Day 31 - Warp Speed Wahabi!

Pakistan's batting gives you the creeps. Their fielding is a good case-study for lotteries. Their discipline is a joke. So are their birth certificates. But their bowling? Right at the top of the world along with similar faculties displayed by Barcelona, Yankees, New England Patriots...

In today's quarter-final, they had the good luck of winning the toss. Scored an almost-paltry 213 which would have been enough - just barely, if the lotteries are won and the jokes light up the audience.

Wahab Riaz continued with where he left off against SA. His pace is something that is an envy to everyone except the batsmen facing him; today Watson was so scarred that I will be surprised that had he been a cat, he would have lost eight of his nine lives already! (Well, the ninth one is reserved for Umesh Yadav ;-)

If Morkel roughed up Angelo the other day, today Riaz roughed up Watson so much he looked like a sandpaper at the end of it all. Spare a thought for this young man - who would have been on the winning side had that catch been taken.

And Smith seemed to be batting on the moon - one-sixth the gravity and practically had all the time he wanted!

That sets up a mouth-watering semi-final @ Sydney next Thursday.

Meanwhile, saw Rohit's no-ball controversy. Sipping tea & reclining comfortably at home, I could say that it wasn't a no-ball. Not when 50000 people are braying in a high-pressure game. Trust me, umpiring can be a very lonely profession. Read somewhere that Dar and Gould are considering legal action against that joker who is the ICC president. They should.

G-Section:

Tomorrow's game may be the ultimate banana-peel for New Zealand. West Indies could cause a fantastic upset - all they have to do is look for inspiration in their own dressing room. There is that seven-foot giant called Curtly Ambrose...

New Zealand vs West Indies @ Wellington Cake Tin by 0830 SGT

And the default entry is:

New Zealand wins by 31-60 runs / 1-3 wickets / NZ max wickets / 8-11 sixers

Status after today's quarter-final has shifted the positions around a bit.

Q-Section:

Raghav came back with the right answer.

Lee Kuan Yew - Singapore's founding father and the 1st Prime Minister of the island nation.

And for today's question.

Another personality. Who is this beautiful lady? [3 points]

Answers and guesses to the usual place.

(The usual place is my email address/FB PM/Whatsapp; details of ranges etc., are at http://sribees.blogspot.sg/2015/02/gq-15-here-we-come.html)