hello all sajhaties,

this is my attempt to cure some of our ICC Cricket World cup fever by playing online version of World Cup cricket (to the one who doesnt like cricket: do not worry it will not consist of too many rules and it certainly wont take your whole day either)....it will be more like of a prediction game ....the similar to what we earlier did during NFL...i was highly impressed y it and huge number of responses...i can only hope it will be the same for WC Cricket

...so here is what is in store for the game:

PREDICTION MODEL

You must predict:

1. The game outcome (team 1 win, team 2 win or draw)

2. The margin of victory (i.e. runs difference AND wickets difference*)

* In cricket the judge of victory is determined by the coin toss, and as we won't know until each game starts how the victory will be determined, you must pick both options.

Points are awarded as follows:

Win Point (WP) 1.0 (for round robin, Super 8), 2 (for semi-finals), and 3 (for the final)

Margin Point (MP) 0.5
(A Margin Point will be awarded to every player whose margin prediction is within 30 runs of the real run margin or 3 wickets of the real wicket margin. You must correctly predict the winner of the game in order to qualify for a Margin Point.)


Bonus Point (BP) 1.0 Scored by player(s) whose margin prediction(s) is/are the closest to the actual margin. Each if the players will get 1 whol epoint point in case of ties. Once again, you must get the game outcome right (i.e. earn a WP) in order to qualify for BP.

i didn't make it too completed, did i ?

I will provide the scoreboard (which will be in an Excel spreadsheet, remember its online version we are playing) every week on saturdays after the saturday's game outcome

so, we ready for the toss?

P.S. There will be a 'trophy' for the winner ...the more the number of players, the bigger the trophy. It's a promise that wil lbe kept.

I predict hi_nanu and sa54 to bounce back nicely in these final two rounds.

While no teams carry any points from other rounds in real SFs, here we do and I see little disadvantage to sa54 who has catch up 4.5 point to get to the top. But, given his ability to win the bonus points consistently, I see no problem. same goes with hi_nanu. Whoever holds nerve to get the predictions right will win it.

I never thought this will so interesting. Its really good that nobody gave up and now everyone can strike. One bad day and you will go down to 4th from the first and vice versa.

I think awarding double points in the SF and triple points in final is a great idea.

The only drawback of born_to_rule's rules was that - bonus points for +/- 3 wickets. I think - its too much of an error margin. It should have been at most +/- 2 wickets or even 1. because 30 runs is nothing when the winning margin is as much as 250. Whereas you could say 7 wickets and get bonus for 10 wickets victory as well as for 4 wickets.

what do other pundits think

1. Newzealand Vs Srilanka NZ wins by 28 runs or 2 wicket
2. Aussie Vs Proteas Proteas wins by 43 runs or 5 wicket

my pick for the semis,
1. Newzealand Vs Srilanka: SL wins by 69 runs or 7 wicket
2. Aussie Vs SA: SA wins by 54 runs or 3 wicket

its a extremely hard pick this time...many people are going with srilanka and south africa..i thnk i go against them

1. Newzealand Vs Srilanka: NZ wins by 40 runs or 4 wicket
2. Aussie Vs SA: Australia wins by 50 runs or 4 wicket

i have no idea whats gonan happen..its damn difficult

It is really tuft time now to predict.

1. New Zealand v Sri Lanka, Sri Lanka wins by 25 runs or 4 Wickets
2. Australia v South Africa. AUS wins by 65 runs or 5 wickets

Hello all!

I am going with the public favourites. I do concede that NZ and/or SA can win but more likely is SL and/or AUS win. Also these are the two teams that are first and second in the table.


1. New Zealand v Sri Lanka --> Sri Lankan win by 40 runs or 3 Wickets
2. Australia v South Africa --> Australian win by 40 runs or 5 wickets

For once I thought I should pick those I really like to win but later I decided against that because I could at least enjoy one half of it - either my favourites win or I get my predictions right.

Good luck to all and enjoy!

a very good analogy there Tusaro about the error margin of 3 wickets being too 'easy-to-predict' during the prediction...as the game progressed, i too felt the same...but then it was too late to change it

the other side of it being, had it been like only 1 wicket margin to get the margin point (MP), it would have been really tough to get both the MP and Bonus point (BP), as the players qualify for BP only when they get MP...so, to make all the players 'feel better' of seeing their score boards moving..i think it fulfill its purpose !

+/- 2 wickets would have been the ideal error margin !

otherwise, seems like the semi-final heat from caribbean can be felt here too...enjoy it guys ....this one can be felt only once in four years !!!

New Zealand v Sri Lanka, 1st semi-final, Jamaica

Sri Lanka boosted by Malinga's return

Dileep Premachandran in Jamaica

April 23, 2007

Familiarity often breeds contempt, but in the case of Sri Lanka and New Zealand, it's also given rise to considerable mutual respect. Few teams know each other as well as these two, having played each other 14 times since Sri Lanka pulled off a 47-run victory at Bloemfontein during the last World Cup. New Zealand have edged it seven games to six, but the fact that 10 of those encounters were in the land of the long white cloud will give Sri Lanka plenty of confidence.


M&M: No, we're not talking about the chocolate candy, but Muttiah Muralitharan and Lasith Malinga. Muralitharan has 64 wickets at 19.21 apiece from his 38 games against New Zealand, while Malinga's figures - eight wickets at 24.87 from six matches - don't really reflect the massive strides that he's made in recent times. "He keeps adding to his armoury every day," said Fleming when asked about Murali. "With experience, he's become a more savvy bowler."


Neutralising that threat will be half the job done, but New Zealand's top and lower order will also have to contend with Malinga's slingshots. The 90mph pace can be tricky at the best of times, and he'll certainly enjoy a Sabina Park pitch that has a bit more bounce than most in the Caribbean.


An old stager's last stand: Muralitharan isn't the only veteran desperate for another World Cup final appearance. After being run out for a duck at Napier in his first game against New Zealand 16 years ago, Sanath Jayasuriya has taken five centuries off them in 44 matches. The spongy bounce expected at Sabina Park could be to his liking, and a fusillade of strokes in the opening overs could utterly change the complexion of the match if it means the threat of Shane Bond being negated.


Fit and raring to go: Dilhara Fernando is available for selection after an ankle injury, and with Malinga also back in the fray, Farveez Maharoof could be the one to miss out. And though a vocal section back home would like to see the experienced Marvan Atapattu restored to the top of the order, the team management are almost certain to keep faith in Upul Tharanga. Muralitharan was being rubbed down by the physio after practice, but Jayawardene laughed off any suggestions that he was struggling. "He gets treatment all the time," he said with a grin.


Toning up the middle: Sri Lanka don't have too many big hitters in the middle order, but Chamara Silva, Russel Arnold and Tillakaratne Dilshan form a pretty handy combination. Silva has 308 runs in the competition, while Dilshan and Arnold have delivered sporadically. Stephen Fleming talked of "exposing that area", and with no Maharoof to launch a few into the stands, the trio will need to ensure that any start that Sri Lanka get isn't squandered.


Been there, done that: Chaminda Vaas, who has 48 wickets from 34 games against New Zealand, was part of the World-Cup winning squad in 1996, along with Muralitharan and Jayasuriya. With a repeat of that Lahore final against Australia looming, Jayawardene was confident that the experienced hands would make a difference. We've played more games, tougher games, and big games," he said. They won't come much bigger than this.


Likely XI: 1 Sanath Jayasuriya, 2 Upul Tharanga, 3 Kumar Sangakkara (wk), 4 Mahela Jayawardene (capt), 5 Chamara Silva, 6 Tillakaratne Dilshan, 7 Russel Arnold, 8 Chaminda Vaas, 9 Muttiah Muralitharan, 10 Dilhara Fernando, 11 Lasith Malinga.

New Zealand v Sri Lanka, 1st semi-final, Jamaica

Fleming prepares for uncharted waters

Andrew Miller in Jamaica

April 23, 2007


Just as real men aren't afraid to cry, so Stephen Fleming, New Zealand's captain, hasn't been afraid to admit to the nerves and anxieties that have been coursing through his squad for the past few weeks. But these are not nerves of fear - they are nerves of acknowledgement, for Fleming realizes that his Kiwis could be on the verge of something special. On four previous occasions the team has reached the semi-finals of the World Cup but never once have they been able to go on. This time, however, it could be different.


No longer the bridesmaids Fleming has marshalled New Zealand's fortunes in two previous World Cups, reaching the semi-finals in 1999 and the Super Sixes four years later, but only now, after a decade as his country's captain, does he think his team finally belongs at the top table. "We got to the [semis] in 1999 on the back of a couple of excellent performances from [Geoff] Allott and [Roger] Twose," he admitted. "I'm not sure we really believed we should be there. This year we feel worthy, and from a confidence point of view, that's a big shift."


Forewarned is forearmed Ominously for New Zealand, the only two sides they have lost to in this competition are Sri Lanka and Australia, the two opponents they are most likely to come up against if the final is to be their destiny. They were comprehensive beatings as well - by six wickets and 215 runs respectively in Grenada last week - but plenty was learnt in the course of those matches.


That was especially true against the Sri Lankans. Forty-eight hours after a comprehensive loss, New Zealand had learnt from their self-confessed mistakes, did the right thing at the toss, picked an extra spinner in Jeetan Patel, and marched through to the next round with a convincing win over South Africa. "Bouncebackability" is the vogue phrase for such tendencies. "We are a team that's got to be focussed on one game at a time," said Fleming. "Confidence is very high because it's a one-off scenario."


Unorthodox yet familiar Sri Lanka memorably hid three of their trump cards - Chaminda Vaas, Muttiah Muralitharan and Lasith Malinga - from the Australians in their Super Eights match last week. It made sound tactical sense, because Sri Lanka had not faced them for more than a year, but there would have been little point to taking such a similar approach to the Kiwis. The two sides have squared up for 14 ODIs since the last World Cup and as many as six in the last six months.


Sri Lanka have the statistical advantage with four wins out of six, and a psychological one as well, seeing as two of those wins were achieved in the most alien conditions imaginable - the greentops of Napier and Auckland in December and January. But at least it means that New Zealand have been able to plan for the threat they are to be presented with on Tuesday. In their final practice session, Chris Martin was winging down round-arm deliveries at the batsmen in the nets, while a coterie of local spinners were trundling in from around the wicket, in a clear replication of what is to follow.


Bond versus Malinga "What he does seems to be pretty simple, in a respectful way," said Fleming of Malinga the slinger. And in a sense he's spot on. It'll be a diet of 90mph swinging yorkers at the death, and a couple of savage bursts in the Powerplays as well. That doesn't make him any easier to play, mind you, although the same could be said of his counterpart, Shane Bond, who is indisputably New Zealand's trump card.


Bond missed the drubbing against Australia with a gastric complaint but he is expected to be fit and fully functional for tomorrow's showdown. His specific threat is pretty easy to imagine as well - full-length, 90mph, late-swinging outswingers - although only once in this competition has his wicket-taking ability been neutralised, and that was by the Sri Lankans in Grenada. "Shane is obviously their strike bowler," said Jayawardene, "but if he is off the mark we have guys who can take him on. If he's on the mark we will respect him and play him accordingly. It's all about adapting and making smart decisions."


Top, middle, bottom Sri Lanka, as Fleming has admitted throughout, have perhaps the best balanced bowling attack in the competition. But it comes at a price. "One area they'd like is more hitting power," said Fleming, who believes that early new-ball breakthroughs will leave Sri Lanka's lower-order vulnerable, especially in the probable absence of Farvez Maharoof, who is expected to make way for the fit-again Dilhara Fernando.


"If we can get wickets at the top, we're not faced with a scenario where you've got [to face] Symonds and Watson and Boucher and Pollock, who can destroy you in the last ten overs," he said. "They have a couple of batsmen who have dominated world cricket in certain roles. [Sanath] Jayasuriya has been very aggressive; he's a key wicket to get, while the captain [Jayawardene] and [Kumar] Sangakkara more or less hold the innings together."


Jayasuriya and Jayawardene have both made more than 400 runs in the tournament while batting in the top three. New Zealand's strength, on the other hand, has been in the middle- to lower-order department. With the exception of Fleming himself, the bulk of the team's impetus has come from the superlative form of Scott Styris, with key contributions from the likes of Jacob Oram and Craig McMillan.


"Our senior players will be the key," said Fleming. "Players like Ross Taylor can come to the fore, and impact players like Brendon McCullum, but our key core of senior players should win the semi-final and final. The top three have to be more productive in these last two games. Our depth in batting has been our strength, but we know that when the top order fires we get scores that usually give us a win."


Bounce versus loop
Having seen how effective they were in New Zealand's home conditions, Fleming wasn't bluffing when he suggested that Sri Lanka were conditioned for any pitch surface. "But if there's bounce in the pitch that may give us an advantage," he added. "I'm certainly not advocating a massive short-ball approach, but thinking more in terms of what we can extract from our taller bowlers. It's not a massive advantage, but assessing the conditions will be key."


If New Zealand do put their faith in seam, however, it may well have to be at the expense of one of their unsung heroes of the tournament. Patel's absence in the Super Eights defeat against Sri Lanka was keenly felt, but with Daniel Vettori a shoo-in and Scott Styris in such fine restrictive form with the ball, something may have to give. "We've been very strong on horses for courses in terms of pitch conditions," said Fleming. "If it's going to turn or slow up and be quite dry, then [Jeets] is one of the first guys picked. But if you're going to give up a seaming option, you've got to make sure there's something worthwhile down the track."


Likely XI 1 Stephen Fleming (capt), 2 Peter Fulton, 3 Ross Taylor, 4 Craig McMillan, 5 Scott Styris, 6 Jacob Oram, 7 Brendon McCullum (wk), 8 James Franklin, 9 Daniel Vettori, 10 Jeetan Patel, 11 Shane Bond.

Result of Game 1 for WEEK 7:

1st semi-final:

Sri Lanka 289/5 (50 ov)
New Zealand 208 (41.4 ov)

Sri Lanka won by 81 runs

"Once Sri Lanka had made 289, New Zealand didn't have much of a chance, especially with the pitch taking turn and Sri Lanka posessing a varied attack. Muralitharan teased and tormented with 4 for 31 while Malinga and Vaas turned in excellent support acts. New Zealand had a chance at 100 for 2 but a collapse of sorts left them high and dry.

So Sri Lanka enter their second World Cup final (after the memorable one in 1996). New Zealand fail to cross the semi-final stage for the fifth time in World Cups but when they reflect on today they will look back at a truly outstanding knock by Mahela Jayawardene, probably the defining innings of the tournament. "

Australia v South Africa, 2nd semi-final, St Lucia

The calm before the storm

The Preview by Sambit Bal in St Lucia

April 24, 2007

This will be the match of their lives, an opportunity to bury a bogey and the gateway to cricket's biggest prize. South Africa, having spent the last two years perfecting their skills and toning themselves physically, have spent the last few days trying to gain control over that most intangible - and often, when the skills are comparable, decisive - factor in cricket: the mind.

Over the past two days, both Graeme Smith and Mickey Arthur, the captain and the coach, have emphasised the importance of staying calm. Arthur spelt out South Africa's mantra for the semi-final in three words: "Confidence, calmness and patience." It's the closest you will get you to an admission that the mind has been South Africa's big enemy when all was on the line.

On Monday Smith talked about a unique confidence building up within the team, and Arthur elaborated on it. Both spoke about the game against England as a template. "I thought we were the best we've ever been in terms of the mind in that game," Arthur said, "and we've tried to keep the guys in a very calm state, because I think the stand-out thing for me was the guys were very calm going into the England game.

"With the calmness comes the confidence, and with the confidence comes the patience. That is how we're approaching this game. The guys are very calm at the moment. I haven't been involved in a team leading up to a game of this magnitude. They know about their games. We had a couple of meetings and discussed a couple of things. The guys are in really good shape. That's the way you've got to go into a game like this."

"It's very easy to hype up a huge game like this so much that the players become over-anxious. We're trying to play it down as much as we can and just keep the guys in a really good space, because the guys all know what they have to do. We've trained hard, they're fit mentally, and technically they're where they need to be. It's a matter of just keeping them focused and keeping their feet on the ground. I don't want the guys waking up in the middle of the night thinking 'World Cup semi-final'"

Their build-up has been quiet. They spent the first three days after the England game in the nets, but unwinding. A bit of gym, a bit of a workout, but nothing to grind themselves into staleness. That's been the challenge, Arthur said about the gaps between the matches. "That's why so many teams have been up one day and down another," he said. "You don't really get any momentum because of the amount of time between games." There is some concern about the pitch, which now looks bald after the curator administered the final shave

There is some concern about the pitch, however, which now looks bald after the curator administered the final shave. All that remains is a hint of grass in the middle of the pitch, which still looks even and firm but dry. Arthur described the removal of the grass as unfortunate because, with their bowling resources, they would have preferred a pitch with bounce and movement. It has created a selection dilemma that will not be solved till they have a final look on the morning of the match. Which means South Africa will pick a 12 that will include, in addition of the XI that played the last match, Robin Peterson, the left-arm spinner who has appeared in only one match in this tournament. It also means Makhaya Ntini will miss out.

Smith, who suffered a knee injury while diving forward to catch Kevin Pietersen in the last match and was seen limping for a couple of days, has recovered, and South Africa will look to him to provide the early charge as he did in the previous match against Australia. It was a game that had shades of South Africa's mammoth run chase at Wanderers last year, but the wheels came off after AB de Villers was sensationally run out.

Arthur said that match at St Kitts led to some soul-searching. "We discussed that game at length," he said. "We have picked up some trends that Ponting used during the game. We really spent a lot of time doing our homework on it. Australia were able to put us under pressure for long periods of time in that game. We will be looking to reverse the trend." As far as they are concerned, it's three-all in the last six games.

On Wednesday, South Africa will have the opportunity to walk the talk. They know what the day could hold. It's more than a ticket to the final. A win could mean liberation.

South Africa squad 1 Graeme Smith (capt), 2 AB de Villiers, 3 Jacques Kallis, 4 Herschelle Gibbs, 5 Ashwell Prince, 6 Mark Boucher (wk), 7 Justin Kemp, 8 Shaun Pollock, 9 Andrew Hall, 10 Andre Nel, 11 Charl Langeveldt, 12 Robin Peterson.

Australia v South Africa, 2nd semi-final, St Lucia

No chinks apparent in Australia's armour

The Preview by Rahul Bhattacharya in St Lucia

April 24, 2007

Is there a weakness in this Australian side? Who knows it? It's been 27 matches and eight years since they were beaten in a World Cup. With every passing day in this competition their aura grows stronger, their stature more forbidding. On Monday a member of the coaching staff flung balls at close range to Ricky Ponting and the captain kept pouching them as nonchalantly as snapping his fingers. Brad Hogg was in a boxing drill. Matthew Hayden was swinging ball after ball out of the practice area. Even at training they have such a presence. It is said the law of averages must catch up with them. Yes, but whose averages?

In any event they had five losses on the run before coming to the Caribbean so that takes care of averages for a couple of years. There's been all this talk of peaking early but Ponting would have nothing of it. More left in the tank? "Absolutely. All that we've done in the tournament so far is play somewhere near our best, individually and as a team. Until individual performances start surprising me we've always got room for improvement. I haven't been surprised with anything so far." Well.

Try another one. Fair to say they have not been challenged? "It depends how you regard being challenged. We've challenged ourselves through the tournament. We've made 377 against South Africa last time. That's a challenge in itself. You have to do that. I think to win the last two games the way we have against Sri Lanka and New Zealand, we challenged ourselves a lot in those games. We'll challenge ourselves again [against South Africa] and if we get stiffer opposition then it should be a great game."

If there's one thing this South African team has shown it is that they have it in them to take on Australia at their own game. Everyone remembers the miracle at Wanderers, and St Kitts last month for a while threatened to go the same way. Then Shane Watson made a direct hit - from the backward square-leg boundary. The moral of the story seemed to be: whatever the situation, the Australians seemed to have a man for the moment.

But South Africa will have to do more than match Australia for power-hitting: they will need precision, control, nous and energy required to penetrate them. If South Africa are able to make inroads with the ball, it will be a first in the tournament. Australia have not lost more than six wickets in an innings in the entire World Cup. Five out of nine times they've put up more than 300; whenever they haven't they've been chasing with insulting ease.

Only three times in nine games has their opening stand put on less than 50; on both those occasions the second-wicket partnership did. Hayden has demolished all comers. And as he says, even if, say, Watson was to get a blob on Wednesday he'd still average 142 for the tournament. "As a batting unit we're very proud," he said. "We've had some unbelievable achievements." The open architecture which allows breeze and the reasonable boundary size will probably make spin a factor, and while Australia have the left-arm mysteries of Hogg, South Africa have, well, Graeme Smith - assuming that they will, as they should, prefer their more accomplished fast bowlers to Robin Peterson

Indeed, so dominant has been the Australian top order that it's been easy to overlook their bowling. Yet, look at the tables. Before the first semi-final the leading wicket-taker was Glenn McGrath with 22. The contrasting figures of Brad Hogg and Shaun Tait have 19 each.

It is difficult to say just which breed will stand to benefit from the surface at Beausejour. Hayden, who spent a fair amount of time knocking about the ground on Monday, thought the surface to be the best he's seen all tournament. "It's superb, very even." It might be a difficult decision at the toss, Ponting suggested. "This morning it would have been a bowl-first wicket because there was a bit of moisture around but the covers had only been off for about half an hour before we got here," he said. "The groundsman assures me they will be off at about 5am tomorrow so it should be a little bit drier."

The open architecture which allows breeze and the reasonable boundary size will probably make spin a factor, and while Australia have the left-arm mysteries of Hogg, South Africa have, well, Graeme Smith - assuming that they will, as they should, prefer their more accomplished fast bowlers to Robin Peterson.

Australia remain unchanged, Ponting announced. But then not much has changed with them all World Cup.

Australia 1 Matthew Hayden, 2 Adam Gilchrist (wk), 3 Ricky Ponting (capt), 4 Michael Clarke, 5 Andrew Symonds, 6 Michael Hussey, 7 Shane Watson, 8 Brad Hogg, 9 Nathan Bracken, 10 Glenn McGrath, 11 Shaun Tait.

I am hoping AUS vs SA will be the match of the turnament. Today's match didnot turn out to be so. Whoever wins, we want a memorable match - you could always come back - just like the 1999 match.

Recent finals have always been one sided - so may be this will be the time see a tight contest.

Good luck to aussies and proteases and all the supporters

Result of Game 2:

2nd Semi-final:

South Africa 149 (43.5 ov)
Australia 153/3 (31.3 ov)

Australia won by 7 wickets (with 111 balls remaining)

"Once again, South Africa were not able to play their best game in a big match. It was South Africa's lowest one-day score in a World Cup. Their top order combusted and eight of their batsmen got themselves out. It was a massive under-performance that added to the emptiness of the World Cup. Their reputation will persist."

"A clinical performance from the defending champions and the dominated this game from the off. The last few hours have been pretty poor for neutrals, dreadful for South Africans, but that's not Australia's fault. They have done the business and will meet Sri Lanka on Saturday in a re-match of the 1996 final."

This is where we stand before the Saturday's the fianle. There is a huge upset that you can see here in the Sajha World Cup too, but that was expected anyways right? Thats what make cricket such a popular game!

So, here I present you the result of WEEK 7 before Final to give everyone an idea where you and your opponents stand. Start brainstorming now guys and think about game plan for final, just like what Pointing and Jaysuriya might be doing right at this moment.

And here is your one last pick. A pick that can mean 'make it or break it' for many of you.

Saturday, April 28 The Final of ICC World Cup 2007: Australia Vs Sri Lanka.

Saturday, April 28 The Final of ICC World Cup 2007: Australia Vs Sri Lanka. SLK wins AUS 45 runs 0r 2 wkts

3+1.5+3 = 7.5 points for grab!

Go guys ! It just takes one game to tumble down to 5th !

aturday, April 28 The Final of ICC World Cup 2007: Australia Vs Sri Lanka. SLK wins AUS 25 runs 0r 4 wkts

Is this like France Brazil in 1998?

who whould have ever thought France will win 3-0?

Is cricket as unpredictable as football? I dont think so... Its quite predictable. Upsets do come but quite rare.

I did the prediction in Football world cup too - with goal differences but it was tough! not as easy as cricket. is it because - aussies are a class above all?

Hope SL have a little bit of twist to add to this WC