I guess I was meant to post the second part of the Sri Lanka - NZ game earlier, but that match fizzled out like a seltzer tab quicker than I could type. As soon as the first over of the second innings descended into an Extras-vaganza, where Sri Lanka were 9 for 0 without having to swing the bat, I could tell we were in for the low-thrill tedium of an easy chase. There are few things more joy-sponging for a cricket fan than watching a team trying to defend a lame score on a placid pitch. Especially if the opposition is happy to do it in singles. And we've had two of those beauties in as many days! Apart from McMillan's one-time-only Amish beard and a quick shot of Mick Jagger in the sparse crowd, there isn’t much I can still remember about that second innings
After games like those, cricket deserves to be out of mind for a while. You need to go out, eat, drink, breathe the salty breeze, see other humans, get into cabs and mistakenly take detours to buy crack rocks from a friend of the driver's... then watch as nights of rum and roll-ons dissolve into doe-eyed seaside sunrises. Sport is best enjoyed when life can feed into it. The feeling of an early afternoon hangover is not much different from the feeling an English fan might get after watching a typical performance by his team, really.
It shouldn't be too surprising. Any tournament this long is bound to reach a lull at some point leading to the finals. The good teams are through, the not-so-good teams are toughing it out to validate their entire campaign, and all that's left to do is fill in the blanks and try to avoid complete burn-out.
So Bangladesh v. Ireland tomorrow, is it? Do we still have that rock somewhere?
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