Twenty20 and other things sport

Haven’t posted about sporty stuff for a while so here goes.

India won the inaugural cricket Twenty20 world cup last night, beating Pakistan by 5 runs in the final.

I quite like Twenty20 as a spectacle, but hadn’t given much attention at all to this world cup.  However, I did leave the TV on last night and started watching it, and continued through to the end.  Very exciting it was!  India first looked to have not scored enough, then Pakistan fell in a heap, then almost came back from the dead, before finally falling 5 runs short off the 3rd last ball.

Its footy finals week.  In the AFL I’d like to see Port beat Geelong … but I don’t really mind one way or the other.  But it would be good to see the AFL flag not go to Victoria once again - plus make Geelong wait another year to break their premiership drought.  Their last premiership was in 1963, and they’ve lost 4 (I think?) grand finals since then.  In the NRL, Melbourne Storm to beat Manly …. Storm deserve it, having been the dominant team of the last 2 seasons, but falling short in last year’s grand final.  Plus I detest Manly (boo! hiss!).

Also on football, Geelong’s Jimmy Bartels won the Brownlow Medal last night as the AFL’s best and fairest player - caught the end of the count last night on TV, its one of those quaint old traditions that I like about sport (just like the Stawell Gift at Easter).

And in rugby we’ve got the World Cup in France at the moment.   Its closing in on the business end, and I’d say its looking like New Zealand, South Africa and Australia are going to fight it out.  I think the All Blacks will take some beating, but they and the South Africans have been good for a choke in the big games in the past, so the Wallabies could surprise.  What is it with the jumpers of some teams at the World Cup?  Some absolute shockers.  The Australian one is a shocker - what possessed the designer to draw manboobs on it?

But what about these abortions in the NZ vs Scotland game?  Bit of a clash there perhaps?