Second anniversary !!!

January 2009 is the second anniversary of this Blog, and considering the lack of time I have had to work on it, particularly the second half of 2008, I still rather pleased with the amount of hits it is getting …

AFL finals – Grand Final review

In the 2007 AFL Grand Final today, the result was surprising, but not totally unexpected !!!

AFL finals – week 3 results & week 4 (Grand Final) preview

Some very disappointing results from the Preliminary Finals this weekend …

AFL finals – week 2 results & week 3 preview

This weekend had two quite unexpected results !!!

AFL finals – week 1 results & week 2 preview

Quite an interesting set of results from week 1 of the finals, where all the higher placed teams won ….

AFL finals – week 1 preview

Now the home & away season has finally ended, Geelong are the minor premiers, and it is time for the finals season to start …

AFL mid-year coach merry-go-round (part 2)

Well it looks like I spoke too soon – 2 days later and another change was just announced !!!

AFL mid-year coach merry-go-round

Today the third coaching change in not many more weeks was announced …

What a load of Shit !!!

Was it a thumping, a thrashing or just plain humiliation ? On Sunday 6th May 2007, 34,584 punters at Telstra Dome witnessed round 6’s game between Richmond & Geelong, which produced a number of records …

Australia win Cricket World Cup farce

I was stupid enough to stay up all night to watch the World Cup final, which ended in the controversy that befits the whole tournament, having run for too long, and being badly organised.  

Cricket World Cup final

Well after several long months that really seems to have dragged on too long, we are down to the final. 

World Cup Cricket finals

With the last Super 8 round is now behind us, it is time for the Semifinals.

World Cup Cricket – Aussie thrash the Kiwis !!!

Last night, I managed to stay up and watch a fair bit of Australia’s last Super 8 round match against New Zealand, who thought they were very clever after winning the short New Zealand tour 3-0. At that stage, everyone had written off Australia as a serious World Cup competitor 😆

World Cup Cricket semi-finals

Well we are now up to the point where we know who the teams to play in the semi-finals are, and the top 4 placed teams so far are …

1. Australia – 6 wins, 0 losses
2. New Zealand – 5 wins, 1 loss
3. Sri Lanka – 4 wins, 2 losses, ahead on run rate
4. South Africa – 4 wins, 3 losses

Australia had a very comfortable 7 wicket win over Sri Lanka, which didn’t really affect any of the results, but Sri Lanka did rest 3 of their best bowlers, so obviously their attitude is a little suspect going into this stage of the competition. They were all out for 226 just short of the 50 overs, and Australia reached the total in 42 overs for the loss of just 3 wickets. Ponting and Symonds both finished Not Out with 60+ scores. Bracken excelled for the bowlers with 4 for 19 🙂

South Africa cemented their spot with a shellacing of the abject England, reaching their paltry score of 148 (all out in 48 overs) in just 19 overs for the loss of 1 wicket. Hall took 5 England wickets for just 18 runs in a magnificent display of bowling.

Was this the same team that supposedly came to Australia recently and claimed a One Day trophy ??  🙄

The next matches before the semis are …

• Ireland v Sri Lanka
• West Indies v Bangladesh
• Australia v New Zealand
• West Indies v England

World Cup results so far

After the first week or so of the World Cup ‘Super 8’ finals, we have had the following results …

West Indies vs Australia – Australia thrashed the West Indies by 103 runs 😆

South Africa vs Sri Lanka – South Africa won by 1 wicket (with 10 balls remaining)

West Indies vs New Zealand – New Zealand won by 7 wickets (with 64 balls remaining)

Ireland vs England – England won by 48 runs

Australia vs Bangladesh – Australia won by 10 wickets (with 49 balls remaining)

West Indies vs Sri Lanka – Sri Lanka won by 113 runs

Bangladesh vs New Zealand – New Zealand won by 9 wickets (with 124 balls remaining)

Ireland vs South Africa – South Africa won by 7 wickets (with 21 balls remaining)

England vs Sri Lanka – Sri Lanka won by 2 runs

So Australia have easily won their games, and other main winners are South Africa, Sri Lanka & New Zealand. The ‘home team’ have easily lost ALL their games so far 😳

Highlights so far are …

• Sri Lanka’s Lasith Malinga with an international world-first so-called ‘double hat trick’, meaning 4 wickets from 4 balls!!! I would have thought a double hat trick would be 6 wickets, seeing one hat trick is 3 wickets and double 3 is 6, but then again seeing it has never happened before, they probably didn’t know what to call it. Unfortunately for the poor bugger, they didn’t even win the game 🙂
• Australia’s fabulous Matthew Hayden with 158 against the West Indies off 143 balls, and Glenn McGrath reaching the all-time highest World Cup wicket record of 55, previously held by Pakistan bowling great Wasim Akram.

Sri Lanka, having played one extra game, are on top of the table with 6 points, followed by Australia, South Africa & New Zealand on 4 points, England on 2 points, and Bangladesh, Ireland & the West Indies on ZERO!!!