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.

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

Records at world cup ..

There have been a lots of occasions of sudden ups and downs for any player or team in the previous editions of the tourney. It took some of the tough players to storm hard at the opponent teams, and when the time was really tough, the tougher players have risen to the occasion and have seen their team through.

This reminds me to quote the players who have played a vital role in the world cup wins for their countries. Lets have a look at some of the previous records:

Man of the match at the finals of each world cup

1975 world cup : West Indies --> MoM : Clive Llyod (102 runs)
1979 world cup : West Indies --> MoM : Viv Richards (138*)
1983 world cup : India --> MoM : Mohinder Amarnath (26 and 3-12)
1987 world cup : Australia --> MoM : David Boon (75)
1992 world cup : Pakistan --> MoM : Wasim Akram (33 and 3-49)
1996 world cup : Sri Lanka --> MoM : Aravinda de Silva (107 and 3-42)
1999 world cup : Australia --> MoM : Shane Warne (4-33)
2003 world cup : Australia --> MoM : Ricky Ponting (140*)

Since 1992 world cup the 'Player of the world cup' is being awarded. The players who left their mark even if their teams may not have lifted the cup that year :

1992 world cup : Martin Crowe, captain of New Zealand was really consistent with his bat and also brought in innovative idieas with slog over approach in first 15 overs and spinner in Deepak Patel leading the bowling attack.

1996 cup was dominated by the then minnows Sri Lanka, spearheaded by Sanath Jaisuriya with his extra fast performance with the bat and a good supportive role with the bowl.

1999 world cup saw a desperate attempt from the Zulu, Lance Klusner of South Africa who almost took RSA in the finals almost single handedly. Effort in vain for the very unfortunate run-outs in the history of cricket.

2003 event saw the Indian master blaster at his best, hitting on target in almost all the matches but the Big final against Australia. In the process, he took the team to finals with the help of his team members, also scored the highest runs in the world cup.


2007, hain koi jawab ?

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.

Rollercoaster Ride on cards

India managed to beat Bermuda convincingly by 257 runs keeping hopes alive of going into the Super 8s.. the Indian team supporters have already been through a Rollercoaster Ride..

• First the warmup match victory against Netherlands which was better than the win against them in CWC 2003 so we were supposedly on the right track..
• Next up the match against the West Indies.. this is always tricky coz the moment u beat the host nation all the fans there will start booing u in all ur games.. we secured a win n got boos for sure.. coz we beat them by 9 wkts.. the win made the fans back home feel we are all set to dominate this time round like we almost did last time except for the Australia games..
• So here we were up against the Minnows Bangladesh.. in the first few overs it became crystal clear we had a fight on our hands the way they fielded throwing bodies all over the place n the disciplined bowling by their pacers n spinners also their batting showed they knew how to handle the situation something we could learn..coz we lost the match during our batting we being unsure whether to grind it out or to attack in style..
• The good thing that happened was that this win for Bangladesh makes Group B real interesting coz Sri Lanka n India can't take things lightly any more..speaking of whom when we go on to play them on this Friday no matter what happens between them n Bangladesh we have a chance why coz
• In World Cup games the scenario reads.. in the 5 games played so far Sri Lanka has won 3 n we the remaining 2..Arey woh log jyada jeeta na.. so whats good re? ya but we won last two times with big margins.. courtesy Ganguly (183), Dravid (145) n Singh (5-31) helping India to a 157 run victory in County Ground,Taunton, CWC 1999 and courtesy Tendulkar (97), Sehwag(66), Srinath (4-35) n Nehra (4-35) helping India to a 183 run victory in New Wanderers Stadium, Johannesburg, CWC 2003

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.