And to think Pakistan went out of the tournament because of side like Ireland

Only matches worth watching (in the Super8) are;
16 Australia v Sri Lanka, Grenada
17 South Africa v England, Barbados
20 Australia v New Zealand, Grenada (maybe!)
21 West Indies v England, Barbados

I think I give the rest a miss, until the semis.

Ali

At this stage, although all teams have played 5 of 7 matches, except for AUS certainly "IN" and IRE certainly "OUT", 3 semifinal slots are still mathematically open to the remaining 6 teams.

Consider scenario:
ENG beat SA, WI beat ENG and also BAN, or BAN beat WI and also IRE,
in the remaining matches
then
SA, ENG, WI or BAN
will be tied at 6 points each for the 4th slot.

Or, if ENG can win both the matches (8 pts) with enough run advantage, it may knock SA, NZ, SL off if they stagnate at 8 pts.

None likely, but mathematically still possible.

We all know it's a fluke or more precisely the " Luck of the Irish" The only highlight worth remembering from today's match is that little jig Johnson gave after he bowled Gilchrist, man I was on the floor. Remaining matches and current points table below

Sun Apr 15 09:15 EDT 2007 Bangladesh v Ireland, Barbados
Mon Apr 16 09:15 EDT 2007 Australia v Sri Lanka, Grenada
Tue Apr 17 09:15 EDT 2007 South Africa v England, Barbados
Wed Apr 18 09:15 EDT 2007 Ireland v Sri Lanka, Grenada
Thu Apr 19 09:15 EDT 2007 West Indies v Bangladesh, Barbados
Fri Apr 20 09:15 EDT 2007 Australia v New Zealand, Grenada
Sat Apr 21 09:15 EDT 2007 West Indies v England, Barbados
Semi Finals and Final
Tue Apr 24 10:15 EDT 2007 1st Semi Final TBC v TBC, Jamaica
Wed Apr 25 09:15 EDT 2007 2nd Semi Final TBC v TBC, St Lucia
Sat Apr 28 09:15 EDT 2007 Final TBC v TBC, Barbados



Points Tables ::


Super Eights Mat Won Lost Tied N/R Pts Net RR
Australia 5 5 0 0 0 10 +2.298
Sri Lanka 5 4 1 0 0 8 +1.350
New Zealand 5 4 1 0 0 8 +1.267
South Africa 5 3 2 0 0 6 -0.199
England 5 2 3 0 0 4 +0.079
West Indies 5 1 4 0 0 2 -1.212
Bangladesh 5 1 4 0 0 2 -1.431
Ireland 5 0 5 0 0 0 -1.968

South Africa v New Zealand............
South Africa batting first is in early trouble ...5-2....


UPDATE: South Africa 193/7 (50 ov)
New Zealand 196/5 (48.2 ov)

A must-win game for South Africa and England

Expect a cracker on Tuesday

S Rajesh

April 14, 2007



Graeme Smith will have plenty of time to mull over things if South Africa lose to England on Tuesday © AFP



While New Zealand assured themselves of a place in the semi-finals with the win in Grenada - a result which also ensures Sri Lanka are in the semis, regardless of the results in their last two games - the defeat has put South Africa's semi-final prospects in serious jeopardy. With just one match to go, the South Africans are on six points, only two in front of England, who also have an extra match in hand. The two teams clash on Tuesday, in a must-win game for both. Not only is the result critical to those two teams, it will also impact a couple of other sides in the tournament.

Scenario 1: England beat South Africa

England will then be level with South Africa on six points, and will have an excellent opportunity to seal their semi-final spot with a win against West Indies. South Africa will finish their Super Eight campaign on six points, and will sweat on the results of the other games to keep them in the hunt: for them to go through, West Indies will have to beat England, which will then leave three teams - South Africa, England, and West Indies or Bangladesh - on six points. Net run rates will then come into play, which is again bad news for South Africa - they are currently languishing at -0.21, and a defeat against England won't help their cause much. Graeme Smith might just regret the fact that he bowled five overs for 56 against West Indies, allowing them to come within 67 runs of their 356.

England going past South Africa will also suit West Indies and Bangladesh perfectly. Brian Lara and Habibul Bashar have been talking about their World Cups being over already, but they just might have rushed it a bit. If England's victory margin against South Africa is a narrow one, and if West Indies thrash Bangladesh and England (it might look unlikely at the moment, but nothing's beyond a team which has Chris Gayle and Lara in their batting line-up), their NRR might just sneak up beyond that of England and South Africa. Ditto for Bangladesh, if they beat Ireland and West Indies.

Scenario 2: South Africa beat England

Realistically, that's South Africa's only chance of making it to the last four. A South African win will also shut out England, West Indies and Bangladesh, making two of the last four matches - West Indies versus Bangladesh and West Indies versus England - completely redundant. Australia, New Zealand, Sri Lanka and South Africa will then be the four semi-finalists, with the rest of the matches only deciding the positions within the top four.

Now that NZ, AUS and SL are in the semis, and assuming that BAN beats IRE (almost certain) today and assuming SA loses to ENG on Tuesday, the fourth spot is open for competition between SA, ENG, BAN and yes even WI.

But, if SA beats ENG, on tuesday, it makes SA the fourth and final team in the semis.

Wow! IRE did the impossible. They beat and knocked BAN (the Giant Killers) off the contention for semis.

So, now if SA beats ENG on Tuesday, SA is the 4th team in semis, otherwise the 4th spot is open to SA, ENG, WI. (NZ, AUS and SL are "IN" and BAN and IRE are "OUT")

Aus battered Sri Lanka again yesterday, although was expecting / hoping that, there is no point beating Aus until the semis

Ali

ENG appears to have collapsed, 121 for 8 @ 37.1 overs.

SA is certain to win this match and hence will be the 4th semi finalist team.

last I checked they were on 93-3 and now it's 122-8, Eng back to their best (collapses) then

Ali

SA won by 9 wickets scoring 157/1 in 19.2 overs.

Ireland v Sri Lanka ....... Ireland all out for 77 in 27.4 overs




UPDATE: Ireland 77 (27.4 ov)
Sri Lanka 81/2 (10.0 ov)
Match over


Sri Lanka continue their minnow-battering trend

S Rajesh and HR Gopalakrishna

April 18, 2007

It wasn't quite the way Ireland would have wanted a memorable World Cup campaign to end - their eight-wicket drubbing against Sri Lanka was one of the most comprehensive defeats in World Cup history. Cricinfo looks at some of the interesting stats from the game.



Farveez Maharoof: superb against the minnows, but not so effective against the better teams © AFP




Ireland's total of 77 is the sixth-lowest in the World Cup, the fourth sub-100 total in this tournament, and the second by Ireland - they had scored 91 against Australia, while Zimbabwe (99 against Pakistan) and Bermuda (78 against Sri Lanka) also suffered the ignominy of being bundled out for less than 100. In all, there have been 14 sub-100 totals in World Cups - four of them in this edition, and three each in 2003 and 1975.


Sri Lanka have made it habit of finishing off the minnows in double-quick time, and they did it again in Grenada - three of the seven lowest World Cup scores have now come against them.


Ireland's innings lasted only 27.4 overs, making it the sixth time a team had been bowled out in under 30 overs in World Cup matches. The least number of overs faced by a team being bowled out is 14, when Namibia were dismissed for 45 by Australia at Potchefstroom in 2003.


The match aggregate of 158 is the fourth-lowest in a World Cup game. The lowest is 73, in the game between Sri Lanka and Canada at Paarl in 2003 - Canada were bundled out for 36 and the Lankans romped to victory in a mere 4.4 overs.


Sri Lanka didn't take much longer to wrap it up here, finishing off the run-chase with 240 balls to spare. Only twice in World Cups have teams won more comprehensively, in terms of number of balls remaining - in the match mentioned above, Sri Lanka beat Canada with 272 deliveries remaining, while Canada suffered at the hands of England in 1979, losing with 277 balls to spare. Among all ODIs, this was the sixth-most comprehensive victory margin in terms of balls remaining. (Click here for the most comprehensive wins in World Cups, and here for the most emphatic ODI wins.)


The Ireland innings had five ducks, making it the fifth instance of five batsmen failing to get off the mark in an innings in the World Cup. The first such occasion was in the 1979 final, when five England batsmen failed to get off the mark. It happened twice in 2003 - in the Canada-Sri Lanka game, and when Sri Lanka succumbed to India later in the tournament. In the current edition it happened once before, when Bermuda were bundled out for 156 against India.


Muttiah Muralitharan recorded his best bowling figures in a World Cup match. His 4 for 19 is marginally better than the 4 for 28 he took against Kenya at Nairobi in 2003. He now has 451 ODI wickets - only Wasim Akram, with 502, is ahead in the wickets tally - while he only needs one more to complete 50 scalps in World Cups. (Click here for Murali's best spells in the World Cup.) This was also the 20th time Muralitharan has captured four or wickets in an ODI innings - only Waqar Younis (27) and Akram (23) have done it on more occasions.


Farveez Maharoof, who started the slide for Ireland, has now taken four wickets on two occasions in this tournament - he had earlier taken 4 for 23 against Bermuda. In six games in the World Cup, Maharoof has taken nine wickets at an average of 22. Filter out the non-Test-playing teams, though, and the numbers are rather less impressive - one wicket for 150 runs in 27 overs.



Kumar Sangakkara failed with the bat, but pouched three catches behind the stumps, taking his World Cup tally of dismissals to 32 - only Adam Gilchrist, with 44, has more dismissals in World Cups. In this edition, Sangakkara leads the way with 14, one ahead of Brendan McCullum.

Seminalist teams all decided a few days ago and the remainder super-8 matches redundant, with WI beating BAN today, the last of super-8 matches, Sat April 21, is of some interest. It'll decide the # 5 spot between WI and ENG. Both teams are tied at 4 pts each and the winner will end up 5th with 6 pts.

1 in a million possibility, if it's a draw ENG will be #5 with better Run advantage.

Super-8 match bet ENG and WI for deciding the #5 spot is half way thru. Before the start of the match, ENG was # 5 because of better NRR. But, ENG is definite to give up the # 5 slot to WI as WI has already amassed over 240 runs (for 4) in 38 overs (expect a total of over 350 in 50 overs) and I doubt ENG can come even close to this score even if they survive for 50 overs.

Not quite.

WI sort of collapsed after the 38th over and made just 60 more runs before they were all out for 300 runs in 49.5 overs.
And now, in 25 overs ENG sure is well on their run pace @ 6 runs per over (150 for 2), sufficient to maintain their 5th place standing provided they keep up this run rate and don't go all out in 50 overs. Also, as the limiting over comes near and enough wickets are still avail, run rate sure goes much higher. So, expect wilder batting in the remaining overs.