week   Hall of Fame                      Wooden Spoon

            
 1.     787 Howie72                         284 gtho4
 2.     838 N-Bomb                          512 wwe84
 3.    1657 Howie72                         591 ozzz2002
 4.     630 paper_aero                      357 Howie72
 5.    1429 ozzz2002                        896 LeoDaVinci
 6.    1876 Howie72                        1201 gtho4
 7.    1035 wwe84                           618 paper_aero
 8.     648 ozzz2002                        358 srini701
 9.    1103 Howie72                         750 paper_aero
10.    1244 LeoDaVinci                      825 wwe84
11.     618 Daaanieeel                      325 gtho4
12.     884 ElfTwinkle                      371 gtho4
13.    1661 paper_aero                      871 N-Bomb
14.     967 paper_aero                      537 ozzz2002
15.     695 Howie72                         321 ozzz2002
16.    3505 paper_aero                     2506 srini701
17.
18. 
  

    

• Australia came back from 0-2 down to beat India 3-2 in a very exciting series, winning an ODI series in India for the first time since 2009. This will be a huge morale-booster for the Aussies who will be defending their World Championships in England a couple of months from now. The Aussies found some unexpected heroes as Usman Khawaja, Peter Handscomb, Ashton Turner, Adam Zampa and Pat Cummins all played stellar roles in their triumph and with the return or Warner and Smith from their bans and of Starc and Hazlewood from injuries, the Australians will once again fancy their chances in England.
  
  
• The other series between South Agfrica and Sri Lanka was all a one-way path with Quinton de Kock and Faf Du Plessis making merry as they pleased. The home team won 5-0 and Sri Lanka will probably be going into the World Cup with a new captain and coach as well.
  
  
• This round was to be our game-changer and in some ways, it was. srini701 had a lousy series in South Africa and with his spoon score, drags himself and the defaulting Daaanieeel out of any possible podium race. Our podium is decided, but Howie72, our leader for the entire season bar one round, is not guaranteed the top spot. His entire lead has vanished into thin air after paper_aero picks another winner. It may well boil down to the last round between these 2 gladiators. At the other end, gtho4 finally had a great round and is now locked in a battle with LeoDaVinci to avoid the cellar spot.
  
  Supersubs scoring this round: Elftwinkle should have had a supersub in the South Africa series after Dale Steyn played only one match, but she didn't pick a super-sub. LeoDaVinci had Bumrah scoring in place of Chahal who only played a match; ozzz2002 had Dwaine Pretorius scoring with Steyn, while wwe84 had Stoinis scoring in place of Andrew Tye.
  
  The next round of scoring should have been the final round; but with the Test in New Zealand called off, we have an additional last round. Please remember to pick teams for the Australia-Pakistan 5 match ODI series in the UAE before March 22.
  
  *************************************************
  Round 16 scoring
  
  

  -------------- ------------------------------------------------- Player Runs Wkt Cat Pts Dan Elf gth How Leo N-B ozz pap sri wwe -------------- x1 x20 x5 ------------------------------------------------- AUSTRALIA UT Khawaja 383 0 3 398 398 398 398 PSP Handscomb 236 0 1 241 AJ Finch 157 0 5 182 364 182 MP Stoinis 140 2 1 185 185 185 AJ Turner 125 0 1 130 GJ Maxwell 115 1 5 160 160 160 160 160 AT Carey 103 0 8 143 JA Richardson 29 8 3 204 204 NM Coulter-Nile 32 3 0 92 92 92 SE Marsh 29 0 0 29 29 PJ Cummins 15 14 2 305 305 305 305 305 305 305 A Zampa 2 11 1 227 227 227 227 NM Lyon 7 3 0 67 67 67 67 JP Behrendorff 0 0 0 0 A Tye DNP DNP DNP 0 0 INDIA V Kohli 310 0 5 335 670 335 335 670 335 670 335 670 RG Sharma 202 0 0 202 202 404 404 202 404 202 S Dhawan 177 0 1 182 KM Jadhav 172 2 0 212 MS Dhoni 85 0 4 105 105 210 V Shankar 120 2 2 170 RR Pant 52 0 2 62 KL Rahul 26 0 1 31 B Kumar 47 4 1 132 RA Jadeja 45 3 1 110 AT Rayudu 33 0 0 33 Kuldeep Yadav 22 10 1 227 227 227 227 227 JJ Bumrah 7 7 1 152 152 152 152 152 152 152 152 Mohammed Shami 13 5 0 113 YS Chahal 0 1 0 20 20 SOUTH AFRICA AK Markram 96 0 1 101 DA Miller 91 0 3 106 212 Q de Kock 353 0 8 393 786 786 786 786 786 786 393 393 F du Plessis 272 0 4 292 292 292 292 292 292 van der Dussen 112 0 2 122 244 122 AL Phehlukwayo 40 3 0 100 200 D Pretorius 31 0 0 31 31 PWA Mulder 17 0 1 22 RR Hendricks 42 0 1 47 A Nortje 8 8 2 178 L Ngidi 6 8 1 171 K Rabada 3 8 1 168 168 168 168 168 168 168 168 JP Duminy 31 1 3 66 Imran Tahir 1 9 5 206 206 T Shamsi 0 2 3 55 DW Steyn 0 1 0 20 20 20 SRI LANKA I Udana 110 2 0 150 BKG Mendis 202 0 1 207 AK Perera 31 0 0 31 31 BOP Fernando 127 0 0 127 DM de Silva 88 5 1 193 193 193 193 193 193 MDKJ Perera 41 0 0 41 41 WIA Fernando 71 0 2 81 81 81 PHKD Mendis 17 1 0 37 37 PARP Perera 33 0 1 38 NLTC Perera 56 4 1 141 141 141 141 141 141 N Dickwella 16 0 7 51 51 51 SL Malinga 16 4 1 101 101 101 101 101 101 101 101 WU Tharanga 15 0 1 20 20 PADLR Sandakan 3 0 0 3 A Dananjaya 7 2 1 52 52 52 CAK Rajitha 0 3 1 65 MVT Fernando 3 2 0 43 --------------------------------------------------- Total Score d 2549 3033 3169 2549 3437 2602 3505 2506 2741 --------------------------------------------------- Dan Elf gth How Leo N-B ozz pap sri wwe

week   Hall of Fame                      Wooden Spoon

            
 1.     787 Howie72                         284 gtho4
 2.     838 N-Bomb                          512 wwe84
 3.    1657 Howie72                         591 ozzz2002
 4.     630 paper_aero                      357 Howie72
 5.    1429 ozzz2002                        896 LeoDaVinci
 6.    1876 Howie72                        1201 gtho4
 7.    1035 wwe84                           618 paper_aero
 8.     648 ozzz2002                        358 srini701
 9.    1103 Howie72                         750 paper_aero
10.    1244 LeoDaVinci                      825 wwe84
11.     618 Daaanieeel                      325 gtho4
12.     884 ElfTwinkle                      371 gtho4
13.    1661 paper_aero                      871 N-Bomb
14.     967 paper_aero                      537 ozzz2002
15.     695 Howie72                         321 ozzz2002
16.    3505 paper_aero                     2506 srini701
17.     598 Howie72                         282 ozzz2002
18. 
  

    

• So it will boil down to the very last round of our season to decide the winner of the comp for 2018-19. Howie72 is 168 points ahead of paper_aero and 871 ahead of N-Bomb. N-Bomb is a 1000+ points ahead of srini701 for the bronze medal spot, but if he defaults and srini701 scores a 1000+ over the spoon score, srini701 can get the bronze...and pigs can fly There's suddenly an interesting battle at the other end of the table too and the last 3 spots can also change in the final round.
  
  
• This was to be the googly round to close the season, but fate willed it otherwise...Howie72 will have to wait nervously till early April now to know if he wins the gold or silver
  
  
• The Test itself was quite interesting and Afghanistan became only the 3rd team (after England and Pakistan) to win their very first Test in their 2nd attempt itself. There were some interesting performances from both sides but as ozzz said, I also do not know enough of the players to comment on the quality of the game.
  
  Supersubs scoring this round: William Porterfield did not score too many for Daaanieeel in place of Simi Singh, and unfortunately for wwe84, his supersub also did not get to play!
  
  The next round is DEFINITELY the FINAL round for the season. Please remember to lodge your picks before Friday, March 22.
  
  *************************************************
  Round 17 scoring
  
  

  -------------- ------------------------------------------------- Player Runs Wkt Cat Pts Dan Elf gth How Leo N-B ozz pap sri wwe -------------- x1 x20 x5 ------------------------------------------------- IRELAND WTS Porterfield 9 0 0 9 9 18 9 PR Stirling 40 0 0 40 40 A Balbirnie 86 0 1 91 91 91 91 JA McCollum 43 0 0 43 KJ O'Brien 68 0 0 68 136 136 136 68 SW Poynter 1 0 3 16 SR Thompson 4 3 0 64 64 GH Dockrell 64 2 0 104 104 104 104 104 AR McBrine 7 3 0 67 J Cameron-Dow 41 3 2 111 TJ Murtagh 81 1 0 101 101 101 101 101 Simi Singh DNP DNP DNP 0 0 0 Boyd Rankin DNP DNP DNP 0 0 AFGHANISTAN Mohammad Shahzad 42 0 0 42 42 42 42 Ihsanullah 72 0 2 82 Rahmat Shah 174 0 1 179 Hashmatullah S 65 0 1 70 70 70 Asghar Afghan 67 0 0 67 67 67 134 Mohammad Nabi 1 3 0 61 61 61 61 61 61 61 Ikram Ali Khil 7 0 5 32 32 Rashid Khan 10 7 0 150 300 150 300 300 150 300 Yamin Ahmadzai 2 6 0 122 122 122 Wafadar Momand 6 0 0 6 Waqar Salamkheil 1 4 0 81 --------------------------------------------------- Total Score 541 542 490 598 490 d 282 492 540 410 --------------------------------------------------- Dan Elf gth How Leo N-B ozz pap sri wwe

week   Hall of Fame                      Wooden Spoon

            
 1.     787 Howie72                         284 gtho4
 2.     838 N-Bomb                          512 wwe84
 3.    1657 Howie72                         591 ozzz2002
 4.     630 paper_aero                      357 Howie72
 5.    1429 ozzz2002                        896 LeoDaVinci
 6.    1876 Howie72                        1201 gtho4
 7.    1035 wwe84                           618 paper_aero
 8.     648 ozzz2002                        358 srini701
 9.    1103 Howie72                         750 paper_aero
10.    1244 LeoDaVinci                      825 wwe84
11.     618 Daaanieeel                      325 gtho4
12.     884 ElfTwinkle                      371 gtho4
13.    1661 paper_aero                      871 N-Bomb
14.     967 paper_aero                      537 ozzz2002
15.     695 Howie72                         321 ozzz2002
16.    3505 paper_aero                     2506 srini701
17.     598 Howie72                         282 ozzz2002
18.    1624 srini701                        744 wwe84
  

    

• After winning only two ODIs the whole of last year, Australia seems to have hit the right form just in time for the World Cup. They swamped Pakistan 5-0 in the desert sands of the UAE after coming from 0-2 behind to beat India in India. Aaron Finch, Usman Khawaja, Glenn Maxwell are in good touch and with the imminent return of Steve Smith and David Warner (looking like a man on a mission in the IPL right now), the Australian hopes of defending their World Cup won't be misplaced, come June. On the other hand, Pakistan is, oh well, Pakistan...all of Shoaib Malik's claims of experimenting in this series won't hold water and I bet they will still be as unpredictable in the World Cup too.
  
  
• Howie72 is a very well deserving winner of our comp here this season. Except for a brief interlude in round 5, he led the comp throughout the season with some astute selections, took the honours one-third of the time (which is very rare in this comp), and despite my best efforts in the last 2 rounds, he ends up winning his first World Cricket title since 2009...well done, Sir Howie!
  
  
• paper_aero was content to linger around the mid-table till round 14 when he suddenly woke up to realise he's got a huge reputation to hold on to in this comp. He made a serious dash over the last 4 rounds and finally ended up at the EXACT same spot as he has over the last 4 seasons....in second spot. This is his fourth consecutive silver medal in this comp!
  
  
• N-Bomb takes the bronze medal for the season after looking like he would make his usual last stage sprint. He was the only one other than Howie to lead the comp this season (round 5), but he couldn't shake off paper_aero and fell back over the last 4 rounds.
  
  
• srini701 is the tragedy story of the season. After 6 podium finishes in a row, he harboured dreams of a very rare FunTrivia achievement---gtho4 had 8 consecutive podium finishes in the NBA comp, while Sypher had 7 consecutive podium finishes in NFL and FAPL...srini was looking to join a very elite club, but falls short by one....oh well....it's back to square one from next season then...
  
  
• Our debutant for the season Daaanieeel had a splendid season and at one stage really threatened to gatecrash the podium. But guess he ran out of steam or interest or both in this marathon comp, and he slid back to a mid-table finish. He will hopefully return next season and shake things up a little around here
  
  
• As for the rest, ElfTwinkle and ozzz2002 had their moments but in a season totally dominated by Howie, they never really had much chance. gtho4, wwe84 and LeoDaVinci staged some interesting battles at the other end of the table to avoid the cellar spot, and it took the very last round for that fight to be decided. We will hopefully see all of them back next season too...
  
  Supersubs scoring this round: Other than srini701, everyone had a super-sub scoring for them this round. paper_aero in fact had his super-sub score double too for him. Daaanieeel did not lodge a full team and his supersub never played so he misses out. N-Bomb had the best supersub this round.
  
  The next cricket competition will be the 2019 World Cup in England in June. Hoping to see everyone return (and maybe get some more participants for that comp)....the next season of the World Cricket (2019-2020) will start in November. Thank you all for staying the course with me and congratulations once again to the podium finishers
  
  *************************************************
  Round 18 scoring
  
  

  -------------- ------------------------------------------------- Player Runs Wkt Cat Pts Dan Elf gth How Leo N-B ozz pap sri wwe -------------- x1 x20 x5 ------------------------------------------------- AUSTRALIA AJ Finch 451 1 3 486 486 486 486 972 GJ Maxwell 258 3 3 333 333 666 SE Marsh 182 0 4 202 UT Khawaja 272 0 0 272 544 544 544 544 272 272 272 272 272 AT Carey 80 0 5 105 PSP Handscomb 92 0 6 122 122 122 244 MP Stoinis 16 2 1 61 61 JP Behrendorff 6 4 2 96 96 KW Richardson 5 2 1 50 50 NM Coulter-Nile 2 7 0 142 PJ Cummins 2 3 1 67 67 67 67 67 67 67 134 NM Lyon 0 5 3 115 115 JA Richardson 0 3 0 60 A Zampa 0 7 0 140 140 140 140 140 140 140 A Turner DNP DNP DNP 0 0 0 PAKISTAN Haris Sohail 291 1 3 326 326 Imad Wasim 141 3 0 201 201 201 Mohammad Rizwan 231 0 2 241 241 Abid Ali 112 0 1 117 234 Shoaib Malik 102 0 1 107 107 214 Umar Akmal 150 0 0 150 Yasir Shah 25 4 1 110 110 110 110 Shan Masood 111 0 1 116 116 Imam-ul-Haq 63 0 1 68 68 68 68 68 136 68 68 68 Faheem Ashraf 42 1 0 62 62 Saad Ali 11 0 0 11 Junaid Khan 5 4 0 85 Usman Shinwari 6 5 0 106 106 106 106 Mohd Hasnain 0 2 0 40 40 Mohammad Abbas 0 1 0 20 20 Mohammad Amir 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 --------------------------------------------------- Total Score 935 1415 1147 1316 1027 1255 1430 1280 1624 744 --------------------------------------------------- Dan Elf gth How Leo N-B ozz pap sri wwe