I see ICC

It was probably worth Australia being knocked out of the ICC T20 competition just see Chris Gayle's impeccable cool abandon him completely when his team won.

First he fell over in his rush to get on to the ground, then he did a very awkward haka-style interpretation of the Gangnam style dance and generally carried on like a pork chop. This was after an innings of some amazing "talk to the hand" fours and sixes, flicked like lint off a new suit.

Speaking of off-field antics, they showed some footage of Sunil Narine being playful during training, including some very accomplished cuddling, and Harsha made the comment, "Oh those Trinidadians", which makes me think the talent for cuddles displayed by TNT native Adrian Barath could be a national trait. Now that I think about it, one of my earliest Cricket Love memories was a touching embrace between Ricky Ponting and Prince of Port of Spain Brian Lara. I have an old map of the West Indies above my desk, from which I know that Trinidad is home to the largest natural asphalt lake in the world. Could there be a little oxytocin in those fumes?

Commentary commentary II

I knew Ravi Shastri must be in the box when someone used the word "cognisant". Even Harsha said he hadn't heard that word in a while. Despite my whinges last time I've enjoyed the cosmopolitan approach to the commentary roster, with mostly Indians and South Africans calling the WI vs AU game, plus a bit of Warnie who sounded like he had a sore throat. These tournaments are probably like conferences. So much chatting!

Minnow winnow

I was probably more excited by the prospect of the qualifying rounds for this competition than the main event. Who is not overcome with curiosity at a fixture between Nepal and Hong Kong? Turns out Nepal has a very dashing-looking captain and Hong Kong has some pretty boys who can't catch for nuts. Nepal's Sagar Pun stood out, a very nifty batting-bowling-fielding package, and bowler Shakti "Shaggy" Gauchan who celebrates like a footballer. 

My heart was lost however to Afghanistan's portly, turbulent Mohammad Shahzad ("Shazam" around here), who suffered the indignity of getting out to the first ball of the whole tournament but was fortunate enough later on to be skying balls around those Hong Kong boys. The first one went so high he was pounding the pitch with his bat in frustration for some time before realising he'd been let off. It's been fun.

PS. This is Shazad's English Wikipedia page. He also has pages in Bengali, Pashto, Tamil and a very thorough one in... Vietnamese. I want to know who wrote that page.