Not bad..

So it's time to check on how my World Cup predictions turned out..
Not bad actually, three of the teams I picked for the semifinals - Australia, Sri Lanka and New Zealand, reached that stage.

The other team I picked was India.

hmmm.. I agree Team India did not quite set the World Cup stage on fire. I guess they decided to leave all the "fire-setting" to their supporters back home. And it almost seemed like "Dada" went to the Little Master for a pre-World Cup (slow) coaching session. While on that topic, here's an interesting news item on the plight of cricketer-lookalikes after the World Cup.

Anyway coming back to the teams that mattered in this World Cup, the best teams were undoubtedly Australia and Sri Lanka. Australia - for their continued ruthless domination, and Sri Lanka for mounting a valiant challenge.

For me, the defining moment of the final was the dismissal of Jayasuriya. He is an awesome player, and he played superbly, but he tried to take a calculated risk with that shot to keep up with D-L, since there was a possibility of the match being halted due to rain. But unfortunately for him, that ball kept too low, and he was bowled. And that was the end of not just a fantastic innings, but a string of fantastic World Cup appearances (do I sound like a commentator yet?)
Surely, a win would have been icing on the cake, but he definitely did not disgrace himself with that gutsy performance.

The final was definitely worth watching, thanks to Gilchrist's audacious strokeplay, Jayasuriya and Sangakkara's fightback and of course the comedy at the end.

As far as Lara and Sachin go - well, not exactly the farewells they would have liked. But that's how it goes I guess - as they say, you win some, you lose some.