Eliminated!

So we didn't survive the Pakistani scare after all.

After NZ were booted out by England on Monday, I naturally turned to India as my main hope for the remainder of the competition. However India's International T20 form has been pretty bad since the highs of 2007, so there was more disappointment to be had.

The events on Monday, when NZ and South Africa went out, reminded me of a familiar scene from Wildlife Programmes on TV. Two lionesses fight over a freshly killed gazelle, only for the pesky hyena to appear out of nowhere and make off with the kill amid much growling, shrieking and laughing. Most of us began the day wondering whether it would be the Proteas or the Black Caps who would join England in the semis. It ended with Pakistan, improbably, sneaking through and getting a chance to maintain their excellent record in this tournament.

The manner of India's campaign, on the other hand, was reminiscent of a match from the Third Round 1996 French Open, Roland Garros. This game saw local favourite Mary Pierce enter the arena in a slinky new black outfit to the tune of catcalls, and leave it in two sets' time with humiliation and a chorus of boos.

I'm too tired to analyse the defeats at the moment, so I'll instead link to two posts from Ben - one philosophical, and one slightly bitter - on the New Zealand perspective. Ducking Beamers' latest post pretty much echoes my thoughts on the Indian reaction.

So with my top two teams gone, and England playing surprisingly solid cricket, I now turn to the Poms. Yay Collingwood and co, break the trend and win yourselves a major title, even if there isn't an extra round of MBEs at the end.