The Super Eights started today with the hosts the West Indies playing Australia. But just as the West Indies were about to start their run chase, the rain came forcing the game to be concluded tomorrow.

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Cricinfo are running an interesting article on the ICC pulling all World Cup clips off video sharing site YouTube.

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The festival cricket is over, most of the minnows have gone home and now it’s time for cricket’s top teams to fight it out for the World Cup.

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Fresh off the news that pace bowler Daryl Tuffey is out for the rest of the World Cup, New Zealand have now lost another player to injury.

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New Zealand have beaten Canada by 114 runs in their final Group C match at the ICC Cricket World Cup to advance to the Super Eights stage as top of their group. Despite an excellent Canadian innings, their highest score of the World Cup, New Zealand’s total of 363/5 was an impossible task.

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The New Zealand Black Caps eased by cricketing minnows Kenya by 148 runs in St Lucia to go top of Group C in the ICC Cricket World Cup.

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The schedule tells us this is the final game of the round robin series but in reality today’s Commonwealth Bank Series game is a sudden death match between New Zealand and England. Both teams have 2 wins each, and victory for either will put them through to the final to play Australia.

England come into this game on a high, having beaten Australia in their last outing and now have been given a further boost with the news that captain Michael Vaughan has been passed fit to play. Vaughan’s addition strengthens an English top order that is finally beginning to show some form. England made 292 against Australia on Friday in Sydney with Ed Joyce scoring 107 and Ian Bell 51. The English bowlers restricted Australia to a mere 200 in that game with some accurate bowling, but this has been an inconsistent summer for the English attack and they may struggle to reach those heights again.

New Zealand’s line up has been getting stronger and stronger this summer as players like Jacob Oram and Scott Styris returned from injury. The addition of Lou Vincent has re-energized the top order, allowing the batting line up to post some big scores. Recently New Zealand has been let down by their bowling, giving away too many runs and not taking enough wickets. Shane Bond has looked flat in recent outings and may struggle to back up, having played Sunday night.

England have won the toss and chosen to bat first on a pitch that looks just about perfect for batting. Today is a typical Brisbane day, hot and humid, which will make fielding for the New Zealanders uncomfortable. Traditionally teams that win the toss, bat first and score a lot of runs almost always win at Brisbane, so the challenge in front of England it to score around 280. New Zealand will need early wickets to slow the English run rate, something their attack is capable of if Bond, James Franklin and Mark Gillespie are on their game.

Both teams’ bowling attacks hold the key to this game on a hard and true pitch. On a perfect batting wicket it will be the bowlers who decide which team will go on to face Australia in the finals series.

Shortly Australia play New Zealand in their final game of Commonwealth Bank Series before the finals. Australia have already qualified for the final series, while New Zealand need at least one more victory to secure their place. After England’s shock victory over the Australians on Friday night, the Kiwis and English find themselves tied on 9 points in the three team series.  A New Zealand victory tonight is no guarantee of a finals place however, with England able to qualify under certain circumstances.

Tonight’s match comes from the majestic Melbourne Cricket Ground, site of the series opener and traditionally a fantastic one day batting ground. Its long boundaries are difficult to defend and should prove a challenge for big hitters such as New Zealand’s Jacob Oram to clear.

Ricky Ponting returns to the Australian team today in place of the injured Andrew Symonds, while Scott Styris makes his long awaited return to the New Zealand side.  With both teams batting line ups striking excellent form towards the end of this series this match could well be decided by the bowlers. Both teams have gone for a fast bowling based attack with New Zealand bringing in Mark Gillespie for Jeetan Patel, and Australia continuing their rotation of bowlers dropping Glen McGrath and Nathan Bracken for Mitchell Johnson and Brett Lee.

New Zealand have won the toss and elected to bat first, which has been their pattern this summer.  Having finally solved their opening partnership woes with the addition of Lou Vincent the Kiwis will be looking to make a total of around 280 to defend later tonight. The New Zealand batting line up has begun to come into form in the latter part of this series with Ross Taylor, Jacob Oram and Brendan McCullum all making big scores.

The Australian team has been in magnificent form all summer but appear to have gotten speed woobles of late. When their loss to England on Friday is combined with their narrow victory over New Zealand the last time the teams met, there are danger signs for the Australians. Their last few games have been meaningless, having qualified for the final some time age, can Australia pick themselves up mentally for the finals series?

Teams

New Zealand

1. Lou Vincent
2. Stephen Fleming
3. Peter Fulton
4. Ross Taylor
5. Scott Styris
6. Jacob Oram
7. Brendan McCullum
8. Daniel Vettori
9. James Franklin
10. Shane Bond
11. Mark Gillespie

Australia

1. Adam Gilchrist
2. Matthew Hayden
3. Ricky Ponting
4. Brad Hodge
5. Michael Clarke
6. Mike Hussey
7. Cameron White
8. Brett Lee
9. Mitchell Johnson
10. Stuart Clark
11. Shaun Tait

What a feast of sport we have coming up this weekend! IRB Sevens from Wellington, Commonwealth Bank Series and the opening weekend of the Super 14 rugby competition. I don’t think I’ll be moving far from the couch this weekend.

First up is the IRB Seven World Series stop in Wellington. I don’t usually watch the Sevens circuit but I always watch the Wellington leg.

There has been some controversy regarding the participation of Fiji in this tournament following their recent coup. Most of the controversy came from Trevor Mallard saying he would like to see Fiji not progress far in the tournament. The fact of the matter is nobody outside of politics cares, we just want to see good Sevens rugby. The favourites for the tournament have to be the hosts New Zealand who are tied for the lead in the series with South Africa. England and Fiji would also have to be contenders.

So far there has been twol upsets when Tonga beat Argentina 14-12, and Canada shocked Australia26-12.

Later tonight the Super 14 gets underway with the Crusaders taking on the Blues in Auckland. This year’s Super 14 is getting under way before any Super rugby tournament in the past and in my opinion it’s too early. However it will be an interesting competition in several respects, firstly because the NZRU has taken 22 All Blacks from the New Zealand teams for “conditioning”. These players will be back in week 8, making the competition much harder for the New Zealand teams. The second interesting aspect of the Super 14 will be how the front row players adjust to the new scrum engagement sequence. For years referees have called, “Crouch and hold, engage!” From this year referees will call, “Crouch, touch” at which point the props will touch the opposing prop on the shoulder, then “pause, engage!”

The Crusaders have an excellent back line on paper, despite missing several All Black including play maker Dan Carter. The forward pack looks weaker that normal without the front line All Blacks and veteran prop Greg Sommerville who is out injured for the entire Super 14. The Blues team have also be weakened with the loss of several All Blacks but are able to field a strong team and even have the luxury of leaving All Black Luke McAlister on the bench in favour of Sam Tuitupou. The Blues biggest weakness is Troy Flavell who is untested as captain at this level. Flavell has earned a reputation as a dirty player having served serveral long suspensions for foul play, but played very well in last year’s Air New Zealand Cup and may have changed his ways.

My prediction for this match: Crusaders by less than 12.

Finally the Commonwealth Bank Series continues in Australia with England taking on Australia in Sydney tonight and New Zealand against Australia from Melbourne on Sunday night. Unfortunately these games will have little bearing on the tournament unless England can beat Australia tonight. An Australian victory will mean that New Zealand will meet Australia in the best of three finals series.

Currently England are 81/1 after 16 overs and look to be making good progress to setting a defendable total. Provided that the English batsmen do not throw away wickets, as they have most of this summer, and they amass a total around 250 this is their best chance of beating Australia who are resting captain Ricky Ponting.

Well, I’m off to enjoy wall to wall sports, I’ll be posting some post match analysis through out the weekend.

Australia made 343/5 from 50 overs.

In New Zealand’s last game against Australia poor fielding cost them a chance to win the match, something even captain Stephen Fleming admitted. In their latest outing against Australia once again poor fielding has cost them any chance to win the match. Early on in the game Daniel Vettori dropped Matthew Hayden while he was on 0, and shortly after Hayden was again dropped by Ross Taylor while on 4. Hayden went on to make 117.

Adam Gilchrist was dismissed early, falling to a good catch at cover by Jeetan Patel, but from there it was all Australia. Hayden and captain Ricky Ponting put on 200 for the second wicket taking Australia from 28/1 to 228/2 with both batsmen reaching their centuries. Andrew Symonds hit a rapid fire 24, then Michael Hussey smashed the New Zealand attack to all corners of the ground scoring 29 off 16 balls.

New Zealand’s bowling was dreadful with too many boundary balls bowled and not enough containment. All of the bowlers took a pounding at the hands of the rampant Australian batsmen except for Daniel Vettori who once again showed his class finishing with figures of 1/34 off his 10 overs, and taking the prized wicket of Hayden. The bowling attack also managed to give away 18 wides with two deliveries in one Mark Gillespie over going for 4 wides.

For New Zealand to overhaul this massive Australian total they will need their top order to fire, something it hasn’t done all summer, and for the Australians to bowl and field poorly, which also hasn’t happened this summer. The required run rate is 6.88, meaning the pressure will be on the New Zealand batsmen from the very first ball.
I won’t be staying up to watch the result as the time difference means the game will finish well after midnight. My prediction: Australia by 160 runs.