stevegrant

England should do ok, but assuming we get through to the Super Eight stage, we've got a ***** of a draw, with games against South Africa, Australia and India. Any team qualifying for the semi-finals from that group will fancy their chances of winning the tournament. Bangladesh, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and New Zealand looks a much weaker second group, IMO. I like the look of South Africa at the moment, although India will rightly start as favourites.

FIRST ROUND Group A India, Bangladesh, Ireland Group B Pakistan, England, Netherlands Group C Australia, Sri Lanka, West Indies Group D New Zealand, South Africa, Scotland 5 June Group B - England v Netherlands, Lord's (17.30) Netherlands (163/6 20ov - de Groot 49; Anderson 3/23) beat England (162/5 20ov - Wright 71, Bopara 46; ten Doeschate 2/35) by 4 wickets Scorecard 6 June Group D - New Zealand v Scotland, The Oval (10.00) New Zealand (90/3 6ov - Ryder 31; Watson 1/4) beat Scotland (89/4 7ov - Coetzer 33; Butler 3/19) by 7 wickets Scorecard Group C - Australia v West Indies, The Oval (14.00) West Indies (172/3 15.5ov - Gayle 88, Fletcher 53; Johnson 2/36) beat Australia (169/7 20ov - Warner 63; Bravo 2/31, Taylor 2/33, Edwards 2/34) by 7 wickets Scorecard Group A - India v Bangladesh, Trent Bridge (18.00) India (180/5 20ov - Gambhir 50, Yuvraj Singh 41; Naeem Islam 2/32) beat Bangladesh (155/8 20ov - Junaid Siddique 41; Ojha 4/21) by 25 runs Scorecard 7 June Group D - South Africa v Scotland, The Oval (13.30) South Africa (211/5 20ov - de Villiers 79, Kallis 48; Haq 2/25, Drummond 2/40) beat Scotland (81 15.4ov - Coetzer 42; Morkel 2/15, van der Merwe 2/17, Botha 2/17, Steyn 2/21) by 130 runs Scorecard Group B - England v Pakistan, The Oval (17.30) England (185/5 20ov - Pietersen 58, Wright 34; Saeed Ajmal 2/23, Umar Gul 2/37) beat Pakistan (137/7 20ov - Younus Khan 46*; Broad 3/17) by 48 runs Scorecard 8 June Group A - Ireland v Bangladesh, Trent Bridge (13.30) Ireland (138/4 18.2ov - N O'Brien 40, K O'Brien 39*; Mashrafe Mortaza 2/30) beat Bangladesh (137/8 20ov - Mashrafe Mortaza 33*; Johnston 3/20) by 6 wickets Scorecard Group C - Australia v Sri Lanka, Trent Bridge (17.30) Sri Lanka (160/4 19ov - Sangakkara 55*, Dilshan 53; Lee 2/39) beat Australia (159/9 20ov - Johnson 28*, D Hussey 28; Mendis 3/20, Malinga 3/36, Udana 2/47) by 6 wickets Scorecard 9 June Group B - Pakistan v Netherlands, Lord's (13.30) Pakistan (175/5 20ov - Kamran Akmal 41; Seelaar 2/36) beat Netherlands (93 17.3ov - Kervezee 21; Shahid Afridi 4/11) by 82 runs Scorecard Group D - New Zealand v South Africa, Lord's (17.30) South Africa (128/7 20ov - Smith 33; Butler 2/13) beat New Zealand (127/5 20ov - McCullum 57; van der Merwe 2/14) by 1 run Scorecard 10 June Group C - Sri Lanka v West Indies, Trent Bridge (13.30) Sri Lanka (192/5 20ov - Jayasuriya 81, Dilshan 74; Simmons 4/19) beat West Indies (177/5 20ov - Bravo 51; Mendis 2/25, Malinga 2/45) by 15 runs Scorecard Group A - India v Ireland, Trent Bridge (17.30) India (113/2 15.3ov - Rohit Sharma 52*, Gambhir 37) beat Ireland (112/8 18ov - White 29; Zaheer Khan 4/19, Ojha 2/18) by 8 wickets Scorecard GROUP TABLES Group A 1. India 4 +1.227 Q 2. Ireland 2 -0.162 Q 3. Bangladesh 0 -0.966 Group B 1. England 2 +1.175 Q 2. Pakistan 2 +0.85 Q 3. Netherlands 2 -2.025 Group C 1. Sri Lanka 4 +0.626 Q 2. West Indies 2 +0.715 Q 3. Australia 2 -1.331 Group D 1. South Africa 4 +3.275 Q 2. New Zealand 2 +0.309 Q 3. Scotland 0 -5.281 SUPER EIGHT STAGE Group E India, England, West Indies, South Africa Group F Ireland, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, New Zealand 11 June Group F - New Zealand v Ireland, Trent Bridge (13.30) New Zealand (198/5 20ov - Redmond 65, Guptill 45*, Styris 42; McCallan 2/33, Cusack 2/43) beat Ireland (115 16.4ov - Botha 28; N McCullum 3/15, Mills 2/12) by 83 runs. Scorecard Group E - England v South Africa, Trent Bridge (17.30) South Africa (114/3 18.2ov - Kallis 57*, Gibbs 30) beat England (111 19.5ov - Shah 38; Parnell 3/14, Kallis 2/20, van der Merwe 2/32) by 7 wickets. Scorecard 12 June Group F - Pakistan v Sri Lanka, Lord's (13.30) Sri Lanka (150/7 20ov - Dilshan 46; Shahid Afridi 2/23, Saeed Ajmal 2/26, Umar Gul 2/34) beat Pakistan (131/9 20ov - Younis Khan 50; Malinga 3/17, Muralitharan 2/28) by 19 runs. Scorecard Group E - India v West Indies, Lord's (17.30) West Indies (156/3 18.4ov - Bravo 66*, Simmons 44) India (153/7 20ov - Yuvraj Singh 67, Yusuf Pathan 31; Bravo 4/38, Edwards 3/24) by 7 wickets. Scorecard 13 June Group E - West Indies v South Africa, The Oval (13.30) South Africa (183/7 20ov - Gibbs 55, Kallis 45, Smith 31; Taylor 3/30) beat West Indies (163/9 20ov - Simmons 77; Parnell 4/13, van der Merwe 2/30, Steyn 2/30) by 20 runs. Scorecard Group F - New Zealand v Pakistan, The Oval (17.30) Pakistan (100/4 13.1ov - Shahzaib Hasan 35; Vettori 2/20) beat New Zealand (99 18.3ov - Styris 22; Gul 5/6, Abdul Razzaq 2/17) by 6 wickets. Scorecard 14 June Group F - Ireland v Sri Lanka, Lord's (13.30) Sri Lanka (144/9 20ov - Jayawardene 78; Cusack 4/18, Rankin 2/27, McCallan 2/33) beat Ireland (135/7 20ov - Mooney 31*, Porterfield 31, N O'Brien 31; Malinga 2/19, Mendis 2/22) by 9 runs. Scorecard Group E - India v England, Lord's (17.30) England (153/7 20ov - Pietersen 46, Bopara 37; Harbhajan Singh 3/30, Jadeja 2/26) beat India (150/5 20ov - Yusuf Pathan 33*, Dhoni 30*; Swann 2/28, Sidebottom 2/31) Scorecard 15 June Group F - Pakistan v Ireland, The Oval (13.30) Pakistan (159/5 20ov - Kamran Akmal 57; McCallan 2/26) beat Ireland (120/9 20ov - Porterfield 40; Saeed Ajmal 4/19, Umar Gul 2/19) by 39 runs. Scorecard Group E - England v West Indies, The Oval (17.30) West Indies (82/5 8.2ov - Sarwan 19*, Bravo 18) beat England (161/6 20ov - Bopara 51, Pietersen 33; Bravo 2/30) by 5 wickets (D/L target: 80 in 9ov) Scorecard 16 June Group F - New Zealand v Sri Lanka, Trent Bridge (13.30) Group E - South Africa v India, Trent Bridge (17.30)

I think our game against Middlesex in a few weeks' time when the tournament resumes is being televised - it's due to start at 7.10pm, so I'm presuming that extra 10 minutes is to allow Sky a bit of build-up.

Ultimately, while Sussex certainly employed a fair bit of gainsmanship as soon as they were ahead on D/L, Kent knew exactly where they had to be after every over and having seen the re-run on Sky this morning, Paul Allott was spot-on when he said that the batsmen were being over-cautious, and they paid the price for it.

Bowled well, batted reasonably until 90/3 then collapsed rather spectacularly against fairly average bowling. The two run-outs by Schofield were a bit good, to be fair. Seemed a relatively large Hampshire-supporting contingent there as well - special mention to the mentalist dressed as a beer bottle

Which would be pretty harsh given his performances so far, IMO. Dawson didn't get a bowl on Monday for some bizarre reason, Pothas elected to give Ervine 4 overs who then went for 39 runs Weather's looking distinctly dodgy for tonight's game, which is a pain as I'm going to it! :mad:

Until this season, Swansea haven't really been big enough in recent years for the FAW to give a toss about them. Basically, they're scared that Cardiff (and now Swansea) will just join the FA as full members rather than have the associate member status they currently have - I presume there are tangible benefits to being a member of the FA ahead of the FAW.

Here's hoping Sky choose our game to show live that day... I actually thought we might have been 40 runs short of par at the close of our innings as we slowed to a crawl between the 25th and 40th overs, when Udal and Malan seemed to have a bit of control over us, despite the pitch not appearing to offer much for the bowlers at all. They looked well on course at one point, but the wicket of Dexter was the key one, and they collapsed after that. Without Phil Hughes, Andrew Strauss, Eoin Morgan and Owais Shah, it was always going to be a tough ask for them.

This. Particularly considering he played half the season without a strike partner and the other half in central midfield.

How predictable, the same old faces drag what was a reasonable debate into a bitter **** comparison contest.

One thing that does make me laugh (in gallows' humour or irony rather than genuine amusement) is that all these people suddenly using the "if a customer doesn't like the product in a shop, he/she doesn't buy it, why shouldn't football be the same?" argument were almost certainly the same people who got ****ed off when Lowe quite openly called the fans "customers" and threw the "football isn't like any other business" argument at him. You can't have it both ways.

Too much ball tampering...

The tax arrears idea is a sound one, but the idea of getting a joint TV deal with the Premier League is nonsense. One of the main reasons the Premier League was formed in the first place was so the top flight could negotiate its own television deal - they're hardly likely to hand that privilege back any time soon.

Now at Brighton, if anyone's remotely interested.

Very happy with that draw. I don't think Phil Hughes is with them anymore, and Eoin Morgan and Owais Shah are with the England ODI squad so won't be available either. £7.50 for advance members tickets... bargain

In production. Hopefully will be ready for distribution shortly after I get back from Vegas

Well that was an unexpected bonus

98 without loss after 18. Worcestershire are determined to throw away their place in the quarter-finals, chasing 153 to win against Ireland, they're now 33/6 off 11 overs

Yeah, that's the part I'm worried about, particularly without the sort of player who would be ideal at chasing down relatively low scores, Sir John of Crawley.

74/7 Even Carberry's taken a wicket!

44/5, Jefferson run out for 12. Pretty much into the last recognised batsmen now, which is clearly when we'll go and make a mess of it and let them off the hook again.

Worcestershire would finish above us on account of both sides having won 5 games and then Worcestershire having won both games against us.

31/4 Riazuddin bowls Voges for 17. At this rate, it looks as though Pothas is going to bowl Cork and Riazuddin right through their 10 overs each in one go. Slightly risky, but possibly worth the risk.

25/3... Cork with all of them, the last of which was a stumping - seems odd that Pothas would be up at the stumps to Cork, who's not exactly a medium-pacer!

9/2