Cricket continues

I had suspected this stage of the cricket World Cup would be rather uneventful - fat lot I know then. Of course, Pakistan's ability to self-destruct is well documented, but even so you have to be able to put at least some pressure on them, and at that Ireland did very well, for a deserved victory.

The news that Bob Woolmer died the next day was shocking. With England subsiding after the 2005 Ashes, I quite liked the idea of a Woolmer-Vaughan combination in charge of England (although Woolmer-Flintoff would have been disasterous - Woolmer was never an authoritarian, and Flintoff needs someone to lay down the rules, as the pedalo incident showed, and Vaughan appears to be the man laying down the rules)

Those hoping that the British Isles would somehow squeak the full contingent through to the next round (Wales being part of England and Wales, as Northern Ireland is part of Ireland) were always more on the delusional than wishful side (apart from the fact that England could still find a way to lose to Kenya), as South Africa are chokers, not self-immolating exploders. They'll probably find some way to throw it away in the semis or final, but asking them to lose to Scotland - well, it seems the Saffers have decided to treat their batting session as part of a 20Twenty match. As I write in the 13th over, it's all over for Scotland barring the greatest cricketing miracle of the century.