Result: Australia vs. Scotland

Australia vs. Scotland - World Cup (Match 2)
Warner Park Stadium

Australia Innings
A Gilchrist lbw b Brown 46 (55)
M Hayden lbw b Haq 60 (73)
R Ponting b Wright 113 (93)
M Clarke b Haq 15 (20)
B Hodge c Hoffmann b Rogers 29 (28)
M Hussey st Smith b Hoffmann 4 (6)
S Watson not out 18 (11)
G Hogg not out 40 (15)
Extras (b 1, lb 2, w 5, nb 1) 9
Total (6 wickets; 50 overs) 334

Fall of wickets: 1-91 (Gilchrist, 16.6 ov), 2-139 (Hayden, 26.5 ov), 3-193 (Clarke, 34.3 ov), 4-256 (Hodge, 43.1 ov), 5-274 (Ponting, 45.2 ov), 6-276 (Hussey, 46.1 ov).

Bowling:
P Hoffmann 10-0-57-1 (2w)
J Blain 4-0-29-0 (1nb, 1w)
C Wright 10-0-58-1
D Brown 9-0-86-1 (2w)
G Rogers 10-0-52-1
RM Haq 7-0-49-2

Scotland Innings
D Watts b McGrath 9 (25)
R Haq run out (McGrath/Tait) 16 (22)
2 N Poonia b Tait 1 (4)
R Watson c Bracken b McGrath 6 (20)
G Hamilton c Gilchrist b McGrath 3 (18)
D Brown c Watson b Hodge 19 (37)
C Smith b Hogg 51 (76)
C Wright lbw b Tait 4 (21)
G Rogers run out (Hayden/Gilchrist) 6 (19)
P Hoffmann not out 0 (0)
Extras (lb 9, w 6, nb 1) 16
Total (9 wickets; 40.1 overs) 131
To bat JAR Blain

Fall of wickets: 1-21 (Haq, 5.5 ov), 2-27 (Poonia, 7.4 ov), 3-32 (Watts, 9.3 ov), 4-37 (Watson, 13.3 ov), 5-42 (Hamilton, 15.3 ov), 6-89 (Brown, 27.4 ov), 7-104 (Wright, 32.5 ov), 8-131 (Rogers, 39.6 ov), 9-131 (Smith, 40.1 ov).

Bowling: N Bracken 6-1-12-0
S Tait 8-0-45-2 (3w)
G McGrath 6-1-14-3 (1nb)
S Watson 7-1-18-0 (1w)
G Hogg 7.1-1-16-1
BJ Hodge 6-0-17-1

Man of the Match: Ricky Ponting

Australia winners by 203 runs

More World Cup warm-up results

Here's a quick run down of the results from Friday's World Cup warm-up matches:

West Indies 85 (25.5 ov) vs. India 1/86 (18.3 ov)
India winners by 9 wickets

England 197 (48.3 ov) vs. Australia 5/200 (40.5 ov)
Australia winners by 5 wickets

South Africa 199 (48.3 ov) vs. Pakistan 3/200 (44.3 ov)
Pakistan winners by 7 wickets

New Zealand 285/8 (50 ov) vs. Sri Lanka 267 (50 ov)
New Zealand winners by 18 runs

Convincing wins for Australia and Pakistan and a very poor showing by the hosts!

Australia home safely against Zimbabwe

Australia has defeated Zimbabwe by 106 runs in Kingstown to record its first one-day win in over a month. Australia batted first and made a total of 290 thanks to half-centuries from Michael Clarke (82) and Shane Watson (81). Zimbabwe saw out the full 50 overs in reply, however they fell well short, finishing on 7-184. Stuart Clark was the best of the Australian bowlers with 2/33.

World Cup Squads

Here are the squads / teams for the 2007 Cricket World Cup...

Australia:
Ricky Ponting (Captain), Adam Gilchrist, Glenn McGrath, Andrew Symonds, Matt Hayden, Michael Clark, Brad Hogg, Michael Hussey, Shane Watson, Nathan Bracken, Stuart Clark, Brad Haddin, Mitchell Johnson, Brad Hodge, Shaun Tait

Bangladesh
Habibul Bashar (Captain), Shahriar Nafees, Abdur Razzak, Aftab Ahmed, Javed Omar, Mashrafe Mortaza, Mohammad Ashraful, Mohammad Rafique, Mushfiqur Rahim (wicketkeeper), Rajin Saleh, Saqibul Hasan, Shahadat Hossain, Syed Rasel, Tamim Iqbal, Tapash Baisya

Bermuda
Irvine Romaine (Captain), Janeiro Tucker, Saleem Mukuddem, Dwayne Leverock, Dean Minors, David Hemp, Kevin Hurdle, Lionel Cann, Kwame Tucker, Clay Smith, Malachi Jones, Steven Outerbridge, Delyone Borden, Stefan Kelly, Oliver Pitcher

Canada
John Davison (Captain), Anderson Cummins, Ashish Bagai, Desmond Chumney, Sunil Dhaniram, Henry Osinde, Abdool Samad, George Codrington, Umar Bhatti, Kevin Sandher, Ashif Mulla, Qaiser Ali, Ian Billcliff, Austin Codrington, Geoff Barnett

England
Michael Vaughan (Captain), Andrew Flintoff, Paul Collingwood, Andrew Strauss, James Anderson, Kevin Pietersen, Ian Bell, Jamie Dalrymple, Liam Plunkett, Sajid Mahmood, Edmund Joyce, Jonathan Lewis, Paul Nixon, Monty Panesar, Ravinder Bopara

Kenya
Stephen Tikolo (Captain), Thomas Odoyo, Ravindu Shah, Tony Suji, Collins Obuya, Peter Ochieng, David Obuya, Jimmy Kamande, Tanmay Mishra, Maurice Ouma, Nehemiah Odhiambo, Hiren Varaiya, Lameck Onyango, Malhar Patel, Rajesh Bhudia

India
Rahul Dravid (Captain), Sachin Tendulkar, Virender Sehwag, Sourav Ganguly, Robin Uthappa, Yuvraj Singh, Dinesh Kaarthick, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Harbhajan Singh, Anil Kumble, Zaheer Khan, Ajit Agarkar, Munaf Patel, Irfan Pathan and S Sreesanth

Ireland
Trent Johnston (Captain), Kyle McCallan, Andre Botha, Andrew White, Niall O'Brien, Dave Langford-Smith, Kevin O'Brien, William Porterfield, Jeremy Bray, Eoin Morgan, John Mooney, Peter Gillespie, Paul Mooney, Kenneth Carroll, Boyd Rankin

New Zealand
Stephen Fleming (Captain), Daniel Vettori, Craig McMillan, Scott Styris, Brendon McCullum, Lou Vincent, Jacob Oram, Daryl Tuffey, Shane Bond, James Franklin, Peter Fulton, Ross Taylor, Jeetan Patel, Mark Gillespie, Michael Mason

Pakistan
Inzamam-ul-Haq (Captain), Shahid Afridi, Mohammad Yousuf, Younis Khan, Azhar Mahmood, Shoaib Malik, Muhammad Sami, Imran Nazir, Kamran Akmal, Naved-ul-Hasan, Mohammad Hafeez, Iftikhar Anjum, Umar Gul, Danish Kaneria, Yasir Arafat

Scotland
Craig Wright (Captain), Dougie Brown, Gavin Hamilton, John Blain, Neil McCallum, Ryan Watson, Ross Lyons, Fraser Watts, Paul Hoffmann, Colin Smith, Majid Haq, Navdeep Poonia, Dewald Nel, Douglas Lockhart, Glenn Rogers

South Africa
Graeme Smith (Captain), Shaun Pollock, Jacques Kallis, Mark Boucher, Herschelle Gibbs, Makhaya Ntini, Andrew Hall, Justin Kemp, Andre Nel, Ashwell Prince, Charl Langeveldt, Roger Telemachus, Robin Peterson, AB de Villiers, Loots Bosman

Sri Lanka
Mahela Jayawardene (Captain), Sanath Jayasuriya, Chaminda Vaas, M Muralitharan, Marvan Atapattu, Kumar Sangakkara, Russel Arnold, Tillekeratne Dilshan, Dilhara Fernando, Farveez Maharoof, Upul Tharanga, Lasith Malinga, Malinga Bandara, Nuwan Kulasekara, Chamara Silva

The Netherlands
Luuk Van Troost (Captain), Tim De Leede, Bas Zuiderent, Daan van Bunge, Jeroen Smits, Edgar Schiferli, Ryan ten Doeschate, Peter Borren, Alexei Kervezee, Darron Reekers, Billy Stelling, Adeel Raja, Mohammad Kashif, Mark Jonkman, Eric Szwarczynski

West Indies
Brian Lara (Captain), Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Chris Gayle, Ramnaresh Sarwan, Marlon Samuels, Corey Collymore, Dwayne Bravo, Ian Bradshaw, Dwayne Smith, Jerome Taylor, Denesh Ramdin, Daren Powell, Devon Smith, Lendl Simmons, Kieron Pollard

Zimbabwe
Prosper Utseya (Captain), Stuart Matsikenyeri, Brendan Taylor, Gary Brent, Elton Chigumbura, Vusimuzi Sibanda, Anthony Ireland, Edward Rainsford, Justice Chibhabha, Terrence Duffin, Tawanda Mupariwa, Chris Mpofu, Sean Williams, Keith Dabengwa, Friday Kasteni

Australia names greatest ever one-day team

Australia announced it's greatest ever one-day team last night. The team was named to celebrate 36 years of one-day cricket and send off the current team, which flies out to the West Indies today. The team was voted for by the Australia's 163 one-day representatives. Wicketkeeper Adam Gilchrist was apparently so well supported that Ian Healy and Rod Marsh didn't even make the top 30 list of vote-getters.

Here's the team:

Adam Gilchrist
Mark Waugh
Ricky Ponting (vice-captain)
Dean Jones
Steve Waugh (captain)
Michael Bevan
Andrew Symonds
Shane Warne
Brett Lee
Dennis Lillee
Glenn McGrath
Greg Chappell (12th man)

Australia's World Cup uniform

Australia has revealed it's World Cup uniform. Check it out:

Scotland looking to cause a few upsets

After loses to England and then New Zealand, now even Scotland thinks they have a shot at knocking of the Aussies!

"We don't fear anyone at this World Cup – the last month's fixtures in one-day cricket all over the world have been interesting to say the least and we won't be losing any sleep over playing the world champions," said Scotland's Australian-raised coach Peter Drinnen.

"If we can take early wickets, which I'm sure we can with the way we've been bowling, we might set a few nerves jangling and cause the likes of Australia and South Africa a few problems."

Although Scotland only has a small number of players who have ever played first-class cricket, they still fancy themselves at causing a few upsets:

"You hear a lot about our amateur status but that doesn't wash with me or the players," Drinnen said.

"The players set themselves professional standards and if they stick to them they're going to have a good tournament.

"We aren't going to the Caribbean to play exhibition cricket. Yes, we will be massive underdogs in the most difficult group, but I'm confident we will justify our place with the elite and who knows what we could do?

"Nobody is getting carried away here and we know we've got jobs to do and we will be giving it everything to cause a shock."

Brett Lee out of World Cup

After losing five matches on the trot, Australia's world cup campaign has suffered another blow, with Brett Lee being ruled out. Lee suffered an ankle injury during a training session in New Zealand ten days ago and was this morning givin the bad news by a specialist. Stuart Clark has been named as Lee's replacement.

Australian chairman of selectors Andrew Hilditch issued a statement saying "It is a great disappointment for Brett Lee that he is unable to take place in the World Cup and is a significant blow for the planning and preparation in place for the tournament. However it does give a tremendous opportunity for Stuart Clark to join the 15-man squad."

"Stuart was extremely unlucky to miss out on initial selection and despite the unfortunate circumstances surrounding his inclusion we strongly believe that Stuart is primed to seize his opportunity."

"Though Brett’s injury is disappointing from a personal and team perspective, we strongly believe we are taking a squad of players more than capable of winning a third successive Cricket World Cup."

Stuart Clark is expected to fly to the West Indies on Wednesday pending his approval from the ICC.

Hayden to be right for World Cup opener

Australian opener Matt Hayden say's he'll be ready to go for Australia's world cup opener against Scotland on March 14th, despite fracturing his toe during Tuesday's loss to New Zealand.

"I'm looking to be right on the money for that game," Hayden said. "There is nothing structurally wrong except for the fracture. We will review things on Monday, but in terms of a break it's as good as you can have."

Hayden also remains confident that Australia can claim its third straight World Cup crown despite the recent slump in form.

"Looking at the smaller picture we probably aren't where we wanted to be right now, but a lot of the things we have put in place over the past month and a half are going to stand us in good stead," Hayden said.

"When the big cricket is being played and the big characters need to stand up, I can tell you there are few blokes you would rather have beside you than the ones we've got.

"There will be lots of comments over the next few weeks, as there should be. We've had a few injury scares but come those big, important games of the year we will be right up for them."

South Africa knocks Australia off the top of the world rankings

This is from the ICC media release:

The Proteas have taken over at the summit of the table following Australia’s five-wicket loss to New Zealand in Auckland on Sunday, which cost Michael Hussey’s side two rating points...

It is the first time since the listings began in October 2002 that Australia has not occupied top position.

Here's the latest official rankings:

Rank Team Points

1 South Africa 128
2 Australia 126
3 Pakistan 111
4 New Zealand 111
5 India 109
6 Sri Lanka 108
7 England 106
8 West Indies 101
9 Bangladesh 42
10 Zimbabwe 22
11 Kenya 0

17 Days to go!

It's less then three weeks from the start of what promises to be an exciting 2007 Cricket World Cup. As the Aussies hit a form slump and lose their number one ranking, the field is wide open!

Keep it tuned here for constant updates and ramblings!