Help me out here. Who do the Black Caps play first in the Super 8?
In the schedule for the Super 8, teams are designated by their group and either 1 or 2, e.g. C1. It seems obvious to me that this represents where the team finished in their group. So New Zealand is team C1 as we finished 1st in group C. We are therefore playing team D2 in Antigua in our first game. This should be Ireland.
I guess another interpretation is that it isn't where a team finishes in the table, but what their seeding is. But even then, B2 should still be Ireland.
Then why do the Herald, Stuff and the BBC all have the Windies as New Zealand's first Super 8 opponent? What am I missing?
Saturday, 24 March 2007
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3 comments:
Yeah I'm confused about this as well - I thought, like you, that they would be playing the second placed team in group D; Ireland, though everywhere I turn seems to be pointing to the next game being against the Windies.
There was a whole big crazy discussion about this with D'arcy Waldegrave on it - did nothing but confuse the hell out of all of the listeners. o_0
According to the BBC:
"The Super Eight seeding is the same as used in the first round, based on world ranking, with no notice taken of whether a side finishes first or second in a group.
For example, if South Africa win Group A and Australia come second, for the purposes of the Super Eight, South Africa will still be A2 and Australia will be A1.
If, for example, Scotland qualify instead of Australia, Scotland will become A1."
Utterly non-sensical.
Hence we have
A1: Australia
A2: South Africa
B1: Sri Lanka
B2: Bangladesh/India
C1: New Zealand
C2: England/Kenya
D1: Ireland
D2: West Indies
And the order of New Zealand's Super 8 games is
West Indies
Bangladesh/India
Ireland
Sri Lanka
South Africa
Australia
The Super 8 seedings were retained for the practical purposes of people travelling around and tour operators - if you had to get around the Windies trying to get to the Super 8 games and didn't know where you were playing until after the group rankings were determined then you would have a huge cock-up. So, as a practical solution each team's schedule was set in stone at the outset - barring massive upsets like the Bangla boys and the Green Men.
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