Congratulations are due to New Zealand for becoming the first team to book a place in the Champions Trophy semi-finals with a comfortable win over South Africa. The Kiwi team is quietly competent, despite their lack of big name stars. Rumor has it that they have employed a baseball coach to sharpen up their fielding, which will probably save them 30 or so runs in the field. Keep an eye on them.

This means that the Pakistan – South Africa game tomorrow is now an eliminator. The winner goes into the semi-finals, the loser goes home. Sri Lanka are already eliminated.

Congratulations also to West Indies who won a nail-biter against India today by 3 wickets with just two balls left to play. That game was even exciting watching the play-by-play on the Internet. It also means that West Indies go through regardless of the result of their final game against England. And it sets up a titanic winner-takes-all game between India and Australia on Sunday. I wish I could get live video coverage of that.