Semi Finals - Review

Well, as predicted, it is indeed going to be a repeat of 1996 at least in spirit. I expect Australia to crush Sri Lanka pretty convincingly.

As far as the semi-finals go: it is strange how both turned out to be no-contests. Australia's win was never in question but South Africa's dismal performance was disappointing. New Zealand never really had a chance. Of course Jayawardane's innings reminding me of Arvinda De Silva and it seems like Jayawardane might be the heir. Though not yet having quite the poetic flair of De Sliva, Jayawardane is going to the same place.

West Indies done in

Got to see Sanath Jayasurya, one of my favorite cricket players, play quite an amazing innings yesterday. Poor West Indies. Not only were they helpless in front of Jayasurya but they were quite hopeless in the field. 3rd straight loss in the Super 8 stage and they are out really.

Other than that the World Cup has largely been reduced to some batting practice for Australia and South Africa. Speaking of which, seems like these two countries have taken the game to a whole new level. While this is great for them but it has sort of made the game much less interesting. When these two countries play any other side the odds are just too lopsided to justify watching the game for the better part of a day.

I somehow feel that Sri Lanka is the still the only team that can be innovative enough to give the above two a tough time. The other teams just seem too disinterested.