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Finally, after a month of waiting, we are down to the business end of the Cricket World Cup and matches that mean something. It was closer than expected but the eight teams expected to proceed to the quarter-finals have done so, delighting sponsors and television companies the world over.
There has been some excitement en-route, mainly involving the erratic England team.
Despite beating or drawing with the best, their defeats to the minnows meant that Group B was closer than anticipated, with co-hosts Bangladesh needing a victory over South Africa to qualify.
On home turf (or rather dirt) this was their best opportunity to progress and test themselves in a 'winner-takes-all' contest. However, despite their victory against England, two massive defeats and a resulting negative run-rate tells a tale.
I maintain that it would be great for the game to see a couple of the smaller sides be given an opportunity in a knock-out match against one of the higher-ranked teams where they are forced to concentrate from the outset - or pay the penalty.
The qualifying leagues have generated some interesting fixtures. The pick of these has to be India against Australia to be played tomorrow.
In keeping with the article on captaincy, I see this as a battle between Dhoni and Ponting. I fully expect the former to come out on top.
Ponting's increasingly frequent outbursts show a man under pressure and, critically, that appears to have transferred to his team, while, under pressure, Dhoni marshals his troops well.
While both teams have a similar balance in their batting line-up, combining accumulators with master-blasters, Australia's bowling line-up looks short of spinners. For the green and golds to come out on top it will take a fine individual performance from someone, perhaps the irrepressible Brett Lee or one of the Hussey brothers.
South Africa looked in imperious form early in the tournament, although their bowling attack has lost some of its bite following the injury to Pakistan-born Tahir. However, with Peterson having stepped into the breach with bat and ball I expect them to have too much for New Zealand.
Home advantage for Sri Lanka should ensure a victory against an injury-plagued England team whose best hope is perhaps the coin-toss. Seventy per cent of matches played at Colombo have been won by the team batting first.
In welcoming back Eoin Morgan England do now have a batsman capable of working Sri Lanka's world-class spinners into unusual areas of the field, although that could be asking too much of one man. England does possess two of the most successful batsmen in Strauss and Trott, although neither likes to start against a spinner - expect Sri Lanka to play this card.
However, for me, the 'must-see' match is the opener between Pakistan and the West Indies.
Both teams started well and have adopted a different approach ever since. Pakistan have maintained a consistent team selection while the West Indians have chosen to rest some of the more experienced players, resulting in successive defeats and a narrow passage to this game.
Both teams boast variety in batting and bowling departments, including some of the most powerful and destructive batsmen in world cricket. Add to the mix an historic belief that both teams collapse under pressure and it's a too-close-to-call match-up. However, I'm going to go for the Carnival Kings.
The Windies' weakness has been their lower-order batting although, with the expected return of Chanderpaul this area should improve. Rampaul's ability to extract reverse swing and Russell's variety should see them match Pakistan's excellent seam attack leaving their batsmen to win the day. That said, who else fancies a Pakistan v India semi-final in Mohali?
