Might as well post a couple of the quarters
Quarter-finals:
Kallis all-rounder of the day
On a rainy pitch at Blackpool, the bowlers were the heroes. Brian Lara started out slowly, but preserved his wicket until he swiped a ball and it found its way right into the middle stump. Out for 48. And it would only get worse for the Windies. Ridley Jacobs tried, but eventually got plumb leg-before to an excellent ball from Makhaya Ntini, and Gayle, Drakes and Dillon were all out for low scores. West Indies skittled for 86 off 64 balls. Herschell Gibbs started extraordinarily well on the tough batting wicket, but eventually got an edge into the stumps on 20. Boucher tried to keep his wicket, but came too far down the wicket on a short ball by Mervyn Dillon - Jacobs got him stumped and SA reeled on 31 for 2. On came the all-rounder Jacques Kallis. Earlier, he had taken 2-6 by removing Drakes and Dillon, now he supplied an excellent knock in the drizzle to lead SA to 88 for 3 with 33 balls to spare.
India squeeze through yet again
Jayasuriya wanted to continue on his fine 104 from the Scotland game, but was disappointed at humid Yarmouth. He was too keen on the 19th ball, taking a run that wasn't there, and Sachin Tendulkar duly threw the bails off and sent Jayasuriya off for 32. Kumar Sangakkara started slowly but safely, waiting till his 38th ball before picking up his first four - and then only due to a very poor fielding performance by Zaheer Khan. He completed his century in 54 balls with a lovely three over the off fielders, and managed to add another bouncing boundary to go to an unbeaten 118. Tendulkar, chasing 151 for the win, disappointed the hopeful crowd. He hit slowly, ran slowly, and was generally not the grand old Sachin that we all know. With three overs left, he needed to hit 59 - a virtually impossible task, especially considering his 92 was a no-boundary one. His first boundary came two balls later with a splendid cover drive, followed by a four past point with the last ball of the over. Part-timer Arnold was duly hit for 22 with his first over of the tournament. Vaas wasn't much better though, and Tendulkar hit another three fours, meaning that he only needed 18 from the last over. 17 came from the first seven balls, and the final two runs saw him to 152 not out and a last-ball 5-wicket win for India.
This is my double century post
