England have won the Twenty20 world cup final in Barbados against the old enemy Australia. Going into the final; you would have bet on Australia winning given their form; England’s run up to the final was less spectacular. But all credit to England for grinding out results to get to the final and doing England proud in the final; it’s the dream final against Australia. The Aussies managed to hit a perfectly respectable 147 – 6; a total that the Englishmen surpassed with three overs to spare to impose a massive seven wicket defeat on the Aussies. Somerset’s Craig Kieswetter hit 63 and Kevin Pietersen scored 47 to bring England upto 118 leaving England needing only 30 runs to take the win with seven wickets remaining. So it’s been a good couple of years for English cricket; it’s just a shame that I don’t have the opportunity to watch the games here in the US; let’s face it, most Americans have never heard of cricket; let alone appreciate the intricacies of the game.
Mark Webber went on to win the Monaco Grand Prix from pole position to make it two consecutive wins for the Aussie. Pole Robert Kubica got jumped off the start by Vettel to make it a Red Bull 1 – 2 finish with Kubica third. But the controversy came at the end of the race when Michael Schumacher overtook Fernando Alonso when the safety car came in on the final lap. Myself and it seems most other more informed people interpreted the new 2010 safety car rules as when the safety car pulled in the drivers were racing again after safety car line but that is not the case if the safety car pulled in on the last lap. The rules are in black and white but it still seems harsh when there was mass confusion as marshalls were waving green flags and race control transmitted safety car coming in this lap. I am no fan of Michael Schumacher but in this case I believe the 20 seconds added to his time dropping him out of the points is a bullshit punishment. Back to the race; Jenson Button stopped on lap two with mechanical failure to drop from leading the championship to fourth albeit only eight points off the lead with 25 points on offer for a win. Lewis Hamilton came home in fifth place ahead of Spaniard Fernando Alonso who worked the safety car period well to move from the back of grid to sixth which is no mean feat in Monaco!
And finally; R.I.P Ronnie James Dio who passed away on Sunday morning losing his battle with stomach cancer. Download festival organisers have renamed their second stage in tribute to the 67 year old legend. Dio was an integral member of Rainbow and Black Sabbath after Ozzy went solo before forming his own band simply named “DIO”; he will be sorely missed by the rock fraternity.