Five magic moments at the 2015 Cricket World Cup as the tournament takes its first rest day on Monday:
Captain Morgan or invisible man?
England captain Eoin Morgan was introduced as ‘Eoin Rogers’ by the mayor of Wellington when the team arrived in the New Zealand capital. Morgan, 28, shrugged off the gaffe: “I’ve been called a lot worse. She got the hardest part right.”
Rambo inspires Afghanistan
Afghanistan fast bowler Hamid Hassan has become a cult hero, charging in with bandanna strapped tightly around his head, with cheeks painted in the colours of the Afghan flag. He admits his hero is Rambo but unlike Sylvester Stallone’s on-screen lone wolf, he performs a nifty cartwheel when he takes a wicket. Hassan was also at the non-striker’s end when Shapoor Zadran hit the winning runs in the historic win over Scotland.
Gayle takes tweet revenge
– If West Indies Cricket Board president Dave Cameron was trying to get Chris Gayle fired up when he retweeted a call from a fan to pension off the star opener, it certainly did the trick.
“Gayle goes Can’t buy a run. Let’s give him a retirement package Can’t fail repeatedly and still front up based on reputation,” was the post retweeted by the Windies boss.
Two days later, Gayle smashed the first ever World Cup double century in the win over Bangladesh.
Cameron apologised for his blunder.
“No offense intended. Full apologies extended. Rally round the West Indies,” he wrote on Twitter.
Joyce freed on bail
Ireland’s Ed Joyce had a lucky break when he survived the ball hitting the stumps while batting against the United Arab Emirates in Brisbane.
Amjad Javed thought he’d struck with his fourth ball when an inswinger beat left-hander Joyce’s defence and caused the LED lights on the bails to flash. But although the off-bail was disturbed, it landed back in its groove and Joyce, who stood his ground as seamer Javed celebrated prematurely, was not out.
Joyce was eventually out for 37.
Afghanistan to win World Cup, says robot
A New Zealand robot predicted World Cup glory for Afghanistan although even the machine’s programmer said such an outcome was unlikely.
The University of Canterbury’s robot Ikram made the prediction using software developed by doctoral student Eduardo Sandoval.
When the flags of the 14 participating nations were placed in front of the robot it selected Afghanistan.
“Of course this is unlikely, but with cricket the result can always be unexpected,” Sandoval said. (AFP)
