Averages

We are approximately half-way through the World Cup, so it seems as good a time as any to look at who might have a shot at the player of the tournament award. A look at the batting averages shows one clear-cut leader - Matthew Hayden. The big bully tops the aggregates and the averages with 395 runs at 98.75, scoring almost 100 runs more than his nearest rival. Of the New Zealanders, Stephen Fleming is looking reasonably good with 280 runs at 70.00 - and he would have looked even better if it weren't for two stupid run-outs. Scott Styris (258 runs at 129.00) isn't too far behind.

The bowling averages also put forward a strong early contender. Lasith Malinga hasn't just taken 13 wickets at 12.61, he has also looked the part of a sensation. Stupid hair, fast-inswinging yorkers, spectacular almost-match-winning spells - he is just electric. The only weakness he has shown has been his tendancy to leak runs (he is going for 4.92 runs per over). Shane Bond hasn't quite got the same strike rate, but his 8 wickets at 10.50 look even better when you see that he is only going at a miserable 2.29 runs per over. Given that he skipped an easy game against Canada and almost everyone else (Glenn McGrath included) is going for over 4 that is pretty damn impressive.

When you couple Scott Styris' 8 wickets at 15.50 with his run-making, he is starting to look like one of the real stars of the Cup. The second part of the tournament is going to be where the flash-in-the-pans get sorted from the real contenders though. So lets hope Scotty keeps his head (if not his hair) and stays in this kind of form for another two weeks.