Well the game between the Aussies and the Kiwis was a big cliffhanger, but the Aussies won by 5 runs.

It was certainly 1 of the greatest matches that I've seen with a total of 771 runs scored and 19 wickets falling.

Australia and New Zealand have played out one of the great World Cup matches with the cricket world losing its mind for the thriller.

Tonight's match is between top of the table India versus bottom of the table England.

After watching India's innings (9-229) I thought that the Poms may win a 2nd match before I went to bed, but I was so wrong as they collapsed to be all out for 129.

England has imploded at the Cricket World Cup with a former captain making an extraordinary call about their humiliation.

So India stays at the top of the table while the Poms stay at the bottom.

And Afghanistan have continued their impressive progress in the competition, beating Sri Lanka by seven wickets. That sets up a tasty match with Australia for next week - they're only two points behind you, at the end of the sixth pool round.

Well I'm sorry to report (well not really that sorry) that the Poms are now out of the ICC World Cup going down to the Aussies by 33 runs.

In the other match the Kiwis did well, but not good enough to beat Pakistan in a rain interrupted match.

New Zealand scores 401 at Cricket World Cup, still lose to Pakistan.

The Proteas went down badly against India losing by 243 runs.

Now to see if the Aussies can chase 292 runs down.

But how long I can stay awake for is another story.

Maxi pulls a match out of the bag with a double century to beat Afghanistan by 2 wickets.

Maxi pulls a match out of the bag with a double century to beat Afghanistan by 2 3 wickets.

I did yet another typo there. :-)

Anyhow I reckon that it's rude that we're not going to see the Netherlands playing the Poms tonight on free to air. :-(

You're lucky to get any 'free to air' at all. All we get is a highlights package late at night on a commercial station - one hour minus ad breaks.

But BBC Radio continues to produce the stately Test Match Special - they've mastered the art of talking live for nine hours solid, even when it's raining.

And those guys are superb at outlining the little distractions that happen around the ground with just enough to get one's mind racing. TV is not so good at that.

---

Bob Smith
Member of Seti PIPPS (Pluto is a Planet Protest Society)
Somewhere in the (un)known Universe?

The Poms beat the Netherlands by 160 runs sending them into 7th spot on the table with 4 points.

Now there's something that you don't see everyday. :-O

‘The greatest wicketkeeper catch of all-time’ takes over the internet.

Meanwhile Sri Lanka is in trouble with the ICC again for government interference.

The Cricket World Cup has been rocked by a shock verdict by the ICC to suspend one country from playing international cricket.

The International Cricket Council (ICC) suspended Sri Lanka’s crisis-ridden cricket board Friday, saying it had failed to ensure there was no government interference in its affairs.

The game’s world governing body said Sri Lanka Cricket was “in serious breach of its obligations as a member, in particular, the requirement to manage its affairs autonomously and to ensure that there is no government interference.”

The suspension came a day after Sri Lanka’s parliament asked the board to resign over allegations made by sports minister Roshan Ranasinghe that it had syphoned off millions of dollars.

The conditions of the suspension will be decided by the ICC board later, it said in a brief statement.

It was not immediately clear if the indefinite suspension would affect Sri Lanka hosting the Under 19 World Cup in January.

There was no immediate comment from the board, but an official source said an emergency meeting of the executive committee had been scheduled for Saturday.....

The Aussies just cruised to an 8 wicket win over Bangladesh.

The stats are in after 9 rounds of the World Cup here and here.

Funny as.

After the Ashes our boys went to South Africa played a few other matches around the sub continent while some players did IPL duties before the World Cup began. Some havn't yet been back on home soil.

So I have to wonder why England has to keep coming up with such lame excuses for failure.

Former captain Nasser Hussain has offered a bizarre excuse for England’s World Cup shocker that will have Aussie fans shaking their heads.

...“It’s hard for England because of the timing of World Cups on the back of an Ashes series,” the former England captain said.

“There’s so much focus on the Ashes that come the end of it, you are mentally exhausted....

Like do they just do this on purpose to get a laugh from us? :-D

Now this is likely to cause a big outcry.

India gets its way with ‘outrageous’ pitch demand for World Cup semifinal.

You could call it match rigging.

India beat the Kiwis by 70 runs, but it still leaves a lot wondering what the outcome would've been if the match was played on the original pitch that was prepared for the game.

Now we wait to see if our match against the Proteas gets cycloned out, but you'd would've thought that the game could've been move to a spot that wasn't under such a threat.