Well, we have now had the first round of group stage matches and suddenly we have a tournament on our hands. Things are getting seriously good.

First a brief reminder of the process. The teams still in the tournament have been divided into two groups of four. Two teams from each group go through, so each team will be looking to win two of its three group stage matches.

In Group B New Zealand looked to have got off to a bad start, making only 195 against a South African side with an impressive batting line-up. But it turned out that the pitch was a difficult one. South Africa crumbled to 108 all out. The Kiwis have their captain, Stephen Fleming, to thank for a battling 89 that won them the game.

Pakistan looked to be in real trouble before a ball had been bowled. Their captain, Inzaman ul-Haq, is suspended following the ball-tampering fracas at Lords, and their two best fast bowlers, Shoaib Akhtar and Mohammed Asif, have been sent home after failing a drugs test (of which I’ll probably write a lot more later). They were expected by most people to fall apart. The alternative, as their former captain, Imram Kahn, put it, was to fight like cornered tigers, and so they did. Faced with an impressive total from Sri Lanka of 253, they got the winning runs with 11 balls to spare. Abdul Razzaq, who had shown his batting ability against England earlier in the summer, was the star of the show with 38 runs off 24 balls.

Meanwhile, in Group A, India quietly and efficiently disposed of an England side that no one except the England management seems to expect much from. England just don’t know how to play one-day cricket, and their selection has been experimental. Furthermore their attention is focused firmly on the Ashes series in Australia starting next month. I’ll be surprised if they win a game.

That left the final match between Australia and West Indies. The Champions Trophy is the one competition in world cricket that the Aussies have never won. They want it badly. West Indies had just been thrashed by Sri Lanka, but they are the current holders of the trophy, and there just might have been a bit of over-confidence in the Aussie camp. When I got home last night, Australia looked to have it all sewn up. Michael Hussey and Michael Clarke were batting. They looked well set, and needed only 28 runs off 24 balls.

And in a most un-Australian fashion they blew it. First Dwayne Bravo got Clarke caught & bowled, then Jerome Taylor took a hat trick (three wickets in consecutive balls) to run through the tail. Taylor is very undemonstrative from a West Indian. He claims he didn’t even know he’d got the hat trick, coming as it did in the last two balls of the 48th over and the first ball of the 50th. Indeed, the entire side has suddenly started to look scarily professional.

As for the Aussies, much egg on faces. They now need to beat India in order to qualify for the semi-finals. That will be a very tough ask.

There’s no game today. The action begins again tomorrow with New Zealand v Sri Lanka, followed by Australia v England on Saturday.