Cricket World Cup Wrapup - Day 15

Rain was the story today as Australia's match with Sri Lanka was called on account of foul weather after Sri Lanka scored 146 runs in 32.5 overs with 7 wickets remaining. Cricket rules dicate that the game count as a "No Result" and that each team get 1 point in the standings. Australia and Sri Lanka each have 5 points in Group A, but Australia still has a game in hand. Pakistan remains atop the group with 6 points. Sri Lankan captain Kumar Sangakkara had 73 runs off 102 balls and was still batting when the game ended.

Photo Courtesy: zimbio.com

Cricket Term of the Day: Nurdle

To nurdle is to score runs by gently nudging the ball into vacant areas of the field. I guess it'd be the equivalent of bunting in baseball.

March MADNESS!!!

Get ready boys and girls, it's that time of year again. 3 teams have already punched their tickets to the NCAA tournament as UNC-Asheville (19-13) won the Big South Tournament, Belmont (30-4) won the Atlantic Sun Conference Tournament and Morehead State (23-9) won the Ohio Valley Conference Championship. Championship Week is about to kickoff officially so here's a rundown of your remaining conference tournaments and top seeds:

ACC - March 10-13 - North Carolina (24-6, 14-2)
America East - March 3-12 - Vermont (23-7, 13-3)
Atlantic 10 - March 8-13 - Xavier (24-6, 15-1)
Big 12 - March 9-12 - Kansas (29-2, 14-2)
Big East - March 8-12 - Pittsburgh (27-4, 15-3)
Big Sky - March 5-9 - Northern Colorado (19-10, 13-3)
Big Ten - March 10-13 - Ohio State (28-2, 15-2)
Big West - March 10-12 - Long Beach State (20-10, 14-2)
Colonial - March 4-7 - George Mason (26-5, 16-2)
Conference USA - March 9-12 - UAB (22-7, 12-4)
Great West - March 9-12 - (no automatic bid) Utah Valley (19-10, 11-1)
Horizon - March 1-8 - Milwaukee (18-12, 13-5)
Ivy League - Regular season champ gets bid - Harvard (23-5, 12-2)
MAAC - March 4-7 - Fairfield (24-6, 15-3)
MAC - March 8-12 - Kent State (21-10, 12-4)
MEAC - March 8-12 - Bethune Cookman (20-11, 13-3)
Missouri Valley - March 3-6 - Missouri State (25-7, 15-3)
Mountain West - March 8-12 - BYU (28-3, 14-2)
Northeast - March 3-9 - Long Island (25-5, 16-2)
Pac-10 - March 9-12 - Arizona (25-6, 14-4)
Patriot - March 2-11 - Bucknell (23-8, 13-1)
SEC - March 10-13 - Florida (24-6, 13-3)
Southern - March 4-7 - Charleston (22-9, 14-4)
Southland - March 9-12 - McNeese State (19-10, 11-5)
Summit - March 5-8 - Oakland (23-9, 17-1)
Sun Belt - March 5-8 - Florida Atlantic (21-9, 13-3)
SWAC - March 9-12 - Texas Southern (18-11, 16-2)
WAC - March 9-12 - Utah State (28-3, 15-1)
WCC - March 4-7 - St. Mary's (23-7, 11-3)

Missouri State and Indiana State will play tomorrow for the Missouri Valley Conference Championship.

Algarve Cup Update

The U.S. women defeated Norway 2-0 behind goals from Lindsay Tarpley and Carli Lloyd to improve to 2-0 atop Group A in the 2011 Algarve Cup. The United States opened the tournament with a 2-1 victory over Japan on Wednesday with goals by Amy Rodriguez and Megan Rapinoe. The U.S. wraps up group play on Monday against Finland, who is winless in their first two games.

Photo Courtesy: chicagolandsoccernews.com

Here's a list of the results from the first two rounds of play:

Group A
United States 2 Japan 1
Norway 2 Finland 1
United States 2 Norway 0
Japan 5 Finland 0

Group B

Iceland 2 Sweden 1
Denmark 1 China PR 0
Iceland 2 China PR 1
Sweden 3 Denmark 1

Group C

Romania 2 Chile 0
Portugal 3 Wales 1
Portugal 0 Chile 0
Wales 2 Romania 1

The winners of groups A and B will play for first place, the second place teams from A and B for third, and the third place teams from A and B for fifth. The winner of Group C takes on the better of the two fourth place finishers for seventh, while the second place team from Group C take on the other fourth place finisher for ninth. Finally, the bottom two teams in Group C play each other for eleventh.

The United States women have made the last 8 Algarve Cup finals, winning the event 6 times, including in 2010. Their only two losses during that stretch came via shootout to Germany in 2006 and Sweden in 2009.

Soccer Power Rankings

New set of ESPN's Soccer Power Rankings came out yesterday. Here's the new Top Ten:

Photo Courtesy:Zimbio.com

#1 Barcelona - 23-1-2 - Spain (1)
#2 Real Madrid - 20-2-4 - Spain (2)
#3 Borussia Dortmund - 19-2-4 - Germany (1)
#4 FC Porto - 19-0-2 - Portugal (1)
#5 Inter Milan - 16-6-5 - Italy (2)
#6 Manchester United - 17-2-9 - England (1)
#7 Arsenal - 17-5-5 - England (2)
#8 AC Milan -17-3-7 - Italy (1)
#9 Napoli - 16-7-4 - Italy (3)
#10 Bayern Munich - 12-6-6 - Germany (4)

Barcelona remains in the top spot on the strength of a pair of road wins- 3-0 at Mallorca and 1-0 at Valencia. Real Madrid remains at #2 bouncing back from a 0-0 against Deportivo la Coruna to blast Malaga 7-0. Borussia Dortmund made the biggest jump beating Bayern Munich this week 3-1 and moving all the way into the #3 spot. England's top two clubs both dropped this week when Arsenal lost the Carling Cup final to Birmingham and Man U got beat 2-1 by Chelsea.

ESPN Power Rankings


Here's the Champions League/Europa League Schedule for the Top Ten over the next two weeks:

Tuesday March 8

Arsenal at Barcelona - Champions League - 2:45 PM EST

Wednesday March 9

AC Milan at Tottenham Hotspur - Champions League - 2:45 PM EST

Thursday March 10

FC Porto at CSKA Moscow - Europa League - 1:00 PM EST

Tuesday March 15

Inter Milan at Bayern Munich - Champions League - 3:45 PM EST
Marseilles at Manchester United - Champions League - 3:45 PM EST

Wednesday March 16

Lyon at Real Madrid - Champions League - 3:45 PM EST

Thursday March 17

CSKA Moscow at FC Porto - Europa League - 4:05 PM EST

New Point Guard in Miami

A little late to talk about this one, but being in Germany this week I've been a little bit out of touch and behind on the blogging. Mike Bibby, after being traded by the Hawks to the Wizards had his contract bought out and signed on with the Miami Heat giving them a veteran presence at the point guard position. To open up a roster spot, the Heat released opening night starter Carlos Arroyo. The 32 year old Bibby was only averaging 9.4 points and 3.6 assists while the starter in Atlanta, and only scored 2 points in 29 minutes with the Wizards, but Miami hopes he can be the difference maker they're looking for. Despite his decreased scoring, Bibby is still shooting a career best 43.2% from 3-point range which fits perfectly into the Heat's gameplan. Additionally, when you look at Bibby's numbers compared to what the Heat have been getting out of the point guard spot, it's a no-brainer. Mario Chalmers is averaging 6.7 points, 2.3 assists and shooting 35.2% from long range, and the displaced Arroyo averaged 5.6 points, 2.0 assists and shot 43.8% from deep.

 Photo Courtesy: zimbio.com

Now, is Bibby the piece that makes this a championship team right now? I don't know that I'd go THAT far. While this move does address one of the Heat's glaring weaknesses, let's take note that this isn't the Mike Bibby that quarterbacked the Kings in those great series against the Shaq and Kobe Lakers. It's not even the Bibby whose Hawks took Boston to 7 games the year the Celtics won the NBA title back in 2008. Bibby's now 32 and he's in the midst of one of his worst statistical seasons (minus the 3-point shooting). While he may bring some order to the offense, especially late in games, he's not a plus defensive player. It will also be interesting to see if he can coexist with the other big names on the floor. He's never really been a true facilitator at the point, averaging just 5.7 assists for his career. But he does want to win a championship, having never won a title, and this is his 13th NBA season so he may be willing to assume a lesser role for the good of the team. His Heat debut was a forgettable one as Miami blew a 24 point 3rd quarter lead at home and lost to the Magic 99-96. Bibby was just 1 for 4 in 19 minutes and finished with 3 points and 1 assist. It's going to take more than that if he's going to be the piece they're looking for. Miami takes on San Antonio tonight and Chicago on Sunday in two huge games so the Heat could really use Bibby at the top of his game right now. If Miami doesn't at least split these two games, I'd say there's significant cause for concern in South Beach.

Cricket World Cup Wrapup - Days 13 and 14

South Africa's offense was too much for the Netherlands as they overwhelmed the Dutch 351-120 as they improved to 2-0 in the tournament and moved to the top of Group B. The Dutch fell to 0-3 as they suffered the 4th worst defeat in World Cup History. The Netherlands now owns 4 of the 8 worst losses ever in the World Cup, having already lost by 215 runs to the West Indies earlier in the tournament. South Africa meanwhile put up the 12th highest total in World Cup History, on the strength of AB de Villiers' 134 runs off 98 balls and Hashim Amla's 113 runs off 130 balls. De Villiers was named the man of the match. Wesley Barresi had 44 runs off 66 balls to lead the Dutch.

 Photo Courtesy: zimbio.com

Pakistan became the first team in the tournament to get 3 wins as they defeated the still winless Canadiens 184-138. Neither side got much going offensively as no player scored more than 48 runs. Shahid Afridi was named the man of the match for taking 5 wickets and surrendering just 23 runs in his 10 overs of work. Pakistan is currently in first place in Group A and along with Australia are the only Group A sides without a defeat.

Photo Courtesy: zimbio.com

New Zealand needed just 2 batsman to surpass Zimbabwe's run total as they cruised to a 166-162 win improving to 2-1 in the tournament. Martin Guptill (86 runs off 108 balls) and Brendan McCullum (76 runs off 95 balls) needed less than 2 hours to clinch the win for the Kiwis. Guptill was named the man of the match for his offensive contributions. Brendan Taylor had 44 runs to lead Zimbabwe (1-2).

 Photo Courtesy: zimbio.com

If defense wins championships, then watch out for the West Indies. Bangladesh went all out in just 18.5 overs and was held to 58 runs as the West Indies would need just 44 minutes on offense to take the victory 59-58. Only three teams have ever scored fewer runs than Bangladesh did today. Team Captain Darren Sammy took 3 wickets in 7 overs, Sulieman Benn took 4 wickets in 5.5 overs and Kemar Roach took 3 wickets in 6 overs for the West Indies. Roach was named the man of the match. With the win the West Indies (2-1) now sit in second place in Group B while Bangladesh (1-2) drops into 6th ahead of only the Netherlands.

Photo Courtesy: zimbio.com

Cricket World Cup Wrapup - Days 11 and 12

Sri Lanka rebounded from their loss to Pakistan earlier this week to blow out overmatched Kenya 146-142 by 9 wickets with 188 balls remaining. Sri Lanka improves to 2-1 while the Kenyans dropped their third straight. On the bright side for Kenya, the 142 runs they scored marked their best effort of the tournament. Collins Obuya and David Obuya paced the Kenyan attack each producing over 50 runs, but it was Sri Lanka's Lasith Malinga who stole the show. Malinga took 6 wickets in 7.4 overs while allowing just 38 runs in earning Man of the Match honors. Upul Tharanga, Tillakaratne Dilshan and Kumar Sangakkara needed just 18.4 overs to score 146 runs for Sri Lanka. Tharanga led the way with 67 and 12 fours.

Photo Courtesy: zimbio.com

England suffered a letdown after their big tie with India on Sunday and were stunned by the Irish 329-327 by 3 wickets with 5 balls remaining. John Mooney's four to start off the 50th over was the game-winner as the Irish got their first win of the tournament. Kevin O'Brien turned in a monster performance for the Irish as well generating a game-high 113 runs off just 63 balls. Included in their were 13 fours and 6 sixes as he easily came away with man of the match honors. The win spoiled strong performances by England's Ian Bell (81 runs off 86 balls) and Jonathan Trott (92 runs off 92 balls). Mooney, in addition to the game-winning four, also took 4 wickets in 9 overs.

 Photo Courtesy: zimbio.com

Cricket Term of the Day: Dibbly Dobbly

A dibbly dobbly is either a) a bowler of limited skill, or b) a delivery that is easy to hit. Think meatball.