(the actual)Champions Trophy

Day 7, and the newest member of the MAX jamboree appears.
Rakshanda Khan, soap star and minor glamour girl is their 'Roving Reporter' (no credit given to Wisden for the term). She appears for the first time with Michael Slats Slater, out on the pitch, and (God help me for saying this) I thought she wasn't too bad. High on energy, passable flirting between the two of them....and suddenly when you cut back to the downer that was Mandira in the studio, she seemed all the better. It is a pity that Charu and his able-Bedied co presenter are so mediocre, because in other aspects, Max seems to be thinking well. Pieces on the making of cricket equipment (like the SG factory in Meerut making pads, gloves and balls today) are interesting. A few days ago they had a piece on this lassi bar in Haridwar that was handing out coupons for each match win for India (with more and more coupons for each match). That's interesting stuff... it is the sort of stuff that brings out the madness that cricket is in this country. Their actual roving reporter piece was on Britain's 'new national dish', the Chicken Tikka. Not bad. But then everytime you come back to the doofus-ness that is the studio presentation, and you smile/sigh/switch channels. Besides, what really matters is the way the match is presented, and thats the area where they are still too far behind. The commentary is largely dull, sometimes comic and mostly average. Their stats backup is not special, and neither are their graphics.
And to think we are likely to have another novice telecasting most of Indian cricket over the next 4 years...steady, ol heart.
In the cricket, Afridi now has the best bowling figures in any Champions Trophy match! What will happen next. "My captain helped...Moin bhai told me to bowl wicket to wicket". If he hadn't told you that, you would have bowled where exactly, Shahid? Aus-NZ start in a few minutes and (tarot card reading aside), Australia look good to go through of course. But NZ has a habit of challenging them, so I hope that happens.

4.25pm (IST)
80 for 6. Kasprowicsz just missed his hat-trick. So much for this being the first match that was going to be a cracker.