Opening Match.

First match of the 51 matches over. Finito.
It was a match between two extremely unpredictable teams, two of the most unpredictable of the current test playing nations- Windies and Pakistan. Windies were trashed by India in the practice match and didn’t have the psychological edge that Pakistan did (having won both of their practice matches, especially the final one against SA), and it seemed that this would lead to their downfall in the first match. Because truly, they had the slowest of starts. Even at the 24th over or so, their run rate was barely above 3, they were feeling for the ball, playing and missing ever so often. Pakistan’s bowling was getting the better of them, as wickets started falling.

But suddenly, they consolidated, with Marlon Samuels making a wonderful 63 off 70 balls and Smith abandoning orthodox batting to smash 32 off 15 balls. It was a treat for the eyes, but I wasn’t too pleased with Pakistan’s suddenly dismal bowling (because we had predicted that Paki would win in our G12 prediction thing… yes vested interests, evidently). WestIndies ended off with 241 for 9, with Collymore smashing a spectacular six off the last ball of the innings.

I didn’t watch Paki’s run chase, but from what I heard/ read, they lost a wicket in the 3rd ball. Pathetic. They had the psychological edge, they had the skill, and YET they got all out for 187. All I can say is, they didn’t apply themselves, and they probably gave in to a bout of nerves.
I mean, yeah sure, it can be nerve wrecking playing the opening match, but hey, aren’t they supposed to just concentrate on the game? I mean, Windies had just got hit badly by India and they came back to bag a wonderful win.

Here’s a nice summary of yesterday’s match:
Fine Legs and Dying Swans

On to today’s matches, it’s Aussie- Scotland and Kenya-Canada. No need to say anything about who’s gonna win the first one. But Kenya-Canada will probably be interesting. Aussie is smashing away as usual, from what I can see in the live scorecard on cricinfo, because I am currently away from the TV, where my parents are switching between matches on the two World Cup channels.

And oh wow, from what I can see, Scotland’s opening fast bowler is 37 years old! *waggles eyebrows* He’s good! (:

On Extraaa Innings (hereby referred to as EI), they were discussing whether the “minnows” deserve to be playing in the World Cup or not. I don’t feel it’s fair to call them the minnows. Ok, FINE, they are weaker teams, but that doesn’t mean they shouldn’t get a chance to play in the WC. I mean, it’s only by playing these big tournaments with all the high-flying teams will they get exposure. They’ll only improve their game and they’ll be able to work towards being a test playing nation in future. And you know, all these people talk about promoting cricket to the world and encouraging the interest for the game in more countries… accepting these less prominent teams into the World Cup is a great way to do so, don’t you think? It’s like, even though I don’t like football, if Singapore were to play in the World Cup, I would definitely watch with interest, because my country is playing. Similarly, more people in places like Canada, Holland, Scotland and Ireland would watch cricket, because their country is playing the World Cup. It’s a great way to spread the love for the game, and I don’t see why they consider it a waste of time letting weaker nations play in the WC. If they want the Cricket World Cup to be a big scale event, even ½ the scale of the Football World Cup many years down the road, they have to start SOMEWHERE don’t they?

My pet peeve for the day.
I think I should return to alternating between matches and studying at the same time.

(I am secretly wishing Aussie will lose today, even though there’s absolutely NO chance of that. Sighh)