Too clever by half

Opening the bowling with Ashwin and then bringing on Harbhajan in the 6th over, is a little too clever for me. Ashwin has a wicket now; lets see how the rest of Dhoni's bowling changes work.

7-50 is better than 9-29, n'est-ce pas?

Well, well, the race is on. I thought I would quickly put this post up to mark India's collapse, and see if I could get it up before India were bowled out. But I didn't make it. For India are gone again, unable to use their 50 overs. So, who is going to buck the pattern? The West Indies to stuff up a run-chase or the Indians to stuff up a defense of a reasonable score (268, after being 218-3)? Another race is on.

Breaking the mold

Well, by batting first, India have set up the first part of their template against non-minnows in this World Cup: bat first, get off to a good start, collapse at the end, and then fail to defend adquately. The early loss of the openers means there is a small blip in the template, and hopefully, there will be others. Otherwise, an unconvincing campaign will look even more insipid.

A new Bish

My first sight of Devendra Bishoo, the West Indies' latest spinner. A leggie no less. So far, so good. A nice leg-break, good flight, some turn. And two very, very useful wickets - Trott and Morgan - thus far. I'd like to see more of him in this Cup.

Cartwheeler!

Well, that was worth waking up in the morning for. Kemar Roach, perhaps the consistently, quickest bowler in the world, comes back for a new spell in the crucial England-West Indies game, and sends Ian Bell's off-stump flying with a peach of a delivery, that cut away just a bit. A nice cartwheel; if I was a gymnastics judge, I would have given it a couple of extra points.

Skipper not at the helm

A curious display of rudderless batting by Cap'n Team India, MS Dhoni in the final stages of the game. And, yes, India 296 all out in 48.4 overs. Unfreakingbelievable.

Lekker fightback by South Africa

After being 267-1 at one stage, India have made a sub-300 score (bowled out in less than 50 overs) a possibility.

Redundancy alert

David Lloyd says Bangladesh are off to a "cacophony of noise". Aren't all cacophonies of noise? Unless its being used metaphorically, as in "a cacophony of conflicting fashions". Or am I missing something?

Correction: Oldest error in the book, confusing a redundancy with an oxymoron. I did it in the older title. Thanks to Maithreyi for correcting me.

It should feel like a World Cup game

The choice of which game to watch this morning (Ireland v. West Indies or England v. Bangladesh) was a no-brainer. Ireland are playing in an empty stadium at Mohali; Bangladesh are playing a home game. Doughty underdogs, yes, but this is a World Cup, and I like watching games that remind me I'm watching one. And hopefully, if Tamim gets off to a flyer, things will get really exciting.

Stitched up by Taylor

Brendan Taylor is playing an absolute gem of an innings against Sri Lanka today. I don't know how many people would have thought that today's encounter would have been anything but a blow-out, but Taylor has ensured that the Lankans will experience at least a few scares. 95 off 16 overs for an opening stand.