Sticky Wickets

First off, I need to point out that it's raining. So much so that I'm back early from to-day's spring training game, which wrapped up at the top of the sixth inning with a 1-0 score in favour of the Padres. This encourages me to write, and to write on the bat-and-ball game I can still entertain myself with: Cricket. If I haven't told you already, I love cricket. It's got all the quirks and tradition of baseball while remaining genial, dignified, and superbly British. It hasn't become an industry like baseball, either; Cricket games are well-attended and cricketeers are sometimes celebrities, but even at the professional level, one gets the sense people are playing for fun. See the Ashes. Seriously. If there were a decent cricket team in this city outside of that icky papist hive of shallow pretension and privilege, I'd join it.

So. The Cricket World Cup is going on right now, and the group stage is about finished up. Excepting the evident murder of the Pakistani coach, It's been a fine show. Ireland are advancing to the group stage for the first time ever after a St. Patrick's Day win over Pakistan and a tie with Zimbabwe, only the third tie in the history of the World Cup. England lost a heartbreaking match to the up-and-coming New Zealand side, who have managed to beat everyone in their division.

And that's enough of that. Without any more speechifying, I'll give you my predictions for the rest of the tournament. Check back in April and see how wrong I am:

Super 8, in order of position:
1. Australia
2. England
3. New Zealand
4. India
5. Ireland
6. Windies
7. Sri Lanka
8. South Africa

To explain, every side in the Super 8 play each other once and the top four go through to a knockout stage:

1 & 4. Australia beat India by a few runs in a nail-biter that goes to 50 overs in both inningses. Sheer Aussie batsmanship overcomes Indian coordination.

2 & 3. England beat New Zealand by a few wickets.

Final: England beat Australia by a tiny margin, securing the first ever World Cup win for England. English running overcomes the weak Aussie defense despite fine bowling and edges out a fine Australian innings.

I really think so.