World Cup Thoughts - March 19th

The penultimate day of the league stage action.

• Goodbye Bangladesh. To be honest you were a disappointment. You surprised everyone by winning against England (but that can be easily attributed to England being England). But the 2 crucial matches in which victory could have secured a quarter final berth, the batsmen simply froze. 58 against West Indies and 78 against South Africa were a collapse too many. Home support ultimately counted for nothing.
• South Africa beats Bangladesh and India, England, West Indies qualify for the quarter-finals. Pretty good example of the Butterfly effect.
• Finally it ends. Australia lose a world cup match after some 4139 days. Thats a long time. Last defeat also coming against Pakistan in the 1999 World Cup.
• Ponting and the Aussies are becoming grumpier by every passing game. Haddin involved in some unsavory incidents today.
• So its going to be a New Zealand-South Africa quarter-final. This is certainly going to break the sequence going on since 1992. Both South Africa and New Zealand have reached the semi-finals in the same world cup and lost there, or not qualified for the semis.
• Tomorrow's games lined up. Farewells to Zimbabwe and Kenya, and a QF slot finalising game for India and West Indies.

And wishing all readers a very Happy & Colourful Holi :)