Well Pakistan are already out, and India are in what must be regarded as a poor position.Who knows perhaps they can arrange a one day series on the sub-continent to run in parrallel with the super 8's and the finals.
So far the slow low turners have not been what was generally expected, a bit of grass on the wicket yesterday was enough to see Ireland probably progress into the next stage.

But I would say even more of a shock than Irelands win over Pakistan, to me at least was when I saw the team for New Zealand vs England and realised that Bond Wasn't injured! It totally shook my understanding of how the world works. Seems to have done something similar to the England batting as well.
I will now officially admit, I hadn't even considered Bond being fit to play, he's never fit why should I have considered it. If he does stay fit then New Zealand are in with a real shout.

I can officially say that if Sri Lanka to beat India, they would eventually end up holding the world cup. Other than the Lankans, Zealanders and Africans have a fair chance of sniffing the ultimate.

IT will be the sri lankans who lift this world cup but also the qualification of ireland an bangladesh it really stand england in good stead to qualify to the semi's, something any england fan would take due to the nature of the last 2 world cups, also it reall ydoes show minows desevere to be in the world cup

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Finally England have risen from the ashes.

Yes but you will be in the same possition if Sri Lanka don't progress and win this WC, a handfull of us have England down to win the World Cup - you just have South Africa , because India are capable of beating Sri Lanka.

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Ern

They are, and I for one am hoping that this Bangladesh fiasco will be a very rude wake-up call to the Indian team. The first job is to mercilessly trounce Bermuda - they need to - and then plan their strategy against Sri Lanka. Instead of panicking, Dravid should take a leaf out of Steve Waugh's book from 1999; when the Aussies lost the opening two matches, Waugh told his team "Well, we just have to win all the remaining 7 matches"...and they did.

Yes that's true, but, it is very unlikely that the Indian team could show the same heart as did the Ausies in 1999. If they do show this time, that would be great for all the cricket lovers. I still think that India should have defended thier total of 191 against the Bangladesh. They didn't use the inexperience of Bangladesh batsmen to thier own advantage. Good cricketers note down the weaknesses instantly. Bangladeshi batters had many weaknesses.

Theoretically Bangladesh could still beat the Lankans on the 21st. Practically however that won't happen as the Lankans have had a great oppertunity to look at the new Bangladeshi batters. They wold have already noted down the weaknesses of the batters.

Yes, Indians have a fair chance of beating Sri Lanaka on 23rd. That's why I said if they do beat India they will eventually end up holding the ultimate.

I expect the following teams to be on top at the end of the group stage.

Group A
Australia 6 pts (Funny enough I still believe Australia could save the day against RSA)
South Africa 4 pts

Group B
Sri Lanka 6 pts
Bangladesh 4 pts

Group C
New Zealand 6 pts
Kenya 4 pts (I expect Kenya to beat England)

Group D is too funny even to predict :-)

Sorry for this delayed reply
Thanx rachael for the wooden spoon
i was out of computer and tv for last 4 days due to travelling,thats why i could not reply for rachael' s messg
i hope (and also pray the god)taht i too will get a chance to give a very nicely crafted thick wooden spoon(if possible spoons) to rachael soon

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Heat Sucks-Red Death

LOL - I get these things wrong commonly enough so I'm sure you'll get a chance before long.

My picks were Aus, SA and Sri Lanka... though I suggested NZ should be equal 3rd in that list. Right now... I'm still pretty confident.... as I am over having reckoned 2-3 of the four I picked would reach the semi-finals.

My wooden spoon might come for the fantasy cricket though: Hussey, Gayle, Bracken and Ntini have thus far brought me just 9 points... and if India go out in the group phase I'll lose Ganguly... and he was my first "bonus" player

Agreed. After being at least 75 runs too short of an acceptable target, the Indians did not attack enough to try and get Bangladesh out.

You're right. Sri Lankans are very good at assessing the strengths & weaknesses of their opponents, perhaps better than any other team. Having seen Bangladesh beat India, I very much doubt if they will let a similar thing happen to them. It will be in India's interest for SL to really thrash Bangladesh.

I hope so. I think Indians have the advantage in ODIs between the two countries so far. In this encounter, India have better batting while Sri Lanka have a clear edge in the bowling department. If they had Zoysa too, I doubt if India could have beaten them. Now, they are more or less even.