Ben on...another opponent crushed

I was pleasently surprised to hear when I woke this morning that the Black Caps had made 331 against Kenya. Damn that's a good score. It also seems to contradict Mike's opinion that we don't always play our best against the less fancied teams. A 148-run victory is a thrashing, after all.

However, the win was of course nothing like the 221 and 257-run annihilations dealt out to the Netherlands and Bermuda by South Africa and India. Also, comparing this win against Kenya with the win against England shows that the games weren't too different. Kenya was bowled out for 183 and England for 209, while the Black Caps scored 249/3 and 210/4 at the end of the 41st over in the two respective games.

Based on this sample of two, it seems we play the same regardless of our opponent.

Ben on...avoiding slip-ups

There's a new term being used to descibe the minnows at the World Cup – banana skins.

Pakistan's elimination and India's scare against Bangladesh has clearly sent shivers up the collective spine of the Black Caps and management. They are taking tonight's game against Kenya very seriously – they are going over Kenya's game against Canada with a fine-tooth comb and are seeking the advice of a former coach of Kenya, Andy Moles (in the Caribbean coaching Scotland).

New Zealand against the minnows

New Zealand's next two World Cup matches are against Kenya (tomorrow) and Canada (Friday). I can't see us losing either, but I can't see us putting in the kind of thrashing South Africa or India have dished out to the Netherlands and Bermuda either. New Zealand cricket has spent so long being the gutsy underdog that it still struggles with the favourites label.

In general our best performances come out when backs are up against a wall, and I can't see there being too many walls in these games. Look at players like McCullum, McMillan and Styris. Their entire careers seem to have been built around a bloody-minded determination not to let those Aussie bastards get on top. Take away the prospect of a bully's nose to bloody and they won't know what to do with themselves. I think our bowlers will meet their usual high standards, but I can see our street-fighters struggling with the change in focus and the others struggling to break out of their shells.

Inzy retires from ODIs

Following Bob Woolmer's tragic death, Inzamam al-Haq has announced that Sunday's loss to Ireland was his last one day international match.

Flintoff's big night

I managed to miss one piece of topsy turvy news in my earlier round-up - Freddy Flintoff's big night on the town. After drinking until 4am following the England team's loss to New Zealand, Flintoff decided it would be a clever idea to borrow a boat and go for a bit of a paddle. A loud splash later and Flintoff was banned for his team's match against Canada and stripped of the vice-captaincy.

Topsies and turvies

Has the world gone mad? A weekend of dramatic upsets and results and then this morning we hear that Pakistan coach Bob Woolmer is dead.

I'll start with the last piece of news first. Not much is known about Woolmer's death, and I think it is in poor taste to start speculating about causes (take note Radio Sport). So I won't. I will just say that it is an absolute tragedy and I feel very sorry for those close to him.

As Osman Samiuddin outlined in a very good an article (written prior to Woolmer's passing), Pakistan cricket has been in absolute turmoil lately. They conceded a test match by walking off the field; they have handled their two drug cheats with abyssmal incompetence; and management and selection problems have been rife. I don't believe I have seen a cricket team in such disarray since the New Zealand side of 1994/5 (the dope smokers, the drunk for a coach, the infighting).

None of this should take away from the performance of the Irish side that beat them on St Patrick's day. To tie with Zimbabwe seemed miraculous. To beat Pakistan defies belief. The Zimbabwe match earned cricket its first ever front-page coverage in the Irish Times. The paper still seems to be struggling to get up to speed on this cricket thing. Super 8 games against England, Australia and South Africa beckon.

Sky's live coverage of the World Cup has been very disappointing so far. If New Zealand aren't involved, all we get are highlights. The only way I was able to follow the Irish victory as it happened yesterday morning was via Cricinfo scoreboards and the Guardian over-by-over coverage yesterday morning. The Guardian was supposed to be covering only the Bangladesh vs India match, but swapped over in disbelief as that match wound down. My wife's entire family turned up at around 10am, and I probably appeared the rudest host in the world as I ignored their need for tea and cake in favour of sitting staring at my laptop pressing "refresh" every few seconds. I caught the highlights and the Irish look a fairly decent side too. Riall O'Brien was brilliant with the bat (and how Irish does he look!) while any 6'7" bowler who can consistently hit 135 kmph like Boyd Rankin can is going to cause problems. The team fielded like tigers too.

It says something when people turn away from Bangladesh upsetting India to follow another match. It is almost a pity for the Bangladeshis because their performance was perhaps even more riveting. Only two members of the side are over 24 years old and several appear to have outstanding promise. Mashrafe Mortaza seems to have bulked up since last time I saw him bowl and he consistently bowled at pace. Meanwhile 17 year old Tamim Iqbal genuinely looks to be a superstar in the making. I caught the highlights of his 53-ball 51 and he played some breath-taking strokes. Several times he seemed to get into terribly tangled body positions, only to be perfectly balanced when bat connected and sent the ball flying over the boundary. At other times he was just classical and powerful. If he reminded me of anyone it would be Virender Sehwag - with perhaps a touch of Andrew Jones.

Australia beat the Netherlands this morning and, as I write, England are closing in on victory against Canada. This is just as well. After the weekend's turn-arounds and upsets we need a little sanity and breathing space.

Ben on...minnow bashers, eat your words

Ireland and Bangladesh are this year's giant killers, adding to the list of World Cup upsets*. And mighty Pakistan is the first team to be eliminated. What a day at the World Cup.

Could it be that having associate members competing at the World Cup is actually helping improve the game in those countries? Bob Woolmer has wrtten a piece about how efforts to improve cricket in associate nations are working. He wrote the piece after Ireland's tie with Zimbabwe, and the win against Pakistan has strengtened Woolmer's argument immeasurably. (For those who aren't aware, Woolmer is the coach of Pakistan. The irony doesn't affect his argument however.)

With wonderful timing, Ian Chappell has piped up with his uncharitable opinion that there should only be 10 teams playing at the World Cup, with two of those spots requiring qualification. This could easily mean that no associate members get to the World Cup, despite Chappell's claim that he doesn't agree that there should be only one associate member at the Cup. If I understand the seedings, under Chappell's scheme, heroes of the hour Ireland would have been a long way off qualifying, as they would have had to beat both Zimbabwe and Bangladesh (I presume these two countries would have to qualify) as well as Kenya and Scotland to qualify.

* Sri Lanka vs India 1979, Zimbabwe vs Australia 1983, Kenya vs Windies 1996, Bangladesh vs Pakistan 1999, Kenya vs Sri Lanka 2003.

Ben on...beating England!!!

C'mon Mike. Did the early morning kill your enthusiasm? A 6-wicket win with 9 overs to spare is worth more that just Super 8 points. And Bond had a better than good game – 2-19 off 10 – and Styris and Oram weren't just secure, they owned the English bowlers. Admittedly it was perhaps the least interesting game of the round so far, but in terms of the Black Caps prospects in the tournament (and pay back for the CB Series) it was a great result.

Beating England

So a first up victory and key points earned for the Super 8. A good performance by Bond and some middle order security from Styris and Oram saw us through. But the top order failure leaves us with a few things to worry about. Not that I feel too worried. Is anyone else finding it hard to get excited while watching early morning matches? Staying up and watch a game always gets the adrenaline pumping - but going to bed first just seems to suck the energy out of the watching experience. Maybe I just need to put all sleep on hold until after the World Cup is over.

Ben on...wah wah Herschelle Gibbs

Make sure you're following the games with the minnows. It's where all the action is. Yesterday's tie was one of the better games of cricket I have ever missed. And this morning, Herschelle Gibbs smacked 6 6s off one over against the Netherlands, a feat I can only experience on Cricinfo commentary.

I love the commentator's exclamations: Violence! Murder! Carnage! Wah wah! This is pure violence! The minnow bashing continues!

A tie!

Zimbabwe and Ireland are not exactly the two sides that you would pick to have just played "one of the greatest World Cup matches ever", but that is exactly what just happened. Set 221 to win, the last Zimbabwean player was run-out off the sixth and final ball of the 50th over.

Fitness worries ease

It seems McMillan and Fulton have both been passed fit for New Zealand's crunch match against England tomorrow. I suspect one of those two won't make the side anyway - Scott Styris may be in terrible form with the bat and ball, but I suspect the selectors would quite like to have his dobbers on hand. The wickets we have seen so far certainly seem to favour the slower bowlers.

The New Zealand Herald is reporting some rain in St Lucia at the moment, but the forecast for tomorrow is pretty good. Pretty damned good actually. Sunny, 30C high and not too much humidity. I wonder what the surf is like?

Another injury problem

According to the Black Caps' website, Craig McMillan is having his big toe x-rayed after getting yorked by Shane Bond in the practice nets.

Stats? Who needs stats?

When it comes to making predictions in the World Cup, why rely on such nebulous factors as form, talent and mental toughness? Why not just go straight for the jugular and get your predictions from a professional predictor. And here is a professional predictor with all the astrological mumbo-jumbo you could possibly want. Ganeshaspeaks includes a forecast for the entire tournament (New Zealand to make the semi-finals, but not the final - Dan Vettori and Craig McMillan to be contenders for man of the series), bewilderingly comprehensive pages for each player and an equally full page for each match on match day (here is the page for today's games)

Take a look at Dan Vettori's page - it includes his astrological profile, horoscope, solar chart, biorhythm report, element chart, tarot reading and a head to head chart so you can compare his current "natal strength" to the "natal strength" of any other World Cup player. What more could you possibly need?

World Cup diaries

Ben has already pointed out that Craig McMillan is keeping a tour diary over at the Black Caps website. But if that is his tour diary, then what the hell is this? You probably need to click on that link to believe it. It will take you to a blogsite which tells us that it belongs to Craig McMillan and that he is aiming to share any culinary insights he picks up while on tour. So far it seems to consist solely of badly photo-shopped images, extraordinarily unhealthy sounding recipes and odd anecdotes. Is it really Craig McMillan's doing? Given that his "official" tour diary has him claiming a love for the music of Westlife, Britney Spears and John Farnham - I wouldn't be at all surprised. Certainly the author of "Black Snacks" is someone warped - and McMillan's musical tastes would indicate he ain't exactly predictable.

Elsewhere, Public Address has started its own World Cup cricket blog. It is being run by three fanatical New Zealand fans (including Chris Cairn's biographer Hamish McDouall) who have certainly done their research. The first two posts cover New Zealand's group round opponents, Kenya and Canada.

Ben on...Ireland, the dark horse

An anonymous comment on an earlier post made the laughable prediction that Ireland might make it through to the Super 8. I dismissed this claim out of hand, naturally, even while I was checking Ireland's schedule and seeing for myself that Ireland qualifying for round 2 was not out of the question.

A follow up comment pointed out the advantages Ireland gains from its schedule that I had seen but failed to acknowledge. Ireland does have a chance. It is an outside chance, but surely the best of the minnows.

Ireland's opponents are, in this order,

Zimbabwe
West Indies
Pakistan

Zimbabwe are simply so poor at the moment that any small nation would fancy their chances against them.

The West Indies are an entirely different prospect and a Windies victory should be a forgone conclusion. But…there is some cricketing history between Ireland and the Windies that combined with the Windies ability to script absolute meltdowns makes this game rather more interesting. In their last match, in 2004, the West Indies managed to go down to Ireland by 6 wickets, defending 292. Back in 1969 however, Ireland and the Windies played one of the most remarkable games ever. The Irish (and a rumoured night out on the Guinness) dismissed West Indies out for 25 and were declared the winner.

Two wins should be enough to see Ireland through, but even Pakistan shouldn't feel too confident – their match against Ireland is on St Patrick's Day.

(Those of you who read the Sunday Star-Times may recognise that I cribbed most of this post from Denis Edward's article.)

What happens to old cricketers?

It seems some of them go into Real Estate. Check out the third salesperson in the lefthand column.

Ben on...New Zealand's blockbuster

The Age has given us their summary of New Zealand as a World Cup contender. In stark contrast to the Cricinfo article and expert commentary that Mike is salivating over, The Age article has one statistic (number of World Cups attended) and has commentary from a jockey who used to ride a New Zealand born horse.

The blockbuster is – surprise, surprise – the Super 8 game against Australia. (In a shock departure from tradition, Pakistan's blockbuster was given as the game against India.) Personally, the Black Caps game that I am really looking is the game against England. I believe this will be a bell-ringer for the prospects of both teams in the rest of the competition.

Ben on...warm-up #2 in context

We should all be feeling much more confident after the warm-up against Sri Lanka. 285 batting first was a good, defendable total and the bowlers were able to recover from a big opening partnership by the Sri Lankans and take regular wickets while keeping the scoring from boiling over. The game demonstrates a couple of things that we would like to believe about the Black Caps, that our top order can really sparkle and that our bowlers can apply pressure and reap the rewards.

However, again it was just a warm up. Not every game is going to be as easy as that. After all, the Sri Lankans had rested Vaas and Jayasuriya and Malinga only got 4 overs.

But all the same, it is great to see the Black Caps back on track with just 4 days until their first real game of the tournament, the match against England, which is arguably their most important of the pre-knock out rounds.

Poll results and a new poll

My last poll asked you to identify the highest point of Shane Warne's long and distinguished career. Three of you thought it was taking money from bookies. Four of you thought it was the use of performance enhancing drugs. Five thought it was the dodgy text messages. Eleven couldn't get past the inflatable dildo, but for eighteen of you that had nothing on the mullet. But, and perhaps we are biased here because it happened in this country, for twenty-eight of you, the absolute high point was when Warney beat up some kids in Wellingto to steal the photos they had taken of him smoking (while he was being paid big bucks to front an anti-smoking campaign).

My next poll asks you to tell me what John Bracewell's fate should be. His contract with New Zealand Cricket is up for review after the World Cup. Should it be renewed?