Introduction.

Before I get into the details of the week's action on the cricket field, a brief look at the more interesting stuff going on off the field.

Firstly, England defaulted that disputed game against Zimbabwe in Harare, and the ICC ruled that Zimbabwe get the four points. Nasser Hussain has threatened to step down as England captain in the light of the Zimbabwe fiasco. New Zealand still look likely to default their game in Kenya on the 21st February, although they too are appealing for relocation to South Africa, an appeal that, in England's case, was turned down.

It has emerged that the diuretic tablet that put Australian leg-spinner Shane Warne out of the world cup was given to him by his Mum.

South Africa's Jonty Rhodes and Australia's Shane Watson have also left their respective world cup sides, both with injuries, to be replaced by Graeme Smith and Ian Harvey respectively. Rhodes has retired from International cricket.

The world cup format is explained in this column last week, and also
here

• Thursday February 13th - Zimababwe beat England, walkover, Harare

  England defaulted this game, citing concern about player safety.

• Thursday February 13th - New Zealand beat West Indies by 30
  runs, Port Elizabeth

  This was New Zealand's first one day international in South Africa ever, and the fact that they beat the side who conquered the hosts in game one will have been a good confidence booster for the Kiwis. New Zealand bowler Andre Adams was a major reason for the victory - clubbing 35 from only 24 balls in New Zealand's total of 241-7, before picking up 4 wickets for 44 runs. Nathan Astle (46) top scored for new Zealand, while Wavell Hinds (3-35) was the Windies' most succesful bowler. The Windies never recovered from losing their first five wickets for 46 runs, star Brian Lara getting run out for 2 and Adams taking his first three wickets. A rearguard action lead by Ramnaresh Sarwan (75) and Ridley Jacobs (50) fell just short, New Zealand dissing the Caribbean side for 221 with two balls to spare. A notable moment in the match was the extraorinary 'scoop' shot played by new Zealand 'keeper Brendan McCullum, where he scooped the ball over his own head into the vacant section of the field behind West Indian 'keeper Ridley Jacobs.

• Friday February 14th - Sri Lanka beat Bangladesh by 10 wickets, Pietermaritzburg

  Sri Lanka swept Bangladesh aside, helped especially by the first over of the match, bowled by man of the match Chaminda Vaas. Vaas' first over looked like this: Wicket, Wicket, Wicket, Four runs, wide, wicket, leaving Bangladesh five for four from four balls. Hannan Srakar was first down, clean bowled. He was followed shortly by Mohammad Ashraful caught and bowled and Ehsanul Haque, caught by Jayawardene. Sanwar Hossain hit a boundary and Vaas bowled a wide before Hossain fell leg before wicket. Vaas took a couple of wickets later on to finish with fantastic figures of 6-25 as Bangladesh were skittled for 124 inside 32 overs. Marvan Attapattu and Sanath Jayasuriya then romped home, scoring 126 at 6 runs an over to claim an easy victory. Vaas was the first player ever to take a 'golden hat-trick' (first three balls of a game) in test or one-day international cricket, and Bangladesh aren't going to forget him in a hurry.

• Saturday February 15th - Australia beat India by nine wickets, Centurion

  Tournament favourites Australia seem to be coping without Shane Warne - their bowling attack skittled India for just 125, another Indian batting nightmare after being dismissed for 204 by Holland. Opener Sachin Tendulkar and tail-ender Harbhajan Singh were the only Indians who got half decent scores, Brett Lee and Jason Gillespie taking three wickets each. The Aussies cruised to a total of 128 for the loss of Adam Gilchrist. The Indian batting line-up appears to have lost it's air of brilliance and of the bowlers only Anil Kumble threatened. The Australians may have lost the best spin bowler in the world, but they're not doing too badly without him.

• Saturday February 15th - Kenya beat Canada by four wickets, Cape Town

  Canada couldn't follow up their opening victory over Bangladesh with
  another win here, falling victim to Kenya, a confidence-boosting victory for the Kenyans, after they had received a pummeling last week from South Africa. The Canadians scored 197, led by Ian Bicliff's 71, but struggled against a disciplined Kenyan attack led by a four-wicket haul for Thomas Odoyo. Good batting performances by Ravindu Shah and Steve Tikolo looked to have Canada coasting until Canadian spinner John Davison weighed in with three wickets for 15 runs to make the game interesting, although Kenya finally won it with nine balls to spare.

• Sunday February 16th - England beat Holland by 6 wickets, East London

  England finally started their campaign against Holland, and restricted the Dutch side to a paltry 142-9, James Andersons 4-25 the outstanding England performance. Tim de Leedfe managed an unbeaten 58 for the Dutch. Question marks emerged, however, as England managed to lose four wickets in taking 23 overs to reach the target, Nick Knight and Michael Vaughan both scoring fifties as Dave van Bunge took three of England's wickets. The fact that England can suffer a batting collapse against the pedestraian bowling attack of the Netherlands doesn't bode well for the team, who still have to face the fearsome attacks of Australia, Pakistan and India.

• Sunday February 16th - New Zealand beat South Africa by nine
  wickets (D/L method), Johannesburg

  The Duckworth/Lewis system, which I made a dodgy attempt to explain last week, was called into play for the second time in the tournament for this rain-affected match. South Africa had managed an impressive 306-6 from their fifty overs, despite the fact that Herschelle Gibbs, with a blistering 143 from 141 balls, was the only player to get a really significant score. The South Africans batted well, but not brilliantly for the rest of the innings to cruise to their six runs an over total. New Zealand's reply was interrupted after thirty overs due to rain, and their revised target was 227 from 39 overs. A truly wonderful batting performance from Kiwi captain Stephen Fleming, an unbeaten 134 from 132 balls, was the main aspect of their victory with two overs to spare, although number three batsman Nathan Astle scored 54 at almost a run a ball.

• Sunday February 16th - Pakistan beat Namibia by 171 runs,
  Kimberly

  Namibia's status as group A whipping boys lookes confirmed after they were utterly destroyed by Pakistan. Pakistan's batting performance was tidy, although not spectacular, their 255-9 featuring a good fifty by Saleem Elahi. Namibia will have been pleased to have taken nine wickets against the Pakistanis, although they soon learned of the fearsome nature of Pakistani bowling, Wasim Akram bowling nine overs and taking 5-28, Shoaib Akhtar bowling eight overs and picking up 4-46, and Surrey spinner Saqlain Mushtaq bowling just four balls before picking up the final wicket, giving him figures of 1-1. Namibia's final score was just 84 all out, and it could have been a lot worse if it hadn't been for a last wicket partnership of 42 between top scorer Kotze (24 not out) batting tenth, and van Vuuren (14)
  batting last.

• Tuesday February 18th - West Indies v Bangladesh - No Result (abandoned due to rain), Benoni

  Rain led to the abandonment of this game nine overs into Bangladesh's innings. They would have had to have faced at least 25 for the Duckworth/Lewis system to work out a result. Bangladesh had reached 31-2 in reply to the Windies' 244-9 in which Ricardo Powell top scored with 50 and Manjural Islam took three wickets.

• Wednesday February 19th - England beat Namibia by 55 runs, Port Elizabeth

  England struggled in this game, for which they were without captain
  Nasser Hussain, who had a stiff neck. England recovered from 43-2 to score 272, with the last wicket falling from the final ball of the innings. However, Marcus Trescothick and stand-in captain Alec Stewart were the only two players to pass fifty, and if Craig White hadn't survived a very close run-out call things could have been a lot worse. Namibian bowler Rudie van Vuuren finished with excellent figures of 5-43. The Namibian reply looked for a while to be in danger of collapsing England - when rainclouds over the ground appeared to be threatening abandonment the Africans were ahead on the Duckworth/Lewis method, thanks mainly to the magnificent batting of Jan-Berry Burger, who bashed the match's top score fof 85 from only 86 balls. Namibia never recovered from Burger's dismissal and ended on 217-9, with van Vuuren, batting last, hitting a six off the last ball. England won, but if they play like this in their remaining games against India, Pakistan
  and Australia, they will be flying home before the super six stage
  begins.

• Wednesday February 19th - Sri Lanka beat Canada by nine
  wickets, Paarl

  Well, England may not be able to bowl out minnows, but Sri Lanka can. On the back of Chaminda Vaas's exploits against Bangladesh, he picked up figures of 3-15 here, alongside Prabath Nissanka's 4-15, Muttiah Muralitharan's 1-3 and Dilharo Fernando's 2-4 as the Canadians were skittled for a breathtaking 36 from 18 overs, the lowest score in one-day international history. Sri Lanka lost a wicket as they knocked off the required runs in just four and a half overs to complete the quickest match in world cup history, lasting onby half as long as the previous quickest, the West Indies' battering of Scotland in the 1999 world cup.

• Wednesday February 19th- India beat Zimbabwe by 83 runs,
  Harare

  India finally find a bit of form to beat Zimbabwe, although they did
  suffer a mini-collapse en route to a score of 255-7. Sachin Tendulkar
  top-scored with 81, but Rahul Dravid and Virender Sehwag were the only other players to get decent scores. Zimbabwe controversially left out bowler Henry Olonga who had, along with batsman Andy Flower, made a very public protest against the Mugabe regime in the team's opening game against Namibia. Flower remained, although it was his brother Grant who starred with the ball for Zimbabwe, taking 2-14 from his six overs. Zimbabwe only managed a paltry 172 against an Indian bowling attack represented to best effect by Sourav Ganguly (3-22), Javagal Srinath (2-14) and Zaheer Khan (2-23).

Group A Table

Group B Table

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