Schedules for Semifinals

Scorecard of teams after Super Eight stage and there position.

Rank Super Eight Played Won Tied Lost Points
1 Australia 7 7 0 0 14
2 Sri Lanka 7 5 0 2 10
3 New Zealand 7 5 0 2 10
4 South Africa 7 4 0 3 8
5 England 7 3 0 4 6
6 West Indies 7 2 0 5 4
7 Bangladesh 7 1 0 6 2
8 Ireland 7 1 0 6 2

Australia, Sri Lanka, New Zealand and South Africa qualified for the semifinal rounds.

Schedule for Semifinals are as follows:
Date Venue Teams
24 Apr Jamaica Sri Lanka vs New Zealand
25 Apr St. Lucia Australia vs South Africa

All the best for all four teams. I hope we will see real clashes of Titans now.

Farewell to Brian Lara

West Indies captain Brian Lara announced his retirement from international cricket on Thursday ending a record-breaking career as a batsman.

Lara, said his last match for West Indies would be Saturday's World Cup match against England at the Kingston Oval.

"I've given this extensive consideration and on Saturday I will be bidding farewell to international cricket as a player," Lara told a news conference after West Indies beat Bangladesh by 99 runs in a Super Eights match on Thursday.

The 37-year-old Trinidadian holds the record for the highest Test score (400 not out) and in the first-class game (501 not out). He amassed highest career run total of 11,953 runs in 131 Tests and 10,387 runs in 298 One-Day Internationals .

Lara is the only man to have broken the record for the highest Test score, lost it and then regained it. His career would have spanned 17 years and produced some of the finest moments in the history of cricket.

Among the records that Lara holds is the one for most Test runs in an over. He made 28 off one Robin Peterson over in South Africa in 2003. He also has the third highest - 26 off one Kaneria over in that final double century of his in Pakistan. With that final double century in Pakistan, Lara joined the exclusive club of 6 men who have scored a century before lunch in a Test match.

He is the West Indies' most capped player in ODIs (299 after his final match) and second in Tests (131, Courtney Walsh played in 132). He holds virtually all the important West Indies batting records.

Before making his surprise announcement Lara had been asked to reflect on how he would like to be remembered as a player.

"I just want to be remembered as someone who went out there and tried to entertain -- it is a sport where people pay to come through the turnstiles and watch you and it is most important that someone can leave and say they have enjoyed watching Brian Lara play and enjoyed watching West Indies play.

"Another thing I am really proud of myself for is that I have been knocked down so many times as a player, as a person, and it is that strength, that I suppose comes from my parents, to be able to pick myself up each time and go out there in the face of adversity.

"That is something that I didn't read in a book or wake up in the morning with, it is deep down and it is a part of my family trait."

Our best wishes are with Brian Lara for all his future endeavor.

Four Matches are Left

Super Eight stage of Cricket World Cup 2007 is nearing to over. Four matches are left which includes a most awaited big clash between Australia and New Zealand. Both the teams are already qualified for semifinals. Other two probables are Srilanka and South Africa. So its fight for positions in Super Eight Stage only. It will be a big clash where three teams would like to meet Australia only in finals rather then semifinals.

Super Eight Matches Schedule

Here is the schedule of 24 matches in Super Eight stage of Cricket World Cup 2007.

March 27: West Indies vs Australia (Australia won)
March 28: South Africa vs Sri Lanka (South Africa won)
March 29: West Indies vs New Zealand (New Zealand won)
March 30: Ireland vs England
March 31: Australia vs Bangladesh
April 01: West Indies vs Sri Lanka
April 02: Bangladesh vs New Zealand
April 03: Ireland vs South Africa
April 04: England vs Sri Lanka
April 07: Bangladesh vs South Africa
April 08: Australia vs England
April 09: Ireland vs New Zealand
April 10: West Indies vs S Africa
April 11: England vs Bangladesh
April 12: Sri Lanka vs New Zealand
April 13: Australia vs Ireland
April 14: S Africa vs New Zealand
April 15: Bangladesh vs Ireland
April 16: Australia vs Sri Lanka
April 17: South Africa vs England
April 18: Ireland vs Sri Lanka
April 19: West Indies vs Bangladesh
April 20: Australia vs New Zealand
April 21: West Indies vs England

India may be Out ...

ICC don't want to forget India even though India is out of the league after first round. ICC fined India for slow over rates against there final match of first round in Cricket World Cup 2007.

India was one over short of its target with respect to allowed time which made ICC match referee Jeff Crowe to fine Indian team.

As per the rule captain will lose 10% and rest of the team will lose 5% of their match fee.

So along with Fans and Advertisers, ICC also showing real path to Indian team.

Cricket World Cup Song

I was just browsing through the Internet and found this cool Cricket World Cup song: The Game of Love and Unity. A 4 minute 52 seconds song is not too bad and grows on mind after a while.

You can listen here.

Diamond Studded Cricket Ball

A leading Indian gem and jewelery manufacturer Gitanjali Group has unveiled specially designed 30-carat diamond studded cricket balls.

This diamond studded cricket ball held by Bollywood actress Mahima Chaudhary is only one of two that will be presented to the best Indian cricketer and the best interim player of the world cup 2007 tournament which is currently being played in the West Indies. Each diamond ball is studded with 5,728 pieces of diamonds with a worth of approximately $68,500.

India's early exit: Advertisers Nightmare

India's early exit put advertisers in a tragic situation. As India's early exit will result in fall of viewers for other matches and viewers loss will upset advertisers as they have put lots of money for advertising during this World Cup 2007.

As CricketWeblog says:
In a One-day match, there are around 5,000 seconds of ad time. Currently, the rates are Rs 1.25-1.30 lakh for matches not featuring India which may reduced 1 lakh as India is no more part of the next stage. This may mean a drop of up to Rs 150 crore in advertising revenue for the broadcaster.

Advertisers are demanding for bonus spots and/or discounts as reported by Rediff. Also advertisers are reducing there budget for advertisement from the previous alloted amount like Videocon reduced it to Rs 10 crore from 20 crore.

On the contrary it may benefit channels showing TV serials as there TRP will get near to normal again so are there ad rates. Also hotels and restaurants which don't had TV sets for there customers and facing tough time in the evening slots.

Super Eight's are Here

First round of Cricket World Cup 2007 is over with the final match of first round between Bangladesh and Bermuda from group B. Where Bangladesh defeated Bermuda with 7 wickets and secured a space for itself in second round.

Australia and South Africa are qualified from group A with Australia taking lead by 6 points after defeating South Africa in an interesting match which also features record of fastest century in Cricket World Cup by Mathew Hayden in 66 balls.

Sri Lanka and Bangladesh are qualified from group B where Sri Lanka is leading the group tally by 6 points.

New Zealand and England are qualified from group C where New Zealand is leading the group by winning all three matches and securing 6 points.

In group D West Indies secured its place in Super Eight rounds with 6 points while Ireland also qualified for the next stage from this group.

Super Eight round will start with West Indies's match against Australia on 27th Mar 2007 at Antigua & Barbuda and also end with West Indies's match against England on 21st April 2007 at Barbados. Also Australia, Sri Lanka, New Zealand and West Indies are already having two points each in their account as they beated South Africa, Bangladesh, England and Ireland in their first round of matches respectively.

Super Eight round will be filled with clashes between six titans and two minnows who can upset the points calculation in this stage in a same way as it happenes in first round for India and Pakistan.

All the Best to All the Teams in Super Eight Stage.

Whats on Stake if ...

As all the analyst and big guns are from leading newspaper and news channel are already gave there thought about the loss, if India gets out in first round of World Cup 2007. They also mentioned that Advertising and Media industry will lose lots of money(in crores). Apart from this losses, the other effects it will bring us are:

• It may lead to loss of Mandira's charm. (Definitely we don't want that to happen)
• I read somewhere in newspaper that many Indian couple wont get a good sex life for a couple of week or till World Cup 2007 ends.
• India TV scenarios will be back on track of Saas-Bahu serials leading with K alphabet. (God Save us)
• News channel will have to find/make new breaking news everyday to serve people from India.
• And finally it will waste my share of Rs 250 for cable connection which i shared with six other friends in Pune.

To save us from all this losses only Indian Cricket team can do something today. My best wishes are with India to make a victory against Sri Lanka with a good form and new records and to show our presence in second round.

Jeeto India Jeeto !!!!

A Record Breaking Day

The twelfth match of World Cup 2007 between India and Bermuda was full of records. Here is the list of few broken and/or equaled records:

• India's 413 for 5 against Bermuda broke the record for the highest total in a World Cup match. Before this Sri Lanka had this record from 1996 World Cup to till now with a score of 398 for 5 against Kenya.
• India manage to win by a large margin of 257 runs against Bermuda which broke the previous record of largest margin of Australia's 256-run win against Namibia in the 2003 World Cup.
• India also managed to equal South Africa's recent record for most sixes in an inning by knocking 18 sixes against Bermuda.
• Malachi Jones of Bermuda became the first bowler to take a wicket with his first delivery in a World Cup with Robin Uthappa's wicket.
• Virender Sehwag marked his first century in World Cup matches by scoring 114 off 87 balls against Bernuda. Also he created third fastest century in World Cup by knocking 100 runs in 81 balls.
• Bermuda with five ducks in its innings equaled the record of most ducks in the World Cup matches.
• Ganguly equaled the record of most sixes i.e. 25 sixes in World Cups of Ricky Ponting also playing ten less match then him.

Apart from this records hosts West Indies secured its place in second round of World Cup matches by beating Zimbabwe while Pakistan got the way for early exit.

If you are aware with any more records for the day which is not mentioned here then please add it here using Comment section.

Ground with the most number of World Cup matches??

The ground that has hosted the most number World Cup matches is in England which would come as no surprise considering England has hosted 4 World Cups in 1975, 1979, 1983 & lastly in 1999. Mostly our guess would be Lord’s, London, since our victory in 1983 over there is still fresh in our minds, actually Lord’s has hosted 10 games and 4 of them finals but the right answer turns out to be Headingley, Leeds where the most matches have been played which is 12.
Here is a list of the matches played at Headingley:
1975 (3) Aus won 73 runs vs Pak, Ind won 10 wkts vs EA, Aus won 4 wkts vs Eng
1979 (3) Pak won 8 wkts vs Can, NZ won 8 wkts vs Ind, Eng won 14 runs vs Pak
1983 (3) WI won 101 runs vs Aus, Pak won 11 runs vs SL, Eng won 9 wkts vs SL
1999 (3) Pak won 10 runs vs Aus, No result NZ vs Zim, Aus won 5 wkts vs SA

Group D: Today Pakistan at Bottom End

With a thrilling tie between Zimbabwe and debutant Ireland Pakistan's tally of points till now is ZERO in group D while West Indies is leading the points card with 2 points and Zimbabwe and Ireland are sharing 1 point each.

Ireland gave target of 222 which includes Jeremy Bray's unbeaten 115 while from Zimbabwe's side Matsikenyeri scored 73 of 76 deliveries but they stuck at 221. Bray declared Man of the Match.

Ireland skipper Johnston's quote after the match: "Who knows, we may even qualify for the next stage".

Anyway this tie will not be beneficial for Zimbabwe as they need to try hard in remaining matches if they want to play with Big Guns in Next round of matches.

Trivia: This is the third time that a World Cup match ended in a tie.

In an another match between Sri Lanka and Bermuda. Bermuda started very well by taking two big wickets of Sri Lanka with in 12 overs only but still Sri Lanka gave a huge target of 322 and simply knocked out all the batsman of Ireland for cost of 78 runs only. Sri Lanka won this match by 243 runs. Sri Lankan skipper Jayawardene declared Man of the Match for his 85 runs in 90 balls.

Today don't forget to watch interesting match between England and New Zealand. In another match South Africa will take on Holland.

World Cup and Cyber Crimes

I was just browsing through different websites for some cool stuff related with World Cup 2007 and got stuck on this news. As describe in this news, during big events like World Cup, phishers also get active as this is a good time to create a some phishing attacks to acquire personal and financial information.

Phishing — an attempt to fraudulently acquire sensitive information, such as usernames, passwords and credit card details, by masquerading as a trustworthy entity in an electronic communication.

Just to prevent yourself from phishing attack follow this guidelines:

• Do not open any mails or links from unknown sources.
• Use regularly updated anti-phishing tools, anti-virus, firewalls, spam filters and anti-spywares of reliable companies.
• Do not share your personal or financial information with any unknown sites just to watch final or to meet Dhoni.

Also if you have any more preventive information against phishing attack, please do share with us.

So enjoy this World Cup with some precautions.

Hosts Got a Good Start

After losing badly form India in there last warm up match West Indies got a very good start in first match of World Cup 2007 against Pakistan. West Indies secured precious 2 points by defeating Pakistan by 54 runs in a group D match. West Indies scored 241 for nine and then bowled Pakistan out for 187.

Dwayne Smith was declared man of the match. He scored 32 runs from 15 balls and also claimed three wickets which includes wickets of Mohammad Yousuf and Inzammam-ul-Haq. I am sure Caribbean girls must be impressed by his performance as we can see some dancing happy girls in stadium from our television set. ;-)

Other major contributions from hosts side include Marlon Samuels's 63, Sarwan's 49 and Lara's 37 while from Pakistani side Shoaib Malik scored 62 which includes two sixes but no help.

Today there is Australia Vs Scotland and Canada Vs Kenya and I will watch Canada's efforts to win over Kenya or vice-versa.