Cricket World cup 2011, Biggest Tournament of Cricket World, Group stage Winners & Quarter Finals !!

Last Time I gave you a brief introduction about Cricket world cup 2011, The Biggest tournament of Cricket World, and some interesting facts remember ?
No ? Then I would strongly recommend you to visit Cricket World cup 2011, Biggest Tournament of Cricket World !! for knowing something about cricket world cup and to read some interesting facts visit Cricket World cup 2011, Biggest Tournament of Cricket World, Facts !! so that you get an idea about the tournament we are discussing/sharing, teams participating in the tournament, venues, facts related to this tournament, etc...
Today I'll be sharing the Winners of group stage matches, the teams which qualified for quarter finals (knock out round) and the schedule for the knockout round in Cricket World cup 2011 in tabular and pictorial form. There are 49 matches to be played in total (1 Final, 2 Semi-Finals, 4 Quarter finals, 42 group stage matches (which are completed)). And match number (Match no. column) gives the match number of the match in the Cricket World Cup 2011. The winners are listed on the last column of the Table.

Winners for Group Stage Matches:

• Schedule for Group-A:

Group-A: Group stage Winners

Match No.	Teams playing	Venue	Match date & Type of Match (Day or D/N)	Winner
2	Kenya v/s New Zealand	M. A. Chidambaram Stadium, Chennai, India	20th February, 2011 Day	New Zealand
3	Canada v/s Sri Lanka	Hambantota International Cricket Stadium, Hambantota, Sri Lanka	20th February, 2011 Day	Sri Lanka
4	Australia v/s Zimbabwe	Sardar Patel Stadium, Ahmedabad, India	21st February, 2011 D/N	Australia
6	Kenya v/s Pakistan	Hambantota International Cricket Stadium, Hambantota, Sri Lanka	23rd February, 2011 D/N	Pakistan
8	Australia v/s New Zealand	Vidarbha Cricket Association Stadium, Nagpur, India	25th February, 2011 D/N	Australia
10	Pakistan v/s Sri Lanka	R. Premadasa Stadium, Colombo, Sri Lanka	26th February, 2011 D/N	Pakistan
13	Canada v/s Zimbabwe	Vidarbha Cricket Association Stadium, Nagpur, India	28th February, 2011 Day	Zimbabwe
14	Kenya v/s Sri Lanka	R. Premadasa Stadium, Colombo, Sri Lanka	1st March, 2011 D/N	Sri Lanka
17	Canada v/s Pakistan	R. Premadasa Stadium, Colombo, Sri Lanka	3rd March, 2011 D/N	Pakistan
18	New Zealand v/s Zimbabwe	Sardar Patel Stadium, Ahmedabad, India	4th March, 2011 Day	New Zealand
20	Australia v/s Sri Lanka	R. Premadasa Stadium, Colombo, Sri Lanka	5th March, 2011 D/N	Match abandoned/No result
23	Canada v/s Kenya	Feroz Shah Kotla, Delhi	7th March, 2011 D/N	Canada
24	New Zealand v/s Pakistan	Pallekele International Cricket Stadium, kandy, Sri Lanka	8th March, 2011 D/N	New Zealand
26	Sri Lanka v/s Zimbabwe	Pallekele International Cricket Stadium, kandy, Sri Lanka	10th March, 2011 D/N	Sri Lanka
30	Canada v/s New Zealand	Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai, India	13th March, 2011 Day	New Zealand
31	Australia v/s Kenya	M. Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bengaluru, India	13th March, 2011 D/N	Australia
32	Pakistan v/s Zimbabwe	Pallekele International Cricket Stadium, kandy, Sri Lanka	14th March, 2011 D/N	Pakistan
35	Australia v/s Canada	M. Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bengaluru, India	16th March, 2011 D/N	Australia
37	New Zealand v/s Sri Lanka	Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai, India	18th March, 2011 D/N	Sri Lanka
39	Australia v/s Pakistan	R. Premadasa Stadium, Colombo, Sri Lanka	19th March, 2011 D/N	Pakistan
41	Kenya v/s Zimbabwe	Eden Gardens, Kolkata, India	20th March, 2011 Day	Zimbabwe

• Schedule for Group-B:

Group-B: Group stage Winners

Match No.	Teams playing	Venue	Match date & Type of Match (Day or D/N)	Winner
1	Bangladesh v/s India	Sher-e-Bangla Cricket Stadium, Dhaka, Bangladesh	19th February, 2011 D/N	India
5	England v/s Netherlands	Vidarbha Cricket Association Stadium, Nagpur, India	22nd February, 2011 D/N	England
7	South Africa v/s West Indies	Feroz Shah Kotla, New Delhi, India	24th February, 2011 D/N	South Africa
9	Bangladesh v/s Ireland	Sher-e-Bangla Cricket Stadium, Dhaka, Bangladesh	25th February, 2011 Day	Bangladesh
11	England v/s India	M Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bangalore, India	27th February, 2011 D/N	tie/draw
12	Netherlands v/s West Indies	Feroz Shah Kotla, New Delhi, India	28th February, 2011 D/N	West Indies
15	England v/s Ireland	M. Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bengaluru, India	2nd March, 2011 D/N	Ireland
16	Netherlands v/s South Africa	Punjab Cricket Association Stadium, Mohali, India	3rd March, 2011 Day	South Africa
19	Bangladesh v/s West Indies	Sher-e-Bangla Cricket Stadium, Dhaka, Bangladesh	4th March, 2011 D/N	West Indies
21	England v/s South Africa	M. A. Chidambaram Stadium, Chennai, India	6th March, 2011 Day	England
22	India v/s Ireland	M. Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bengaluru, India	6th March, 2011 D/N	India
25	India v/s Netherlands	Feroz Shah Kotla, New Delhi, India	9th March, 2011 D/N	India
27	Ireland v/s West Indies	Punjab Cricket Association Stadium, Mohali, India	11th March, 2011 Day	West Indies
28	Bangladesh v/s England	Chittagong Divisional Stadium, Chittagong, Bangladesh	11th March, 2011 D/N	Bangladesh
29	India v/s South Africa	Vidarbha Cricket Association Stadium, Nagpur, India	12th March, 2011 D/N	South Africa
33	Bangladesh v/s Netherlands	Chittagong Divisional Stadium, Chittagong, Bangladesh	14th March, 2011 Day	Bangladesh
34	Ireland v/s South Africa	Eden Gardens, Kolkata, India	15th March, 2011 D/N	South Africa
36	England v/s West Indies	M. A. Chidambaram Stadium, Chennai, India	17th March, 2011 D/N	England
38	Ireland v/s Netherlands	Eden Gardens, Kolkata, India	18th March, 2011 Day	Ireland
40	Bangladesh v/s South Africa	Sher-e-Bangla Cricket Stadium, Dhaka, Bangladesh	19th March, 2011 Day	South Africa
42	India v/s West Indies	M. A. Chidambaram Stadium, Chennai, India	20th March, 2011 D/N	India

Schedule for Knockout Round (Quarter finals):

Quarter Final matches

Match No.	Teams playing	Venue	Match date & Type of Match (Day or D/N)
43	Pakistan v/s West Indies	Sher-e-Bangla Cricket Stadium, Dhaka, Bangladesh	23rd March, 2011 D/N
44	India v/s Australia	Sardar Patel Stadium, Motera, Ahmedabad, India	24th March, 2011 D/N
45	South Africa v/s New Zealand	Sher-e-Bangla Cricket Stadium, Dhaka, Bangladesh	25th March, 2011 D/N
46	Sri Lanka v/s England	R Premadasa Stadium, Colombo, Sri Lanka	26th March, 2011 D/N

Now, same schedule you can see in Pictorial form (compressed form),

Note:

• D/N means Day-Night match, and it will start at 2:30 PM IST, that is 14:30 IST
• All Day matches will start at 9:00 AM IST.
• IST = GMT + 5:30
• Bengaluru and Bangalore indicate same city (Bengaluru is alias/pet name for Bangalore or you can say it is vice-versa). So, don't get confuse when somebody says you that match is in Bengaluru but not in Bangalore.

Observations:

• All the knockout round matches are day-nighters.
• The only team common in the first and the last match of the group stages matches is India !
• The Knockout round matches is based on points table, which I've shown below and explained about it briefly.
• The matches in quarterfinals are scheduled by seeing the Points table, that is the top team in one group will play against the bottom team in the points table from the other group and vice-versa. (This statement is valid only for the teams which qualified for knockout round).

The Points table for the group stage matches is as follows,
Group-A Points Table :

Group-B Points Table :

 

Note:

1. Based on the points table the teams qualify for the next round, that is knockout round in this tournament. The top 4 teams from each group (background colored in green) advanced into Quarter finals to fight the battle on cricket field to be the World champions in Cricket world !
2. In Table you could see some symbols and abbreviations, those are explained below,
   
   • Pld means number of matches a team played in group stage
   • W means number of matches a team win/won in group stage
   • L means number of matches a team Lost/lose in group stage
   • T means number of matches a team tied/draw in group stage
   • NR means number of matches a team playing doesn't yield any result/abandoned in group stage. For example, Sri Lanka and Australia has number 1 placed under this column as one of there match was abandoned, that is that match didn't have any result.
   • NRR means Net run rate of a team, and it is one of the main factors to decide teams fate. It calculated based on the team performance and the way they won the matches against there opponent.
   • Pts means points. A team is awarded 2 points for winning a match to the winning team, and in case if tie/draw/no result/abandoned 1 point is awarded to both the teams. It is the most important factor for a team to advance.
3. Points are given higher priority over anything for a team to advance into next round (that is, it has more importance than any other column in the table), and if points are equal then NRR has the priority (that is, it is the second most important factor to advance into next round). For example, If team A has points=6, NRR=1.456 and Team B has points=6, NRR=1.546 then Team B is placed higher in the table.

We will update you with more information about this tournament (Biggest tournament of cricket world) as the tournament advances. Hope you like this article also, keep surfing while having fun :)

Top 10 Cricket World cup, Biggest Tournament of Cricket World, Batting innings!!

Hey Everyone,
Now we are seeing the 10th edition of cricket world cup and before this we have already seen 9 cricket world cups, Biggest Tournament of Cricket World. In previous editions of world cup we saw some swashbuckling batting performance by few cricketers who turned the tables, heads and made sure that there teams goes into next round in the cricket world cup or made sure that there team has good chance to advance in the tournament ! These innings entertained the crowd worldwide, which has the capacity to win the match for there team single handedly and gave bowlers tough times.
I'm going to share the top 10 batting innings as came in in a survey, the list is as follows,

1. Sourav Ganguly's (India) knock of 183 in 158 balls against Sri Lanka in the year 1999, 7th cricket world cup edition. He scored 183 runs which include 7 sixes and 17 fours. India lost initial encounters in the year 1999 and it was compulsory for them to win the big game against Sri Lanka, that to handsomely so that there chances to go in next round widen up, and Sourav Ganguly gave India this chance.
   
   
2. Viv Richards(West Indies) scored 181 runs in 125 balls against Sri Lanka, which include 7 sixes and 16 fours in the year 1987. He came to bat on the hat-trick ball and scored the highest individual score in cricket world cup (till then). This inning was very important from West Indies point of view as they lost previous world cup to India and they wanted the title back. This inning provided them the momentum.
   
   
3. Mathew Hayden's (Australia) knock of 158 runs in 143 balls against West Indies, which include 14 fours and 4 sixes in the year 2007. He played the role of anchor in this game. He wasn't able to open his account in 18 balls, that means his score was zero when he faced first 18 balls and then slowly changed his gear to reach 50 runs in 72 deliveries(balls) and then everyone saw the storm, which Mathew Hayden hided in his heart to hit the bowl hard and he reached 158 runs in quick time.
   
   
4. Adam Gilchrist (Australia) scored 149 runs in 104 balls, which include 14 fours and 8 sixes, against Sri Lanka in finals of the year 2007, that is 9th edition of the cricket world cup. And because of his knock Australia won the cricket world cup for the 3rd consecutive time and 4th time overall.
   
   
5. AB de Villiers (South Africa) scored 146 runs in 130 balls which include 12 fours and 5 sixes against Sri Lanka in the year 2007. West Indies's (then) captain, Brian Lara experimented with team selection in this match as they were already out of semi-final spot and AB de villiers made sure that South Africa reach Semi-finals by this knock.
   
   
6. Rahul Dravid (India), the wall or Mr. Dependable, scored 145 runs in 129 balls, which include 17 fours and 1 six, against Sri Lanka in the year 1999. In this knock he shared the world record partnership of 318 runs with Sourav Ganguly, which I've shared in my earlier articles.
   
   
7. Andrew Symonds (Australia) scored 143 not out in 125 balls against Pakistan, which include 18 fours and 2 sixes, in the year 2003. It was the first match of Australian team in the 8th edition of world cup and Australians saw something unusual in this match. Pakistani fast bowlers removed Adam Gilchrist, Mathew Hayden, Damien Martyn and Jimmy Maher in short span of time as Australia started their campaign. And it was Andrew Symonds along with Ricky ponting who saved the match for Australia.
   
   
8. Herschelle Gibbs (South Africa) scored 143 runs in 141 balls against New Zealand, which include 19 fours and 3 sixes, in the year 2003. Though this outstanding innings couldn't save South Africa from defeat, this inning is special and definitely comes in top 10 innings of cricket world cup.
   
   
9. Dave Houghton (Zimbabwe) scored 142 runs in 137 balls, which include 13 fours and 6 sixes against New Zealand in the year 1987. Although Houghton scored this majestic knock still they were not able to win as rest of the team disappointed Zimbabwe.
   
   
10. Scott Styris (New Zealand) scored 141 runs in 125 balls, which include 3 fours and 6 sixes, against Sri Lanka in the year 2003. This is the third majestic knock, I'm sharing, which was scored by batsmen of losing team. He batted like a sole survivor amidst a sinking ship, and as we know cricket is the team game and to win games team should perform and in this match New Zealand failed to win.
    
    

Observations:

• The team against which the top 10 innings are highest in number is Sri Lanka, that is 6 times in top 10 list  batsmen has scored majestic innings against Sri Lanka.
• There are 3 Australians, 2 Indians, 2 South Africans, 1 from New Zealand, 1 from West Indies and 1 from Zimbabwe in the top 10 list.
• All the knocks which I shared are 140+, and only two of them are 180+.

Recently, Virender Sehwag(India) scored 175 against Bangladesh, which India won and Andrew Strauss (England) scored 158 against India, which was a draw, in this edition of world cup. I guess these two knocks will come in top 10 batting knocks as this year world cup advances. Hope you liked this article on Cricket World cup top 10 batting innings.
I'll be coming with more articles related to cricket world cup and the facts related to it, till then keep surfing and have fun.. :)

Cricket World cup 2011, Biggest Tournament of Cricket World, Schedule !!

Last Time I gave you a brief introduction about Cricket world cup 2011, The Biggest tournament of Cricket World, remember ?
No ? Then I would strongly recommend you to visit Cricket World cup 2011, Biggest Tournament of Cricket World !! so that you get an idea about the tournament we are discussing/sharing, teams participating in the tournament, venues, etc...
Today I'll be sharing the schedule of matches to be held in Cricket World cup 2011. There are 49 matches to be played in total (1 Final, 2 Semi-Finals, 4 Quarter finals, 42 group stage matches). You can see the match schedule in tabular way. And match number (Match no. column) gives the match number of the match in the Cricket World Cup 2011.

Schedule for Group Stage Matches:

• Schedule for Group-A:

Group-A: Group stage Matches

Match No.	Teams playing	Venue	Match date & Type of Match (Day or D/N)
2	Kenya v/s New Zealand	M. A. Chidambaram Stadium, Chennai, India	20th February, 2011 Day
3	Canada v/s Sri Lanka	Hambantota International Cricket Stadium, Hambantota, Sri Lanka	20th February, 2011 Day
4	Australia v/s Zimbabwe	Sardar Patel Stadium, Ahmedabad, India	21st February, 2011 D/N
6	Kenya v/s Pakistan	Hambantota International Cricket Stadium, Hambantota, Sri Lanka	23rd February, 2011 D/N
8	Australia v/s New Zealand	Vidarbha Cricket Association Stadium, Nagpur, India	25th February, 2011 D/N
10	Pakistan v/s Sri Lanka	R. Premadasa Stadium, Colombo, Sri Lanka	26th February, 2011 D/N
13	Canada v/s Zimbabwe	Vidarbha Cricket Association Stadium, Nagpur, India	28th February, 2011 Day
14	Kenya v/s Sri Lanka	R. Premadasa Stadium, Colombo, Sri Lanka	1st March, 2011 D/N
17	Canada v/s Pakistan	R. Premadasa Stadium, Colombo, Sri Lanka	3rd March, 2011 D/N
18	New Zealand v/s Zimbabwe	Sardar Patel Stadium, Ahmedabad, India	4th March, 2011 Day
20	Australia v/s Sri Lanka	R. Premadasa Stadium, Colombo, Sri Lanka	5th March, 2011 D/N
23	Canada v/s Kenya	Feroz Shah Kotla, Delhi	7th March, 2011 D/N
24	New Zealand v/s Pakistan	Pallekele International Cricket Stadium, kandy, Sri Lanka	8th March, 2011 D/N
26	Sri Lanka v/s Zimbabwe	Pallekele International Cricket Stadium, kandy, Sri Lanka	10th March, 2011 D/N
30	Canada v/s New Zealand	Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai, India	13th March, 2011 Day
31	Australia v/s Kenya	M. Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bengaluru, India	13th March, 2011 D/N
32	Pakistan v/s Zimbabwe	Pallekele International Cricket Stadium, kandy, Sri Lanka	14th March, 2011 D/N
35	Australia v/s Canada	M. Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bengaluru, India	16th March, 2011 D/N
37	New Zealand v/s Sri Lanka	Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai, India	18th March, 2011 D/N
39	Australia v/s Pakistan	R. Premadasa Stadium, Colombo, Sri Lanka	19th March, 2011 D/N
41	Kenya v/s Zimbabwe	Eden Gardens, Kolkata, India	20th March, 2011 Day

• Schedule for Group-B:

Group-B: Group stage Matches

Match No.	Teams playing	Venue	Match date & Type of Match (Day or D/N)
1	Bangladesh v/s India	Sher-e-Bangla Cricket Stadium, Dhaka, Bangladesh	19th February, 2011 D/N
5	England v/s Netherlands	Vidarbha Cricket Association Stadium, Nagpur, India	22nd February, 2011 D/N
7	South Africa v/s West Indies	Feroz Shah Kotla, New Delhi, India	24th February, 2011 D/N
9	Bangladesh v/s Ireland	Sher-e-Bangla Cricket Stadium, Dhaka, Bangladesh	25th February, 2011 Day
11	England v/s India	M Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bangalore, India	27th February, 2011 D/N
12	Netherlands v/s West Indies	Feroz Shah Kotla, New Delhi, India	28th February, 2011 D/N
15	England v/s Ireland	M. Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bengaluru, India	2nd March, 2011 D/N
16	Netherlands v/s South Africa	Punjab Cricket Association Stadium, Mohali, India	3rd March, 2011 Day
19	Bangladesh v/s West Indies	Sher-e-Bangla Cricket Stadium, Dhaka, Bangladesh	4th March, 2011 D/N
21	England v/s South Africa	M. A. Chidambaram Stadium, Chennai, India	6th March, 2011 Day
22	India v/s Ireland	M. Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bengaluru, India	6th March, 2011 D/N
25	India v/s Netherlands	Feroz Shah Kotla, New Delhi, India	9th March, 2011 D/N
27	Ireland v/s West Indies	Punjab Cricket Association Stadium, Mohali, India	11th March, 2011 Day
28	Bangladesh v/s England	Chittagong Divisional Stadium, Chittagong, Bangladesh	11th March, 2011 D/N
29	India v/s South Africa	Vidarbha Cricket Association Stadium, Nagpur, India	12th March, 2011 D/N
33	Bangladesh v/s Netherlands	Chittagong Divisional Stadium, Chittagong, Bangladesh	14th March, 2011 Day
34	Ireland v/s South Africa	Eden Gardens, Kolkata, India	15th March, 2011 D/N
36	England v/s West Indies	M. A. Chidambaram Stadium, Chennai, India	17th March, 2011 D/N
38	Ireland v/s Netherlands	Eden Gardens, Kolkata, India	18th March, 2011 Day
40	Bangladesh v/s South Africa	Sher-e-Bangla Cricket Stadium, Dhaka, Bangladesh	19th March, 2011 Day
42	India v/s West Indies	M. A. Chidambaram Stadium, Chennai, India	20th March, 2011 D/N

Note:

• D/N means Day-Night match, and it will start at 2:30 PM IST, that is 14:30 IST
• All Day matches will start at 9:00 AM IST.
• IST = GMT + 5:30
• Bengaluru and Bangalore indicate same city (Bengaluru is alias/pet name for Bangalore or you can say it is vice-versa). So, don't get confuse when somebody says you that match is in Bengaluru but not in Bangalore.

I've given the schedule of knockout round of this world cup in the pictorial way in my last post. You can see the image from Cricket World Cup 2011, Biggest Tournament of cricket knock out rounds schedule .It includes the venue and date of the match, but it doesn't include the type of the match, as all the knockout round matches are scheduled as Day-Night matches.
You can see the schedule in stylish way, that in a oval shape (cricket ground shape) developed in flash from everything-underthe-sun :)

We will update you with more information about this tournament (Biggest tournament of cricket) as the tournament approaches. Hope you like this article also, keep surfing while having fun :)

Cricket World cup 2011, Biggest Tournament of Cricket World !!

Let me start my article by asking a simple question, Do you like Cricket ?
Nope ? Did I asked something wrong ?
Okay, let me re-write it, Do you love Cricket ?
Now, probably your answer is YES !! And if your answer is still No, then probably this article can change your view, as the amount of excitement involved in this game is equivalent to anyother game!!

Let me give you an introduction to the Biggest tournament of Cricket, which is held every four years (same as Olympics, FIFA world cup, and many major tournaments) !!! Many teams participate in this tournament to win this tournament, it involves ODI matches (that is 50 overs per side, that is on an average a match will end in 7 hours). There are group matches, and then super 6/8 (depending on the teams participating), also known as quarter finals, then you have semifinal (having only 4 teams) and then you have final (2 teams, and one will be the winner !!). This was a brief introduction in general about Cricket world cup. Also, it is the 3rd largest and the biggest tournament, related to sports on the Earth !

Now, I share some highlights of the Cricket World cup 2011,

• No. of teams participating: 14
• No. of countries Hosting: 3 (India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh)
• No. of groups: 2 (7 in each group)
• No. of teams advances to next round (quarter finals): 8 (Top 4 from each group)
• First Match date (inauguration match): 19th February, 2011 (India v/s Bangladesh)
• Last Match date (Final Match): 2nd April, 2011
• Total No. of Venues: 13 (2 from Bangladesh, 3 from Sri Lanka, 8 from India).
• No. of umpires selected for the whole tournament (excluding reserve umpires): 18
• Mascot: Stumpy (shows young and energetic standing elephant)
  
• Names of Knockout Rounds: Quater, Semi and Final (group stage matches are not knockout).
• Total No. of matches: 49 (1 Final, 2 Semi-Finals, 4 Quarter finals, 42 group stage matches).
• No. of matches each team will play in group stage: 6

See the below image, which shows the venue for the quarter final, semi-final and final matches with dates !

Pictorial view of Knock Out Rounds

Now, I would be sharing how the teams are divided (alphabetically sorted),

Group A:

• Australia
• Canada
• Kenya
• New Zealand
• Pakistan
• Sri Lanka
• Zimbabwe

Group-B:

• Bangladesh
• England
• India
• Ireland
• Netherlands
• South Africa
• West Indies

We will be sharing more information, as the tournament starting date approaches !
Till then Good bye from our side, and have fun.. Keep surfing !!

Spain wins the FIFA World cup 2010 & Paul,the octopus gets it right again !

The 19th edition of the FIFA world cup is concluded, and Spain wins it !!
The final, 64th match of the tournament was played between Spain (presently at World No.2 in FIFA rankings) & Netherlands (presently at World No.4 in FIFA rankings), that is you can say Holland or Dutch and Spain won the match with a score line of 1-0. Both teams played more cautiously in the 1st half  and then Spain started attacking from the word go in the 2nd half and at the end of 2nd half the score-line was 0-0. The result of the match was decided in extra time.

I must say Netherlands were bit more defensive and I observed that at an average of 15 minutes they were passing the ball to there goalkeeper, that is atleast for 6 times they passed the ball to there goalkeeper, and I think it is very cautious and defensive approach from them.

This is the first time the team losing its opening match, Spain lost to Switzerland in there opening encounter, and then winning the world cup. And at last but not the least, Paul, the octopus predicted the result accurately and that takes his tally to 8 out 8, that is his prediction are 100% correct until now. Paul predicted result of 8 matches (including semifinal and final) and they all went in the same way. Though Mani parrot lost the battle against Paul octopus, it has nothing to loose, as it has already gained popularity in Singapore ! :)

The snapshot showing Spain team with the world cup,

Highlights:

• Spain's goalkeeper,  Iker Casillas wins the Adidas golden glove award.
• Germany's Midfielder, Thomas Mueller wins Golden boot/shoe & best young player award.
• Uruguay's Diego Forlan wind Golden ball award.
• Spain's Midfielder, Andres Iniesta wins Man of the Match (MoM) award in the finals.
• Spain, as team won FIFA fair play award.
• The highest number of goals scored by any player in this world cup is 5, and there are 4 player who achieved this, they are Thomas Muller of Germany scoring at an average of 0.8 goals in each game, David Villa of Spain, Diego Forlan of Uruguay & Wesley Sneijder of Netherlands scoring at an average of 0.7 goals in each game

The final tournament rankings are, as follows (in that order),

1. Spain
2. Netherlands
3. Germany
4. Uruguay

Stay tuned for next edition of the world cup which will be held in Brazil in the year 2014 .
have fun.. :)

And the winner is...

As Spain and Netherlands are preparing for the final combat, we know the winners, that is even before the final of football world cup is started we know the winners, thanks to Paul octopus (also knwn as paul baba), predicting Spain as the winner and Mani parrot( known as tota, in Hindi), predicting Netherlands as the winner. They are two genius in predicting the winners of the match in football world cup 2010 and this time they differ in there prediction. So, it is now Paul v/s Mani.. Paul is eight legged aquatic animal, presently located in Germany and Mani is from Singapore.

Paul octopus whose record is 100% with respect to predictions about the winners of the football matches, that is octopus has till now predicted 6 out of 6 correct prediction, the latest correct prediction was Spain winning over Germany in Semifinals. Now the same Paul has predicted that Spain will win the finals and Germany will win the play-off match, that is Germany will be third, Netherlands (or Holland) will be second and Spain will be on top. See the video showing Paul predicting the winner.

On the other hand, Mani-the parrot has chosen Netherlands over Spain to win the Soccer world cup 2010. Mani has predicted correctly the winners of all the quarter final final till now. See the video below to know how did Mani choses Netherlands.

Now the match is not only between Netherlands and Spain, but also between Paul-the octopus and Mani-the parrot. Let's see whose prediction comes true and who looses the game !!

FIFA world cup 2010 -- Semi finals

What happened in Quarter finals was really hearting and dramatic !!
Motivated and spirited Netherlands (or Holland or Dutch) defeated World No.1 team Brazil in 57th match of the tournament and the 1st match of the quarterfinals. And in the next quarter final match, on the same day, Uruguay defeated Ghana (the lone country from Africa continent to reach Quarterfinals) in the penalty shootout,  in the match Uruguay's Luis Suarez stopped the ball with the hand (could have been the winning goal for Ghana) in the dying moments of the match, known as Hand of GOD by Uruguay team supporters and Hand of DEVIL by Ghana team supporters, and that sealed the fate of Ghana to reach semifinals... And debate continues, should a FOOTball player, other than goalkeeper, be allowed to stop the ball in a FOOTball match in such tense moments or any other moment with hand?

You can see how Luis Suarez stopped the ball with hands in different views,

How does it look from backside of the net ?

How does it look from the back side at an angle more than 30 degrees ?

How does it look from the front of the net ? (The Ghana team players view)

Next day Germany thrashed Argentine by 4-0 and ensured that they go into semifinals comfortably and they will  meet World No.2,Spain (defeated Paraguay with a scoreline of 1-0 in quarterfinals, that is 60th match of the tournament) in the Semi-finals.

The four teams qualified for the semifinal's are,

1. Uruguay 
2. Germany 
3. Netherlands 
4. Spain 

The Semifinal matches will be held in two days, that is on 6th July and 7th July.  And then there will be match for the 3rd place on 10th July. In the match for 3rd place, the teams losing in the semifinal match will be facing each other !
The fixtures for the semifinals are as follows,


Uruguay    v/s Netherlands  , on 6th July,2010 at Cape Town
Germany  v/s Spain , on 7th July,2010 at Durban


And at last on 11th July, the judgement day, the world will come to know  who is the World Champions in the field of football !!

FIFA world cup 2010 -- Quarter finals

Finally the Round-2 was complete with some controversies, and now there is another knock-out round that is Quarter finals, in which 8 teams qualified after winning there respective matches in round-2 of  FIFA world cup 2010, also known as football world cup. The teams which qualified for the Quarter final stage are,

1. Netherlands 
2. Uruguay 
3. Argentina 
4. Paraguay 
5. Brazil 
6. Ghana 
7. Germany 
8. Spain 

The matches of this stage will be completed in the span of 2 days,that is on 2nd and 3rd July, with two matches every day. The fixtures are as follows,

Netherlands   v/s Brazil     , on 2nd July,2010 -->57th match of tournament

Uruguay       v/s Ghana     , on 2nd July,2010 -->58th match of tournament

Argentina     v/s Germany , on 3rd July,2010 -->59th match of tournament

Paraguay     v/s Spain       , on 3rd July,2010 -->60th match of tournament

After this round total of 60 matches will be complete and then there will semifinals, match for the 3rd place and then the Finals.

Lets see how the tournament progresses and who is going to be world champions this time !!