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We promised this yesterday, and now we are ready to go. The world’s getting pretty excited about this all right. Not sure it’s quite the kind of excitement where you’d put your career on the line to go to the pub at 11 a.m. and get munted while watching a match, but excited all the same. In fact, only hours before the hosts take on the Orange Machine the real competition starts here. The only shame is that we found Dutch cricket bloggers a bit thin on the ground. The Questions Reminder 1. Tournament winner. 2. Runners-up. 3. A semi-final exit for NZ? (Yes / Will go further / Won’t get that far) 4. Highest scorer 5. Most wickets 6. Who will be the highest scoring wicket keeper? 7. Who will take more wickets – Vettori, Harbhajan or an Australian spinner? 8. Who will be the most expensive bowler? 9. Who will hit the fastest 50? 10. How many matches will be washed out? (to the nearest 3) Sportsfreak Picks: Australia Gulp. Pakistan because... SF. It wouldn’t be an ICC World Cup without NZ manfully boxing above its weight to heroically make the semi-finals before coming up against Pakistan. Ponting . At a lower Strike Rate then most M Johnston. Injury permitting of course. Prince Brendan, with 90% of runs coming against Scotland. Harby. Vettori will be more economical though. Ravi Bopara. Afridi. Surely he’ll come off once? 3. Work the maths. (Sadly, it seems that most others are onto that too)
Relatively new UK blog The Old Batsman enters the fray, and best of all has a pop at Sportsfreak favourite Stuart Broad. England, no only joking.. South Africa. India Semi-final exit Suresh Raina Dale Steyn Dhoni Vettori Stuart Broad AB DeVilliers 4 12th Man from Chinese Cut forgets all about the 1975 World Cup. Is that him in the picture? India will ride on Dhoni's luck and charm to win it for the second time. Even though Dhoni could not achieve the same for Chennai in the IPL. Australia. This will be their second final loss in a major tournament after the 1996 World Cup. semi-finals, NZ are a good side, I reckon they will get to the semi-finals this time. I expect Ind, Aus, SA, NZ to be in the semis. Suresh Raina (IND). He has been in good form in the IPL and did well against NZ in the warm-up game. He will bat at 3 and get to face the most overs, considering Sehwag's innings will be short-lived opening the innings. Umar Gul (PAK). He is too good at the death. Brad Haddin(AUS). It was tough to choose between him and McCullum. I go with the Aussie, as he too would be opening the innings. Vettori(NZ). Harby might be economical, but might not pick up as many wickets as Vettori Edgar Schiferli(NED). He might even go for six sixes like his compatriot Van Bunge went in the 2007 world cup. Sanath Jayasuriya(SL). I don't mean the fastest to get to 50 years. The man is still going strong. 3 Aussie cricket Blogging Overlord Jrod from Cricket with Balls takes a brief break from selling his book to say Australia, not because I think they are the best team, just because India look tired, and South Africa should choke Pakistan, they make such pretty bridesmaids. Of course, we will feel cheated if it doesn’t happen. AB DeVilliers, he has god on his side, do you? Mitchell Johnson, just to scare the poms. MS Dhoni, if you can call him a wicket keeper. That’s a trick question because Australia, don’t have a spinner. Bhajji. Boyd Rankin, and he is a chucker. Graham Napier, sorry, bad joke. Tilikaratne Dilshan. 3, it’s pretty dry here this year. You get the feeling he’s looking forward to the Ashes already. Dubai’s leading sports blog Well Pitched dishes up an interesting mix of research and blind optimism. Pakistan. Its not an emotional pick. They are strong. Uh, well maybe it is an emotional pick!. South Africa. Yeah they will get that far this time, only to lose to Pakistan for the 1st time in a T20. Yep. as always. Herchelle Gibbs. Its his time! Finally! Mitchell Johnson. b> Kamran Akmal. . Or a Pakistani one? They seem to have so many. Vettori! Irfan Pathan will probably go 12 an over! Rohit Sharma. 18-20 balls and batting lower down, not opening 3. Seemed the logical choice. Ben from Crucket knows a bit about rain and T20. New Zealand. Not great faith in this pick, but I couldn't bear to put anyone else in. South Africa. 61% certainty based on my very complicated prediction algorithm. Yes. Hedging my bets here and probably closer to my expectations than my answer to 1. Chris Gayle. Lasith Malinga. MS. Vettori. Does Australia have any spinners? Mills. Yuvraj Singh. I would love it to be Afridi, but what's the chance he'll get a 50? None. They don't stop these types for games for rain do they? But wait, there’s more. Not just 1, but 3 entries from The Dropkicks wade in with these picks. So this is the ultimate Game-within-a-Game. Like and intra-blog inter-blog competition. Naly D from The Dropkicks does piss-take. Sport (on the day) BLACKCAPS WGF B McCullum Merv Hughes B McCullum Singh Ryder Sehwag 3 Noizy from The Dropkicks gets optimistic, and knows his Scottish cricketers. South Africa NZ WGF (see above) Graeme Smith Daniel Vettori Brendon McCullum Daniel Vettori CM Wright (Scotland) Chris Gayle 0 Mallet from The Dropkicks remembers the Cult Hero. South Africa West Indies Semi Ross Taylor Johan Botha Brendon McCullum Daniel Vettori I Pathan Ryder 3 Now, the fun part…. Sportsfreak discretionary points: The Old Batsman gets a point for taking the piss out of Stuart Broad. Surprising none of the returning competitors remembered that was a nice easy way to buy a bonus point. Naly D gets a point each for the Hughes and Sport (on the day) answers, but then throws one of them away by using the term BLACKCAPS. Yes, we realise that was a joke, but still... 12th Man was a bit lucky not to get a point deducted. You enter an NZ run competition, and you pick Haddin as top scorer? Crucket gets a point deducted for being late. Not technically late, but this is a Friday night in NZ. Leaderboard
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