The mess that my life fell into over the past couple of weeks has meant that I have not been paying too much attention to the IPL. Given how the Royals started the season, that’s probably just as well. Their first game was a narrow 4-run loss to Mumbai, despite an awesome 37-ball century from Yusuf Pathan. From there things went downhill fast as my boys were thrashed by Delhi and by Bangalore. More recently, however, things have turned around, with good wins against Kolkata and Punjab. Today we completed an easy 8-wicket win over the reigning champion Deccan Chargers, with Yusuf again starring. Mumbai and Bangalore appear to be the form teams of the tournament, and the Bangalore squad has just been strengthened by the arrival of Kevin Pietersen. However, if the Royals can keep up their current form they have every chance of making it to the playoffs, at which point it is anyone’s game again.

Breaking news: New Zealand and Sri Lanka will play a 3-match Twenty20 series in the USA in May. Sadly for us west coast types, the games will all be in Florida, where the only international-standard cricket stadium in the country is located, but it is a start. Here’s hoping the games are televised.

It has been a dramatic day out in Dubai, and tomorrow promises to be even better. Remember that yesterday I said that Afghanistan and UAE were the favorites because they had one win each? Well here are today’s results.

• The Netherlands beat Afghanistan by 4 wickets
• Ireland beat UAE by 22 runs

That means that the teams go into tomorrow’s final matches all square. The two teams that win go through. As it turns out we have one “Eastern” semi-final (Afghanistan v UAE) and one “Western” one (Ireland v Netherlands). I’m not making any predictions, but I do hope that the Afghans get through.

The final day of the group stages in Dubai turned out pretty much as I expected (sorry America). Here are the results:

• Afghanistan beat USA by 29 runs
• UAE beat Canada by 42 runs
• Netherlands beat Kenya by 7 wickets
• Ireland beat Scotland by 37 runs

So the four teams through to the final stages of the competition are: Afghanistan, Ireland, Netherlands and UAE. As points against fellow qualifiers are carried forward, Afghanistan and UAE will be the favorites to go through to the main tournament. Irish readers, your boys need to keep winning.

There is no fairy tale for the USA team, though they should be proud of their one win. It proves that they are now a force to be reckoned with. Canada and Scotland, I’m afraid your teams were rather uninspired.

There is, however, some good news for American cricket fans. Pakistan is currently unable to play home games because they cannot guarantee the safety of visiting teams (some of you may recall the horrific attack on the Sri Lankan team last year). They have been playing games in Dubai, but today it was reported that the Pakistan Cricket Board is in negotiations to play some games in the USA. Who they would play against is currently uncertain, but the games will almost certainly be in the Twenty20 format. This comes hard on the heels of news that Lalit Modi has been negotiating arrangements to stage some demonstration matches featuring IPL teams in the USA. We could be in for some exciting times.

If you happen to be reading this, Mr. Modi, please note that there are large numbers of cricket fans in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Here are today’s results from Dubai:

• Afghanistan beat Scotland by 14 runs
• Kenya beat Canada by 9 wickets
• Ireland beat USA by 78 runs
• UAE beat Netherlands by 6 wickets

UAE have become the first team to qualify for the final stages. They will be joined by the winner of tomorrow’s match between Netherlands and Kenya.

The other group is potentially more interesting. Probably Ireland and Afghanistan will win their games tomorrow and go through, but if the USA can beat Afghanistan it will all come down to net run rate. Unfortunately, because of the thrashing they took at the hands of the Irish, the Americans need to win by a big margin.

Out in Dubai teams from eight countries are vying for the honor of going to the world Twenty20 cricket tournament in the West Indies later this year. The eight test-playing nations qualify for the finals by right, but Twenty20 is a version of the game where luck can play a big part and so less-skilled teams can make an impact, and of course there’s a share of the television revenues of the main tournament at stake. The two teams that come through the Dubai tournament will have won a place on the world stage.

The teams are divided into two groups:

• Group A: Afghanistan, Ireland, Scotland, USA
• Group B: Canada, Netherlands, Kenya, UAE

Two teams from each group will qualify for the final stages, and two teams from that will go forward to the main event.

Today’s results are as follows:

• Afghanistan beat Ireland by 13 runs
• Netherlands beat Canada by 6 wickets
• UAE beat Kenya by 15 runs
• USA beat Scotland by 6 wickets

If I’d been asked to pick the two qualifiers before the tournament I would have gone for Ireland and the Netherlands. The Afghans have done very well. But there are jaws on the floor all around the cricket world over the USA’s thrashing of Scotland. The Americans have already beaten UAE in a warm-up match, and they’ll always fancy their chances against Canada, so they might be starting to think of going all the way. First, however, they have to get through tomorrow’s game against a very embarrassed Ireland side, and then on Thursday they play Afghanistan in a match that has huge significance in Kabul, if not in Washington.

Cricinfo has news of an interesting development in the world of cricket. A group of teams from India, the UK, South Africa, the West Indies and (hopefully) Australia is planning to form a global alliance and a single brand for Twenty20 cricket. I can see the economic benefits of this, but while I’m all for cricket looking for ways to boost audiences, I can see this one running onto a few rocks.

Firstly some supporters are going to get very confused. As a Rajasthan Royals fan I should presumably sign up to the global group. But their UK team is Hampshire, not Somerset. I can just about manage that, having spent five years in Southampton, but what if they pick NSW for their Australian side?

Then there’s the team names. The Cricinfo story says that the teams in the alliance will play under the Royals brand in all Twenty20 competitions, but there’s already a team called the Royals in the UK, and it isn’t Hampshire. Worcestershire are not going to be happy. And I suspect that a bunch of proud Cape Town fans will want to keep the Cobras name.

Finally this rather blows a hole in the idea of the Twenty20 Champions’ League, which is supposed to showcase the best teams from each country. There was quite enough fuss in UEFA over Roman Abramovitch having an interest in both Chelsea and CSKA Moscow. At least three of the proposed Royals teams were in last year’s Champions’ Trophy (probably four when they announce the Australian side). It would make a nonsense of the competition if those teams were all under the same ownership.

While the rest of the IPL was focused on the auction and paying a fortune for the likes of Kieron Pollard, the Royals have been looking around for bargains. They appear to have found one in Hampshire’s Michael Lumb. As those of you who played in Paul Cornell’s fantasy cricket league last year will know, Lumb was one of the stand-out batsmen in the 2009 English season. He’ll be well known to Royals captain, Shane Warne, who used to captain Hampshire, and to his fellow Royal and current Hampshire captain, Dimitri Mascarenhas. He should be an excellent addition to the Royals batting line-up.

In case you are wondering, Lumb did not have to go through the auction because he is not an international player. And of you want to know why such a good batsman isn’t an international – well he was born in Johannesburg and South Africa is already fielding two international batting line-ups (one of them under the cunning pseudonym of “England”).

Wow. YouTube is going to be live-streaming the 2010 IPL season. I do hope that it is available in the US.

Meanwhile the player auction took place today. It was no surprise, given his heroics in the Champions’ League, that Kieron Pollard attracted a huge fee. The Pakistani players are reported hugely upset that none of them got picked up, and let’s face it who wouldn’t want the likes of Shahid Afridi and Umar Gul, but with no guarantee that they’d be able to get visas it is not surprising that the team managers were not prepared to take a risk.

The Royals spent carefully, but probably wisely as Warnie will know his two new Australian players very well. I am looking forward to the season. I don’t know what the availability of Smithy and Shane Watson will be, but Ravindra Jadeja has come on spectacularly during his stint in the Indian one-day side so I’m hoping for some heroics from him.

Cricket’s World Twenty20 Cup was such a success it looks like they are going to do it every year. The main event takes place in the West Indies at the beginning of May. But before that there are qualifiers to determine which two lucky second tier nations gets to play with the big boys. In February there will be a tournament in Dubai. Initially the teams are divided into two group. Group B contains Kenya, Netherlands, Canada and the UAE. Potentially more interesting is Group A which contains Ireland, Scotland, Afghanistan and the USA. That could have a bit of needle.

Yesterday’s semi-final might have been a damp squib, but today’s was a superb match. The Cape Town Cobras won the toss and elected to bat. Both of their big guns, Herschelle Gibbs (42) and JP Duminy (61*), came good; and they set a challenging score of 175. Trinidad & Tobago can thank a magnificent last over by Ravi Rampaul, off which they conceded only 2 runs, for keeping the target that low.

The T&T batsmen kept up with the required rate through most of their innings, and the pressure began to tell on the South Africans. Several catches were dropped, and fielding errors allowed the batsmen to score two when they should only have got one. Even so the result was in doubt right down to the final over. But with the inspirational captain, Daren Ganga (44*), and star player Dwayne Bravo (58*) in fine form they got the win with a whole 4 balls to spare.

There is no rest of the T&T team. The final takes place tomorrow. The good news is that they play NSW Blues, whom they have already beaten once in another thrilling game. Tomorrow one of these two clubs will be crowned cricket’s first ever world club champions. No one outside of Australia will be cheering for the Blues.

There will have been an air of doom and gloom around much of Melbourne today. It is a sports-mad city (with certain honorable exceptions, some of whom read this blog) and there are few things that Melbourne sports fans hate more than being beaten by people from Sydney.

And not just beaten either. The Victoria Bushrangers were thoroughly humiliated. NSW Blues batted first and despite the supposed horrors of the Delhi pitch they raced along at almost 9 an over throughout. David Warner top-scored with 48 off 25 balls, but the whole batting order contributed to their final score of 169.

In contrast the Victorian batting was woeful. Brett Lee took 2-15 and Moises Henriques 3-11 as the Bushrangers were skittled out for just 90. Oh dear.

Personally I blame Justine. I’m sure she managed to find a way to cheat.

Today the Cape Cobras take on Trinidad & Tobago. Hopefully it will be a much better game. Everyone outside South Africa will be hoping for a T&T win because they are such wonderful fin to watch.

I said yesterday that I didn’t expect any miracles from Somerset today, but equally I didn’t expect a disaster. Their match against NSW was one of the most one-sided in the tournament. Somerset batted first and managed only 111, with Stuart Clark taking 3-15. It took the Australians only 12 of their 20 overs to win the game.

I caught a little bit of the TV coverage and the Australian commentators were laughing themselves silly. Both Australian teams are in the semi-finals, and the two English teams between them managed only one win. Doubtless most English supporters will say this was inevitable given the poor quality of the teams we sent. Their counties would of course have done better. Yet Somerset were second in the Twenty20, second in the Pro40, and third in the County Championship. Sussex won the Twenty20 and Pro40, and were second in the 50 over cup. In England they had been pretty dominant. Asked to step out onto the world stage, both sides were outclassed. Questions ought to be asked of the ECB, I think.

In stark contrast the Trinidad & Tobago team were anything but outclassed. On the same wicket were Somerset had managed only 11, they smashed their way to 213, the highest score of the tournament so far. To get into the semi finals the Eagles needed not only to surpass that, but to do so by a significant margin in order to improve their net run rate. It was never going to happen, though they made a brave attempt.

The semi-final line-ups are now almost complete. The matches will probably be Cape Cobras v NSW and Trinidad & Tobago v Victoria, though that does assume that the Cobras beat Delhi in the final second round match tomorrow. The Cobras and T&T are both undefeated, and I’m expecting a titanic final if they stay that way through the semis.

India is in the midst of Diwali, the Festival of Lights, which is celebrated by Buddhists, Sikhs and Jains as well as Hindus. The Champions’ League matches today provided a few fireworks to help the holiday along, but not before there were fears if fireworks of entirely the wrong kind.

We began the day with a match between the Cape Cobras and Victoria Bushrangers. The match was delayed by a bomb scare at the stadium. The Indian police reportedly detected traces of explosives on the kit bag of a young Kashmiri player who was taking part in an Under-22 tournament at the ground. The players were kept in their hotels until the ground had been checked, though apparently the crowd was let in.

After almost 2 hours delay the game got underway, but the stress had clearly told on the players. Cobras star Herschelle Gibbs declined to play, saying he didn’t feel mentally up to it, while the Victorian openers minds also seemed to be elsewhere as both of them were dismissed for 0 in the first over by Monde Zondeki. Victoria’s innings never recovered, and they posted only 129 in a game reduced to 17 overs a side. The strong Cobras batting lineup had no difficulty reaching that target.

The second game of the day saw the home team, Bangalore, take on Delhi. The result of the first game meant that Bangalore could no longer qualify for the semi-finals, but that didn’t stop them wanting to get one over on their local rivals in front of a massive holiday crowd.

Sehwag got the Daredevils off to their usual flying start, but when he was out (for 47 off 29 balls) the Delhi innings began to stagnate. Bangalore captain, Anil Kumble, who was celebrating his birthday, took 3-20 off his four overs. In the end Delhi struggled to 138.

In contract the Bangalore innings got off to a slow start, but with two wickets down Ross Taylor and Rahul Dravid began to turn the game around. Taylor scored a rapid-fire 65 off only 38 balls. By the time he was out the game was all but over. With five overs to play Bangalore needed just 6 runs to win and Dravid, a man known as “The Wall” because of his defensive style of play, celebrated by smashing the very next ball back over the bowler’s head and into the crowd.

Today’s games sealed the fates of all of the teams in League B. Cape Town and Victoria go through to the semi-finals. The Cobras still have a game against Delhi to play, and they will want to top the group, but even if they lose they are guaranteed the second-best record.

League A will be decided tomorrow. Trinidad & Tobago are best placed, and will top the group if they beat the Eagles, but they will probably be OK if they lose a close one. They will also know what they need to do, because they play second. The first match is Somerset v NSW. My boys are not quite out of the tournament. A convincing win over the Australians, plus a win by T&T, might just see them through on net run rate. However, the NSW side is very good so I’m not expecting a miracle.

Wrote this last night and forgot to publish it. Sorry.

It has been a mixed day at the Champions’ League. The day started with Somerset putting up a woeful performance against the Eagles. Having won the toss and elected to bat, they were quickly reduced to 52/5 in nine overs. James Hildreth and Wes Durston heroically put on 73 for the next wicket, but they were unable to accelerate at the end and the Somerset innings finished on 132/8. It was well short of a winning score, and the Eagles knocked off the runs fairly comfortably.

The other game in League A was between NSW and Trinidad & Tobago. The Australians batted first and looked very good. David Warner (63) and Phil Hughes (83) got them off to a superb start, and their score of 170 appeared very challenging. However, nothing scares this West Indian side. Even after losing their first three wickets for just 30, they kept fighting. The required run rate was up to almost 12 at times, but with Kieron Pollard at the wicket anything is possible. He finished up with 54* off just 18 balls, including five 6s. If T&T keep on playing like this they can beat anyone.

Tomorrow we have the Cape Cobras taking on the Victoria Bush Rangers, and Bangalore v Delhi.

I’m a bit late with a report on yesterday’s Champions’ League action for reasons that will become obvious in the next post. Apologies for that.

It was a must-win game for Bangalore yesterday. They carried no points through from the first round — their only win having been against Otago who are eliminated. Victoria, on the other hand, have points from their win over Delhi. The Indian side started very well, with Manish Pandey looking particularly impressive. However, Bangalore were without their star player, Jacques Kallis, because of an injury, and once wickets started to fall their run rate slumped. Andy MacDonald took an excellent 4-21 for Victoria, and Bangalore finished on a mere 127. Given that they had been 72/2 after 10 overs, this was very poor.

And so it proved. Victoria cruised to victory by 7 wickets with 25 balls to spare. David Hussey finished the match in emphatic style, clobbering Anil Kumble for three 6s in one over. So Victoria now have 4 points with a game to play and look pretty certain to get a semi-final slot. Bangalore are probably out of it, but they do have a game against Delhi to come and I’m sure they’ll be keen to win that one.

Somerset’s next game is due to start in about half an hour. They will have to do without their star batsman, Marcus Trescothick, who has flown home with a re-occurrence of the illness that has kept him out of the England side for several years.

Well, actually by Trinidad and Tobago.

In the final game of the first round of the Champions’ League the Deccan Chargers won the toss and elected to field. Trinidad & Tobago scored 149, which was about the sort of score that would produce a close match. So it proved.

The Chargers started off well thanks to a typically brilliant 51 of 36 balls by their skipper, Adam Gilchrist (though he did come within a whisker of being out twice in the first over). However, both Gilchrist and Rohit Sharma, who were going very well, were out soon after the half way point. Scott Styris and Venugopal Rao then looked to have the game under control, only for both to fall quickly. By now the Chargers were reliant on their bowlers to make the winning runs, and so the target became much harder. With one over to go they needed 8 to win, and Dwayne Bravo was much too good for them, though the result was technically in doubt right down to the final ball.

It is a real shame for the Chargers. They have played two games and lost them by 1 wicket and by 3 runs. That will be tough to take. On the other hand, Trinidad & Tobago played very well, and because of the victory Somerset are through to the next round. Here are the two groups:

League 1: NSW, Trinidad & Tobago, Somerset, Bloemfontein.

League 2: Cape Town, Delhi, Bangalore, Victoria.

Points are carried through from the previous round, so the teams with two victories — NSW, Trinidad & Tobago and Cape Town — will be the favorites to make the semi finals. Each team will play only two matches — against the teams they haven’t faced before. Tomorrow the Bush Rangers go to Bangalore to face the Royal Challengers. And on Friday Somerset play the Bloemfontein Eagles. Thankfully we are not playing either of our two games on the horrid Delhi pitch.

The low, slow wicket in Delphi might not produce the sort of batting fireworks that the media might have hoped, but that doesn’t mean it can’t produce interesting matches. Today we had two very close games.

The day began with Victoria against Wayamba. The Sri Lankans batted first and made 119, which seemed like it probably wasn’t enough. However, they bowled very well, and apart from Brad Hodge none of the Bushrangers batsmen could come to terms with the wicket. Fortunately for Victoria, they only needed to get to 84, because if they did that they were guaranteed to go through to the next round on net run rate. As it turned out, they only got 103. Wayamba can take home the consolation of having won a game, but their tournament is over.

The second game of the day was a straight eliminator between Sussex Sharks and Bloemfontein Eagles. Both teams had lost to NSW, so whoever won today would go through. Sussex batted first, and made 119, which we now knew would take some getting. The South Africans started well, and at 72/0 they should have cruised through. However, Sussex pegged them back, and in the end it took Ryan McLaren hitting a four off the last ball to get their score up to, you guessed it, 119.

Match tied. What do we do now?

I must admit I thought Sussex were OK. They did better against NSW than the Eagles. They would go through on net run rate. But what do I know? Apparently the rules for the Champions’ League call for extra innings. This isn’t quite in the baseball mold. The teams play one extra innings each of either 6 balls or 2 wickets, whichever comes first. If they are still tied after that the number of 6s hit in the match is used as a tie-breaker.

The Eagles batted first and got 9, which isn’t a great score but at least they had runs on the board. They chose CJ deVilliers to bowl for them, and that kid (he’s only 23) could get a job as a Major League closer given the calm he showed. It took him just two balls to end the match. Both of them hit the stumps.

So, Victoria and Bloemfontein go through to the next round, which I have learned is called the “Super 8s”. They join Delhi, Bangalore, Cape Town, NSW and… two of the Deccan Chargers or Somerset Sabres or Trinidad & Tobago, depending on the result of tomorrow’s game between the Chargers and the West Indian side.

Somerset’s adventure in the Champion’s League may have come to an end today after they were soundly beaten by an impressive Trinidad & Tobago side. The West Indians batted first scoring 150, and Somerset suffered a second top order batting collapse. This time the tail was unable to save them. Attention now focuses on the final game in the group on Wednesday between the Deccan Chargers and Trinidad & Tobago. The good news for the Caribbean team is that they don’t have to win. They just have to get close enough to the Chargers’ score to end up with a better net run rate than Somerset. However, if they do win, then Somerset stay in the competition.

In the second game Jacques Kallis lived up to his reputation as one of the best players in the game. His 73*, backed up by a blistering 32* off 11 balls from Ross Talyor, took Bangalore to an impressive 188. Kallis then took 3 for 18 off his 4 overs, removing the top 3 of the Otago batting order. The comfortable win takes Bangalore into the next round.

Tomorrow we have Victoria v Wayamba and Bloemfontein v Sussex.