games). The first three teams could end up with more than 16 points (its very unlikely that Kenya will, but who knows?).
New Zealand has an edge over the West Indies and South Africa, having beaten them in pool play. So if NZ ends up with the same points as either of these two teams then NZ would go through.
FInally, to end a long post, congratulations to England for a stunning victory against Pakistan! Loved Gyan9’s summary.
England v India on Wednesday will be an interesting game…
Tendulkar was batting and yet I watched Davison bat. Somehow, I’m not surprised.
That was some innings by Davison! Wisden.com got so carried away with it, it actually suggested that cricket might start to supplant baseball in Canada…well I’d like that, but it’s not going to happen. Still, the innings of the tourney so far–a World Cup record for fastest century. From 36 all out to this, what a rollercoaster!
Forgot to add, but I wanted to check…Davison’s century is only the second for an Associate Member nation against a Full Member in the World Cup (David Houghton had the first, for Zim against NZ in the 1987 Cup).
lets not get get carried too carried away with Canada or rather Davison. It was a great innings no doubt, but lets not froget Davison was born in Canada to Australian parents, spent 2 years at the Australian Cricket Academy, and played for South Australia before returning to Canada only 2 or 3 years ago.
in regards to warney, as much of a tosser that he is, and the fact i would have lauigehd if he recieved 2 years, 1 year is still the appropriate sentence imho.
2 years would have entirely ruined his career, after 2 years spent hitting the meat pies i dont think he could make a recovery and less of course his mum finds a more suitable method of weight loss.
and im still of the opinion only sri lanka and new zealand will have any chance of pushing Australia.
Davidson’s innings was great, and it took one of the great outfield catches by Vasbert Drakes (who continues the tradition of West Indian cricketers having the coolest names) to stop him.
Australia seem to be cruising against Zimbabwe. Zimbabwe appear to have unearthed a good keeper (although I dislike the emerging practice of keepers wearing helmets). He has all the characteristics of a long-term lynchpin of a side - bats sensibly and doggedly and is annoying as hell behind the stumps.
Hogg took a wicket with a flipper, which I regard as a very significant development.
Kenya have Sri Lanka in deep trouble. They could make the Super Six stage, which would be an absolute boilover. Good for them. Their development appears to be going beautifully. [checks] Whoa! Kenya thrash Sri Lanka by 53 runs. Some guy called Obuya took 5/24. Amazing stuff. Was anybody watching this?
The Obuya brothers (Collins and Kennedy) have been quietly becoming very good. (Kennedy Obuya was formerly known as Kennedy Otieno–he has been in the Kenyan side for some time now.) I’m surprised that Collins took five against SL though–I had thought that the Lankans were relatively good players of leg-spin. Still, this wasn’t nearly such a surprise as Kenya’s win against WI in '96. They are really catching up with the rest of the world, fast.
Wish I’d put a bet down on Kenya reaching the Super Six–wonder what sort of odds I could have got.
Thanks Duke. A leggie eh. Cool. I was surprised by the difficulty the Sri Lankans had against Hogg (a left arm wrist spinner). I know little about Kenya - looking down their card I only really recognise Odumbe and Tikolo.
This is good for cricket.
Holy smoke!!!
:eek:
This makes Group B soooooo much more interesting, and the Sri Lanka West Indies game sooo much more important…
Grim
Unbelievable, Kenya now top group B and are one win away from making the super six. Their next game is against Bangladesh, so they’ll definately be in the running.
Well, based on the remaining games in pool B, it looks like Kenya should finish on 16 points and go through to the Super 6. Sri Lanka should finish on 20. That means that only one of South Africa, New Zealand and the Windies are likely to go through - weather permitting.
Good times. Good times.
A bad day for cricket. SL cricket, that is.
I wanted both SA and WI to go on…
It looks like WI now.
Also, I don’t see Kenya actually beating anyone in Super Six. Oh wait, India might qualify.
Is it just me, or did Australia make the task against Zimbabwe more difficult than necessary? Letting them score 91 from the last 10 overs, then plodding along in their batting once Gilchrist and Hayden were dismissed?
I think it is a bit patronising of the Aussies to ‘take things slowly’ against the minor teams (only scoring 170 against Holland, 'coz our bowling will fix them up), then stretching out their run chase to last to the final few overs…
I think ‘patronising’ is an odd way to look at it.
Over the past few years, and especially the one-day side under Ponting, has become far more at closing their opposition out of contests, knowing that a sure win with a small safety margin is far better than a big-win-or-lose scenario.
The team isn’t likely to be in a run-rate scenario going into the next round, so it’s far better to score at four an over and find themselves at the 40-over mark with 8 wickets in hand needing a run a ball than to only need four an over but be 7 down.
Defensive cricket does have a place in the one-day game. It’s just that many people don’t realise it. The Australians’ batting to the Duckworth-Lewis system in the Dutch match was exactly what the situation called for, and the batting against Zimbabwe wasn’t bad either. The 91 off the last 10 was an aberration. I didn’t see the Aussies letting up pressure there - just a tailender with a good eye and big muscles deciding to crash or crash through - again, exactly what was needed in the situation for Zimbabwe.
Surprised you didn’t mention England 
Acording to my (possibly overly optimistic, hometeam-tinted spectacles) several teams in Group B could end up on 16 points - if that happens, it appears that runrate is less important in who goes through than I would have expected…
From the BBC’s World Cup pages
Tiebreakers: [ul][li]Team with the most wins []Winner of the game between two level teams []Team with the higher net run-rate [*]Team with the most wickets taken by balls bowled [/li]Lottery [/ul]That’s SA stuffed then - how we will rue the losses against WI and NZ…
Grim 
Warnie was on the telly tonight. He admitted to taking a pill on another occasion: Do my chins look big in this? Why Warne took two tablets