Monday 28 March 2016

T20 World cup

The T20 World cup started a couple of weeks ago and I find myself more interested than I expected.  It's been a good spectacle, staged in India where the crowds have been fantastic.

The cricket, on the whole has been really enjoyable, especially as England have done well.  Starting with a defeat against West Indies, or more to the point Chris Gayle.  When Gayle plays well, WI are almost unbeatable.  Next up were the saffers and when they made 229 it looked like our tournament was over but somehow we got the runs.  Afghanistan should have been an easy win and we almost mucked it up but got over the line.  The final group match against Sri Lanka was a cracker, a real tense affair and England pulled it off.

So now we face New Zealand in the semi final.  The Kiwis are unbeaten and the form team of the tournament so far so will feel confident.  Apart from a close win against the Aussies they have dominated the other matches whereas England are battle hardened and have recent wins over the Kiwis.

The other semi final is between West Indies who topped England's group, despite managing to lose against Afghanistan; and India who looked really good in knocking the Aussies out last night.  On home soil India will be hard to beat and must be favourites now but any of the four teams left could easily do enough on the day to win.

In the 2010 T20 World cup, England lost their opening match against West Indies but went on the win the trophy.  Just saying.

Tuesday 8 March 2016

The Levellers were right.

The Levellers wrote some great music and were great live but we got older, were duped by new Labour and moved on.  The Levellers kept touring and making the music.  A few years ago we saw them play an acoustic set at a festival and it was beautiful.  I'd forgotten how good they are!

Levelling the land is a masterpiece and everything that album said is still relevant now.  Nothing has changed, the Levs were right the whole time.