An Ugly XI

As a counter-point to Ben's find of the India Times "Hunks of the Cup", Marie has sent me the link to "The International Cricket Ugly XI".

I can't believe Scott Styris was only made vice-captain.

The Black Heads

In the Guardian's over-by-over coverage of this morning's crushing victory over Bangladesh, contributors distracted themselves from the tension-free cricket by discussing New Zealand's predilection for giving their sports teams nicknames - "Black Caps", "Black Sticks", "All Blacks", "Tall Blacks" and so on. Then someone asked:

"Do these NZ nicknames apply to their sports administrators too? In which case the chiefs would be Blackheads and the accountants Blackadders and they'd all sit on Blackboards,"

Brilliant!

Ben on...overoptimism

Anyone else being made nervous by optimistic reports like this, this and this?

New Zealand has been storming through the World Cup so far. We've won all four games, each within 41 overs, and we should expect to win the next two (against Bangladesh and Ireland) also. This puts us in a strong position to make the semis. However, it must be realised that one of the major aspects of this fantastic success (the other aspects being the incredible form the players are in, the huge confidence they have and the amazing professionalism that they've been taking to the game) is the fact that in these first six games, we will not have played any of the top six teams. This will inevitably make our record look good.

I still think we'll make the semis though. Getting there will probably require picking up at least one of the last three games, which is a prediction we can be fairly confident about. It's the predictions of us making the final that make me nervous as that is a straight prediction that we'll win the semi (and that we'll make it to the semis). The memory of 1992 is too fresh for me to be comfortable with that level of optimism.

Ben on...a slow news day

News has been a bit slow recently for the Black Caps. Apparently not even the game against the Windies was interesting enough to comment on. So here's something trivial and slightly amusing from the Times of India to pass the time until the game tonight: Hunks of the Cup!

I can't bring myself to read the bios of the hunks, though I do note that there are as many New Zealanders in this list as there are in the Wisden 40. And that they are the same players – I wonder if there is anything in that.

An Australia vs New Zealand final?

Ian Chappell is predicting a World Cup final between New Zealand and Australia. Or rather, a one-sided thrashing between Australia and the only team capable of putting up a tensy bit of fight.

Ben on...what if it rains?

The Black Caps are currently 100/3 off 26 overs chasing 178. Easy victory surely, and Styris and McMillan are ambling along at half a clip above the required rate ("ticking along nicely"). But what if it rains? Well no problem in this case, they are 19 runs ahead of the Duckworth–Lewis target. I know this because I worked it out using the on-line Duckworth-Lewis.com calculator.

The Wisden 40

The new issue of the Wisden Almanack is out. This issue includes a list of the 40 "leading cricketers" in the world and this list has very handily been published online. It includes three New Zealanders - Shane Bond, Stephen Fleming and Dan Vettori. Each gets a nice write-up, although I do wish the English would stop referring to the New Zealand side as "faceless" like they do in Shane Bond's profile. As seems to be usual with Wisden, the only countries that really seem to exist are those which have played a major series against England in the past year.

Ben on...Malinga's double hattrick

If Sri Lanka had won today, it would have been one of the greatest comeback in the history of the game. With South Africa's third wicket falling at 160, it is unthinkable that they might get within one wicket of chasing 210. That Sri Lanka got within a whisker of winning was largely thanks to Malinga's four wickets, coming in two interlocked hattricks:

44.5
Malinga to Pollock, OUT, BINGO! Finally Malinga strikes, that is a superb bit of bowling. It's a slower ball on the stumps, Pollock just does not pick it, plays inside the line of the ball and loses his leg stump. Even with the game all but gone Sri Lanka are fighting. Pollock played a good hand but now he's gone!
SM Pollock b Malinga 13 (24b 1x4 0x6) SR: 54.16

44.6
Malinga to Hall, OUT, ANOTHER! Andrew Hall goes off the very first ball! It's another speared-in yorker, Hall just about manages to dig it out, but he can't keep the ball down ... it bobs up into the air for the man at cover to pouch easily! Is there a twise left in this game
AJ Hall c Tharanga b Malinga 0 (1b 0x4 0x6) SR: 0.00

...

Malinga on a hat-trick. What a funny little game this has been.

46.1
Malinga to Kallis, OUT, Would you believe it? Malinga has got the hat-trick! Full, furious, outside off stump, Kallis goes for a square-drive and nicks it behind. Loud appeal. Kallis stays rooted. Even louder appeal and Harper raises the fatal finger. SA eight down and choking real badly.
JH Kallis c Sangakkara b Malinga 86 (110b 4x4 0x6) SR: 78.18

46.2
Malinga to Ntini, OUT, And then they were one! Malinga gets four in four. Unbelievable! Screaming yorker and Ntini drives, plays all over it and ball crashes into the middle stump. Malinga is slinging down magic deliveries and SA are nine down.
M Ntini b Malinga 0 (1b 0x4 0x6) SR: 0.00

Ben on...Scott Styris to no. 7

According to Indiatimes, New Zealand's best performer at the World Cup is Scott Styris. He is no. 7 on the batting ranking (and actually no. 2 on the short all-rounder list). Our next best ranked player is Shane Bond, no. 17 on the bowling list.

It seems the ratings are just a convolution of the batting or bowling averages, so probably don't mean much. However, the ratings caught my eye because they currently have New Zealand as the no. 1 team.

Ben on...the future of the Pakistani and Indian teams

With reports of effigies being burnt and houses being attacked, it's great to see that some people are able to make light of India and Pakistan's World Cup exits. While the BCCI considers the future of the players of the Indian team, an e-mail is doing the rounds showing the predictions of some smart Photoshopper of the future of the members of the Pakistan and India teams, ranging from rickshaw driver to fishmonger to hairdresser.

Bond no. 2

The latest player rankings are out - and Shane Bond has moved up to number 2 in the world. Shaun Pollock (10 overs, none for 83 against Australia) is the only man ahead of him at the top of the list.

Ben on...Bond strikes again

You would have heard that Shane Bond hit Lou Vincent in the nets and broke his wrist. Vincent is going home (though it sounds like he had a pretty good time while he was there).

Apparently it will be Hamish Marshall that will replace him, despite the amazing form Michael Papps is in.

Ben on...the higher mathematics of cricket

So I have worked out the schedule for the Super 8 stage. The qualifing teams are given a code, A1, A2, B1,... But the code isn't based on where the teams finish in the group. It's based on the teams' seedings, which is presumably based on their performance some time in the past. Except where a team outside the top 8 seedings qualifies, in which case only the seeding of any qualifying top 8 team in that group is relevant, but not relative to any non-top 8 teams that qualify, but rather relative to the top 8 team that didn't qualify. So the code for any qualifying non-top 8 teams is based on their...is based on...is......seems to be arbitrary.

Look at it this way. Only the top 8 teams were supposed to qualify and the schedule of who was going to play who in the Super 8 was drafted based on that, starting and culminating with the blockbuster matches of West Indies vs Australia and England, respectively. Any non-top 8 teams with the cheek to qualify can just fit in wherever their qualification has made a hole in the schedule.

I guess it doesn't matter what the schedule is as everyone in the Super 8 plays everyone else at some stage. However, it seems such a clunky, inelegant system. It's pretty opaque as well in that it is hard to see what the intention is, let alone the fact that no one ever bothered to tell us how it works.

Ben on...New Zealand's next game

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?

Ben on...Bob Woolmer's murder

I didn't want to comment on this earlier, as I wanted the rumours to die down and the consipracy theories to run their course and for Bob Woolmer's death to be revealed as simply a tragedy for the Woolmer family and a very sad event for the Pakistan team. However, it turns out the unsubstantiated reports were true and Woolmer was murdered. This is absolutely chilling news. Whether it was an insane disgruntled fan or an underworld hit is just too awful to speculate.

Interesting reading

I know, I know - the World Cup is on and so is the final of the domestic competition. But real life keeps intruding on my cricketing commentary. I at least have one small offering for you this morning - a report into Andre Adams' onfield "assault" case. It is actually fairly easy and interesting reading - and includes some fascinating details about the event and Adams' state of mind. It also includes references to some other events which raised my eyebrows - I knew Tama Canning was involved in some sort of on-field scuffle in 2004, but I didn't know it involved head-butts and "effectively criminal behaviour".

Ben on...NZ qualifies with points

With the win over Canada this morning, New Zealand became the first team to qualify for the Super 8s with points. (Others have effectively qualified, but we don't know how many points they will take into the Super 8. Hence the blanks in the table I have added to the right.)

It was another dominating win, despite some poor bowling early in the Canada innings (read the Stuff report to hear about the bowling). In fact, it was as good a win as we have had so far. As with the previous two games, we had them beaten by the end of the 41st over.

		Opponent total		NZ total at end of over 41
England		209/7		210/4
Kenya		183 all out		249/3
Canada		249/9		267/4

Ben on...turn around for Vincent

Lou Vincent's commanding 101 against Canada brings his tournament tally to 101. Which is not bad. Certainly an improvement on his status yesterday when he was voted the 6th worst in the World Cup by the people following the Cricinfo commentary of the game between Pakistan and Zimbabwe:

4.20pm Ok, the polls are shut. And here is the result ...

1 Rana Naved-ul-Hasan
2 Andrew Flintoff
3 Younis Khan
4 Virender Sehwag
5 Dan van Bunge
6 Lou Vincent
7 Mike Hussey

Thanks for the thousands of emails ... our servers are fried, but thank you.

I think almost everyone in the team has put in an encouraging performance in at least one of the three games so far. In fact, I'd go so far as to say that Tuffey (1 match, 0/40 off 6) is the only player who hasn't put in a performance yet.

Ben on...poll results, Bracewell to go

In the upgrade to a new template, the poll has disappeared. The question was something about whether Bracewell should be retained as coach. Here are the results as they stood:

Yes - look at the Chappell-Hadlee series	1
No - look at the two years leading up to the Chappell-Hadlee series	4
No - he has done an okay job, but I would rather have John Wright	14
It depends entirely on how the side does in the World Cup	7

That's 18 out of 26 for him to go. Harsh.

Ben on...looking ahead

There are still four days left of first round games, but the list of likely qualifiers for the Super 8s is starting to firm up. New Zealand will surely go through as the first qualifier in group C (making them C1), with England likely to make it also (C2) (though if there's going to be another upset, it will be in their match against Kenya). The Windies will surely top group D, with Ireland second (D1 and D2). Australia and South Africa have qualified, but still have to fight it out to qualify as A1. The biggest question is who will qualify along with Sri Lanka (C1) in group C, Bangladesh or India.

(So, some big games coming up over the next few days. India/Sri Lanka, with India needing a win to stay in the tournament – run rate won't come into it; Australia/South Africa, the heavy-weight battle; England/Kenya, 'cause the upsets might not be finished.)

Richard Boock has given his view of how New Zealand stands at the start of the Super 8. I think his analysis is a bit off though. He makes a big deal of the two facts that New Zealand will start the Super 8s with points and that the West Indies won't get to play Ireland in the Super 8s (with Sri Lanka in the same situation if Bangladesh qualifies). However, this analysis ignores the facts that we had to beat England to get those points and that the Windies will have had the chance to play Ireland before the Super 8, and will almost certainly have scored points from the game to carry over into the Super 8 stage. I think it is best to consider the games between the Super 8 qualifiers in the first round to be part of the Super 8.

Incidently, there has been talk of how New Zealand should be getting behind England to qualify for the Super 8, so that we get to carry the points forward. However, now that we have beaten Kenya, it is in fact to our advantage if Kenya qualifies. We'll carry the points forward regardless of which of England and Kenya qualifies, but if England qualifies we'll be competing with them for a semi-final spot.

Boock's predictions are a bit awry also, I believe. He reckons that our first Super 8 game (against D2) will be against the Windies. By my reckoning, our first opponent will be Ireland. Then either India or Bangladesh, then the Windies, then Sri Lanka, before our last two games against Australia and South Africa. In terms of wrapping up a semi-final spot early, this is a good draw. The first three games are the easiest, and if we were to pick up a couple of wins in those games we'll only need one win in the second three.