Sorry for the very long hiatus.

I had some computer troubles and family troubles and didn't really feel like blogging about cricket. Hopefully I'm back full time again.

Latest World Cup Points Table

All semi-fnal places besides 1 have been booked. Australia, New Zealand and Sri Lanka are through. It's between England and South Africa for the last spot.

Take a look at this I posted on a forum where I'm moderator. I posted this on the 15th of March "South Africa won't win it, they're serial chokers. In my opinion it's between Australia, Sri Lanka and New Zealand. I expect Bangladesh to cause a few upsets." Damn, I'm good.

Anyway, on to the points table.

Super Eights	Mat	Won	Lost	Tied	N/R	Pts	Net RR	For	Against
Australia	5	5	0	0	0	10	+2.298	1145/173.3	955/222.0
New Zealand	6	5	1	0	0	10	+1.068	1245/258.0	1109/295.1
Sri Lanka	5	4	1	0	0	8	+1.350	1279/241.1	966/244.2
South Africa	6	3	3	0	0	6	-0.210	1404/279.5	1481/283.2
England	5	2	3	0	0	4	+0.079	1102/244.5	1054/238.2
West Indies	5	1	4	0	0	2	-1.212	1065/238.1	1349/237.2
Bangladesh	5	1	4	0	0	2	-1.431	784/218.0	925/184.0
Ireland	5	0	5	0	0	0	-1.968	791/233.0	976/182.0

Sri Lanka beat NZ by 6 wickets.

Sri Lanka have virtually booked their spot in the semi-finals with a clinical six-wicket victory against New Zealand at Grenada. Stephen Fleming won the toss and chose to bat but that was perhaps the only thing that went their way against a dominant opponent.

Fleming's stay at the crease lasted only four balls and he was dismissed in identical fashion to his last three ODIs against Sri Lanka - lbw to Chaminda Vaas for a duck. New Zealand lost each of those three matches, and the today turned out to be no different. Fleming has now been dismissed 11 times by Vaas, the most by any bowler in odis. Fleming's one-day average against Sri Lanka is now 19.25 after 32 innings, the lowest against any Test-playing nation.

After New Zealand had been reduced to 4 for 2, Vaas and co didn't let up and kept the run-scoring to the bare minimum. Peter Fulton scored 28 runs off 54 balls and only one of those runs came on the off side, a clear indication that there was hardly any width on offer and if there was, the off side cordon was too difficult to pierce. New Zealand crawled to 18 for 2 after ten overs whereas Sri Lanka had stacked up 66 for 1 at the same stage.

The Sri Lankans choked New Zealand so effectively that they were not able to build any momentum. Scott Styris struck eight fours and Fulton hit four but none of the other seven batsmen were able to find the fence although Jacob Oram and James Franklin hit a six each. Even the centurion, Styris, found the going tough. He hit his sixth four in the 18th over and had to wait until the 49th for his seventh. In fact the only time New Zealand scored a boundary between the 19th and 49th overs was when Oram and Franklin hit sixes in the 38th and 48th overs.

Here are some other statistical highlights from the day's play.

# Today's game was Fleming's 24th match as captain in a World Cup. He went past Mohammad Azharuddin whose 23 matches was the most for a captain in a World Cup.

# Six of Fleming's 17 ducks have come against Sri Lanka, while seven times he has been trapped in front of the stumps for nought. Fleming has been lbw for a duck in his last four innings against Sri Lanka, all of them courtesy Vaas.

# Styris's 111 was his second hundred in World Cups. His 141 against Sri Lanka at Bloemfontien in 2003 was also in a losing cause. Styris is the second batsman, after Herschelle Gibbs, whose two hundreds have been in defeats. Gibbs scored 101 against Australia at Headingley in 1999 and 143 against New Zealand at Johannesburg in 2003.

# Mahela Jayawardene became Daniel Vettori's 200th ODI wcket. Vettori is the third New Zealand bowler to reach the landmark after Chris Harris and Chris Cairns. Vettori is now tied with Cairns on 201 wickets and is two behind Harris who has 203.

Cricinfo

Latest World Cup Points Table

Super Eights	Mat	Won	Lost	Tied	N/R	Pts	Net RR	For	Against
New Zealand	4	4	0	0	0	8	+1.728	830/159.4	694/200.0
Australia	4	4	0	0	0	8	+1.510	1053/161.1	864/172.0
Sri Lanka	4	3	1	0	0	6	+1.549	1057/196.0	747/194.2
South Africa	5	3	2	0	0	6	-0.199	1211/229.5	1285/235.0
England	5	2	3	0	0	4	+0.079	1102/244.5	1054/238.2
West Indies	5	1	4	0	0	2	-1.212	1065/238.1	1349/237.2
Bangladesh	5	1	4	0	0	2	-1.431	784/218.0	925/184.0
Ireland	4	0	4	0	0	0	-1.385	700/183.0	884/169.4

Limp England falls over the line.

ENGLAND captain Michael Vaughan saw his team labour to a four-wicket win over Bangladesh today and admitted there was plenty of work to do if it's to make the World Cup semi-finals.

Chasing just 144 to win the Super Eight match at the Kensington Oval, England looked desperately out of form and at one stage threatened to be undone by Bangladesh's spin attack, which had already stunned South Africa last week.

Sajid Mahmood, who took 3-27 and Monty Panesar, who took 3-25, saw Bangladesh bundled out for just 143, but England found batting no easier against the spin of Abdur Razzak and Mohammad Rafique, who took two wickets apiece before eventually surrendering the match after 44.5 overs.

FoxSports

Viv Rachards unhappy with organisation.

Viv Richards, the West Indies batting legend, has joined the growing number of detractors unhappy with the organisation of the World Cup.

The reason for low turnout in the matches, Richards believed, was because there were too many restrictions placed on the people of the Caribbean. "We are different in terms of our way of life," Richards told AFP. "I just believe it's as if someone has held us by the throat and said 'we don't want you to shout anymore'.

"Those of us who have played here know exactly what we are about, the excitement factor. We are a vibrant people."

http://content-aus.cricinfo.com/wc2007/content/story/289159.html

Schedule

April, Sat 7	Super Eights	Bangladesh v South Africa	Providence Stadium, Guyana
April, Sun 8	Super Eights	Australia v England	Sir Vivian Richards Stadium, Antigua
April, Mon 9	Super Eights	Ireland v New Zealand	Providence Stadium, Guyana
April, Tue 10	Super Eights	West Indies v South Africa	National Cricket Stadium, Grenada
April, Wed 11	Super Eights	England v Bangladesh	Kensington Oval, Barbados
April, Thu 12	Super Eights	Sri Lanka v New Zealand	National Cricket Stadium, Grenada
April, Fri 13	Super Eights	Australia v Ireland	Kensington Oval, Barbados
April, Sat 14	Super Eights	South Africa v New Zealand	National Cricket Stadium, Grenada
April, Sun 15	Super Eights	Bangladesh v Ireland	Kensington Oval, Barbados
April, Mon 16	Super Eights	Australia v Sri Lanka	National Cricket Stadium, Grenada
April, Tue 17	Super Eights	South Africa v England	Kensington Oval, Barbados
April, Wed 18	Super Eights	Ireland v Sri Lanka	National Cricket Stadium, Grenada
April, Thu 19	Super Eights	West Indies v Bangladesh	Kensington Oval, Barbados
April, Fri 20	Super Eights	Australia v New Zealand	National Cricket Stadium, Grenada
April, Sat 21	Super Eights	West Indies v England	Kensington Oval, Barbados

Latest World Cup Points Table

Super Eights	Mat	Won	Lost	Tied	N/R	Pts	Net RR	For	Against
Australia	3	3	0	0	0	6	+2.014	805/113.5	617/122.0
Sri Lanka	4	3	1	0	0	6	+1.549	1057/196.0	747/194.2
New Zealand	3	3	0	0	0	6	+1.437	567/109.4	560/150.0
South Africa	3	2	1	0	0	4	-0.350	671/129.5	745/135.0
England	3	1	2	0	0	2	+0.018	708/150.0	663/141.0
West Indies	4	1	3	0	0	2	-1.177	776/188.1	993/187.2
Ireland	3	0	3	0	0	0	-0.934	566/133.0	621/119.4
Bangladesh	3	0	3	0	0	0	-3.357	390/118.0	594/89.1

World Cup batting and team stats

Team

Highest Scores
India 5/413 V Bermuda Scorecard
Australia 6/377 V South Africa Scorecard
New Zealand 5/363 V Canada Scorecard
Australia 5/358 V Netherlands Scorecard
South Africa 3/353 V Netherlands Scorecard
Largest Victories
India 257 runs V Bermuda Scorecard
Sri Lanka 243 runs V Bermuda Scorecard
Australia 229 runs V Netherlands Scorecard
South Africa 221 runs V Netherlands Scorecard
Australia 203 runs V Scotland Scorecard

Batting

Most Runs

Player	Mat	Inns	NO	Runs	HS	Ave	BF	SR	100	50	0	4s	6s
ML Hayden (Aus)	5	5	1	395	158	98.75	357	110.64	2	1	0	41	13
GC Smith (SA)	4	4	0	291	91	72.75	258	112.79	0	4	0	35	6
ST Jayasuriya (SL)	5	5	0	278	115	55.60	264	105.30	2	0	0	24	11
JH Kallis (SA)	4	3	1	262	128*	131.00	282	92.90	1	1	0	20	5
RT Ponting (Aus)	5	4	0	262	113	65.50	242	108.26	1	1	0	25	9

Highest Individual Scores
Imran Nazir 160 (121 balls 14x4 8x6) V Zimbabwe
Matthew Hayden 158 (143 balls 14x4 4x6) V West Inides
Jacques Kallis 128* (109 balls 11x4 5x6) V Netherlands
Brad Hodge 123 (89 balls 8x4 7x6) V Netherlands
Jeremy Bray 137 (110 balls 10x4 2x6) V Zimbabwe

Latest Points Table

	Mat	Won	Lost	Tied	N/R	Pts	Net RR	For	Against
Australia	3	3	0	0	0	6	+2.014	805/113.5	617/122.0
Sri Lanka	3	2	1	0	0	4	+2.069	822/146.0	514/144.2
New Zealand	2	2	0	0	0	4	+0.982	389/80.2	386/100.0
England	2	1	1	0	0	2	+0.047	475/100.0	428/91.0
South Africa	2	1	1	0	0	2	-0.714	506/98.2	586/100.0
West Indies	4	1	3	0	0	2	-1.177	776/188.1	993/187.2
Ireland	2	0	2	0	0	0	-1.019	407/98.0	456/88.1
Bangladesh	2	0	2	0	0	0	-3.776	216/68.0	416/59.5