World Cup gets serious - well the Netherlands do!

Game 9

Nepal beat Afghanistan by 9 runs


Game 10

Bangladesh floundered by 2 wickets to Hong Kong in another low scoring match but luckily for the tournament, the hosts advance to the next stage of the competition.

Game 11


Zimbabwe in spite of a bit of an earlier innings wobbly, easily beat UAE; the Arabians posting an wholly inadequate total.

batting with a Howitzer 

Game 12

In the crucial battle between the Paddies and the Orangemen; at half way the green looks to be in ascendancy - Ireland 189/4

Needing to win in 14.2 overs or so because of count back, run rates or the Pythagoras Theorem , the Dutch set about the Irish bowling from the first over. Stephan Myburgh making it to 50 in 17 balls with 6 sixes. At the end of the Powerplay, NL were 91/1 - all results possible in this game and beyond.

• 164/4 at the end of the 12th over. Holland on target to reach their goal inside 14.2 overs Myburgh made 63 and Tom Cooper  45 (in 15 balls)
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• 13.5 overs was all that were required - amazing hitting from the Dutch - 20 sixes in total.

Game 13

After the heavy artillery bombardment of game #12, the tournament entered a new faze - the entrance of the big guns proper and bitter rivals, India and Pakistan.  Pakistan, thanks to some late-on lusty blows that propelled them to 130/7 couldn't contain the all-star Indian reply however; as India strolled to a 7 wicket win in the 19th over.

Game 14

Sri Lanka showed that they had plenty of bottle as they won out against South Africa


Game 15

England enter the fray (expectations - very low)

Put in by NZ and lose Alex Hales for a duck; the powerplay is salvaged by both Lumb (33) and a rampant Moeen Ali (36) only to be pegged back to 83/3 at halfway house.

The now familiar deceleration followed before a few lusty bashes and the tumble of wickets: Morgan 12, Buttler 32, Jordan 8, Bopara 24* , Bresnan 17* 172/6. 

New Zealand's reply started untroubled, without any fireworks until a thunderstorm approached. As the storm closed-in and lightning streaked across the sky, New Zealand wisely took the decision to up their tempo to exceed the DL par score and after 5.2 overs, just as the game became a valid result, the umpires took the players off as the rain poured down. Should the players have been taken off at least 3 balls earlier? Stuart Broad was in no doubt, resulting in him being struck with a thunderous mood, citing health and safety of players and crowd being put at risk by crass umpiring. New Zealand won by 9 runs thanks to the inadequate Duckworth Lewis calculation which needs to be tweaked for T20s and has been since T20 was conceived. 

Sunday: Stuart Broad was fined 15% of his match fee for criticising the umpires. Broady has received the full backing of team mate and fellow Outlaw, Michael Lumb.