Yay for the Black Caps!

So it is the Black Caps vs. Australia in the finals of the ICC Champions Trophy and I think it is fair to say that the two best teams have come through a busy two weeks.

I was at the Wanderers last night and I had to admire how well the New Zealand team performed considering how little support they had! I kid you not - 90% of the support was for the Pakistani team - great atmosphere considering the home team wasn't playing.

Big kudos to the New Zealand side - they came through a tough tournament and a tricky total to chase down and they did it to perfection. Some of you will remember that I backed Grant Elliot (pictured) to score runs in the last game and he promptly delivered a duck but he came good last night in spectacular style.

One performance which I thought didn't get enough credit was that of Daniel Vettori - batting at six for New Zealand shows there are some shortcomings in that batting line-up but boy oh boy did he deliver the goods last night! It needed somebody to take the responsibility of sticking with Elliot to the end.

On current form - Vettori must be one of the best one-day international players in the game at the moment.

Considering the love-hate relationship South Africans have with Australia, I have to wonder how partizan the crowd are going to be when the two teams clash in the final!

Justice!

I have been following a couple of the big international cricket blogs and a number of people have come out bluntly saying that England intentionally lost that game against New Zealand.

The motivation being that if you lost to New Zealand, you don't have to playoff against the Sri Lankans who on paper can be a really difficult ODI side.

Have to be honest and say that the idea doesn't seem that far fetched considering how they were able to set a score of 300+ two days before against South Africa and then get skittled a few days later. Anyway the sheep shaggers give the Poms absolute carrots on Friday and then the poor boys from New Zealand win the Champions Trophy final as some JUSTICE!

Madness!

An absolutely bizarre game of cricket going on between England and New Zealand...

A few days ago England comfortably beat a star-studded South African side and bumped them out of the Champions Trophy and now suddenly they have been bundled out for 146.

New Zealand looked like they were easily going to overhaul the target and suddenly Stuart Broad has ripped through their batting lineup and they've slipped from needing 35 runs with 8 wickets in hand to suddenly needing 6 runs with 4 wickets in hand.

Crazy stuff!

ICC Champions Trophy - Sunday betting

Two big clashes for Sunday and two fixtures that should ultimately decide one of the groups.

New Zealand vs. Sri Lanka
After losing to England earlier in the week, Sri Lanka will be looking to wrap up their semi-final spot with a victory over the Black Caps.

I can't see Sri Lanka losing this one and neither can the bookies.

Bets taken:

Dilshan to top score for Sri Lanka
Grant Elliot to top score for New Zealand

South Africa vs. England
A critical fixture for both teams with the winner pretty much assured of going into the semis having each picked up a win.

The pressure itself is piled on the South African team as both the home team and pre-tournament favourites. After stumbling in their first game against Sri Lanka they are left in a "must-win" situation.

In contrast England have very little to lose - they've come off a drubbing from Australia and then surprised Sri Lanka the other day. If they beat the local team the English press will have an absolute field day....

My picks:

South Africa to win
Graeme Smith to top score for South Africa
Paul Collingwood to top score for England

C'mon SA!

Hhhhmmmm

No Australia, No England and No India in the semi-finals of the T20 World Cup.... That's a bit of a surprise there....

England I didn't expect to get there but India have surprised me - thought they were going to put in a more consistent showing....

As I posted a couple of weeks back I put money down on SA, New Zealand, the West Indies and Bangladesh to win the tournament.... Three out of the four semi-finalists is not too bad.

Again good quality spinners have shone in the tournament.... Not quite the IPL but it's great when you're winning!

T20 Day 2

So Holland came through for me and beat the Poms at Lords! Hahahahhaha what a great start to the T20 World Cup - nothing better than watching the English side self destruct and keep letting the underdogs back into the side.

Lots of cricket on today and here are the bets I have placed. Teams haven't been confirmed so check the betting

New Zealand vs Scotland

• Coetzer - Top Scottish batter
  
• Ross Taylor or Jacob Oram to top the New Zealand batting - although Oram would assume that the Scots take a few wickets
  

Australia vs West Indies

• West Indies to win the game
• Dwayne Bravo - West Indies top batter
• David Hussey - Top Aussie batter

India vs. Bangladesh

• Ashraful - Top Bangladesh batter
  
• Top indian batter I spread three bets across Sehwag, Pathan and Jadeja (if he plays)
  

Happy punting

T20 World Cup Picks

Sorry I haven't blogged in a while - I think after the IPL final I needed a bit of a break from cricket!

The T20 World Cup kicks off on the 5th of June in England and I guess I have to make some predictions here.

In terms of favourite to win the tournament I was a little surprised to see that the South African bookmakers have priced in India as the favourites followed by SA and then Australia.

Anyway I have placed a couple of bets here for outright winner. On current form I don't see how you can look beyond South Africa and with odds of 4-1 I think they're not a bad bet.

My next favourite was New Zealand - who I genuinely believe are going to be a handful in this tournament - and I got 8-1 on them.

The West Indies are one of those sides that blow hot and cold and bearing in mind that they've had some time in England, putting a few bucks down on them at 14-1 is a fair call I think.

Finally I got offered odds of 80-1 on Bangladesh so I put 5 bucks down on them. I don't have a huge amount of faith on them coming home but T20 is a lottery and might be a bit of fun to follow them and see what comes of it!

SA secures ICC Champions Trophy

In the middle of the global financial crisis, it is hugely important from an economic perspective to secure high profile tours and tournaments.

The ICC Champions Trophy, which was originally scheduled to be played in Pakistan will now be played between September 24th and October 5th.

The ICC Champions Trophy will be contested for by eight teams;

Group A: Australia, India, Pakistan and West Indies

Group B: South Africa, New Zealand, England and Sri Lanka

Should be a cracking tournament especially if the West Indies can get their ODI form on the up and India and New Zealand fire....

Geez!

What a weird day for world cricket!

First up the Australian and New Zealand series which went right down to the wire was rained out and subsequently awarded to the Aussies because they won the previous series...

Well at least they won something!

The beaut for me though was the West Indies test match against England being called off because of a dodgy field. It so typically West Indian cricket - the sublime and the ridiculous!

Oh well another day in cricket!

Why world cricket needs a strong West Indies

Watching the English batting order collapse is a bit like watching speedster Usain Bolt run the 100m... blink and you miss it...

Thought that it would be a good way to kick off this blog post, seeing as the West Indies cricket board has a picture (left) of Bolt partying it up after thumping the English...

It's good to see the Windies on form at the moment and it is helluva important for world cricket.

As for the Poms and their decline over the last decade, maybe they've just accepted the inevitable that their mud island is slowly slipping away into the sea and the empire will never return to its glory days.

It is so important for world cricket at this point to have a strong West Indian side. The Australians and South Africans have slogged it out over the last few months and India have been right in the mix with tough series against both these powerhouses.

But cricket cannot be about three sides at the moment... especially with the emergence of the big money IPL.

Pakistan can be explosive on their day but ill discipline continues to plague them and away from home tends to be one disaster after another.

Sri Lanka and the Black Caps are always there or there abouts without really threatening away from home conditions (current Aussie tour aside).

The English (AKA South Africa's B-side with KP and Strauss leading the charge) hold no real worries away from home.

Bangladesh, Zimbabwe and Kenya simply lack a decent number of quality players to be of any real threat... but I do have high hopes for Bangladesh over the next 10 years or so.

Which leaves the West Indies as potentially the fourth quality touring side in the mix. These guys have no problem winning away from home - when it suits them - and they have quality fast bowlers and some serious firepower in the batting lineup... again when it suits them.

A quality West Indian side would be great for world cricket right now and a thumping of the English may just give them the confidence to step up their game.... In other words - Give the english CARROTS!

Australia 0 ...

New Zealand Black Caps 2... Nothing more needs to be said... ;-)