As one would expect, there was much anger in India and Pakistan in the wee hours of Sunday morning.
In India, armed guards were dispatched to protect the houses of Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar, et al. from looting.
In Pakistan, a government official was demanding the resignation of the head of Pakistan’s Cricket Board while at the same time, protesters were chanting “Death to Bob Woolmer, Death to Inzamam. Police should arrest them.”
I wonder how they felt hours later when the learned Woolmer had died.
A former star player in the 1970’s who appeared in 19 Tests for England, Woolmer took over as Pakistan’s coach in 2004. However, Pakistan’s poor recent form, with some scandal thrown in for good measure, ensured that even before the two losses that Woolmer was not going to be renewed after the World Cup.
It’s a wonder anyone accepts the Pakistan or India coaching job in the first place. I guess there’s great prestige in the positions. There’s great prestige in being the head coach of Italy’s soccer team too, even though he is always a 0-0 draw against Albania away from being the most hated man in the country.
India and Pakistan truly stop for cricket. It is a second religion. They respect the Australias, South Africas, and Englands of the Test world. But losing to an associate? Especially one as inexperienced as Ireland? Unacceptable.
So it is entirely possible that in trying to scale the highest mountain, and failing as miserably as his team did, Bob Woolmer’s heart was unable to accept this defeat. Our sympathies.
Here’s a summary of what happened on the field the past couple of days:
AUSTRALIA 358 FOR 5 DEF. THE NETHERLANDS 129 ALL OUT BY 229 RUNS
It wasn’t the explosive display South Africa put on against the Dutch, but it was good enough. Brad Hodge led the way with 123. Michael Clarke added 93. While up together, the partnership amassed 204. Daan van Bunge led the Netherlands reply with 33 but never got going against the defending champs.
ENGLAND 279 FOR 6 DEF. CANADA 228 FOR 7 BY 51 RUNS
England was coming off a troubling couple of days, courtesy of Andrew Flintoff. Seems like “Freddy” and some of the boys had a few too many lagers on Friday night and created a bit of a ruckus. Flintoff was suspended for the match and stripped of his vice-captaincy.
No problem in this match, though. Ed Joyce (66 runs) and Paul Collingwood (62) made short work of the Canadian bowling attack. Openers Joyce and Michael Vaughan (45) exposed the lack of fast bowling on the part of Canada.
Credit to the Canadians, though. Ashif Mulla (58) and Abdool Samad (36) helped the side to their highest One Day International total. Sunil Dhaniram was the best all-rounder making 30 and taking three wickets.
WEST INDIES 204 FOR 4 DEF. ZIMBABWE 202 FOR 5 BY SIX WICKETS
A strong all-round batting performance led by Brian Lara’s 44, Chris Gayle’s 40, and Dwayne Bravo’s 37 brought them past a good Zimbabwe side with two overs to spare.
Sean Williams led Zimbabwe with 70 while Brendan Taylor added 50.
INDIA 413 FOR 5 DEF. BERMUDA 156 ALL OUT BY 257 RUNS
Guess India needed to get the loss to Bangladesh out of their system, eh? How about a One-Day International record for the largest margin of victory and a World Cup record for most runs in an innings.
India, knowing that the group might eventually be decided by the net run rate tiebreaker, went all out, especially in the final eight overs when they scored 124 runs.
Virender Sehwag made a splendid 114. Yuvraj Singh added 83 and Sachin Tendulkar made 57. The Sehwag-Sourav Ganguly partnership made 202 while the Singh-Tendulkar partnership made 122. The only down side, they made 96 of their runs off our guy Dwayne Leverock. SURE INDIA, PICK ON THE FAT KID, WILL YA?
David Hemp made 76 to give Bermuda a hint of respectability.
‘Til next time.
