KEY POINTS:
Herschelle Gibbs may have knocked Holland for six but some of the other sides who were cast as lovable losers in cricket's World Cup have struck back, big time.
Ireland beating Pakistan? Bangladesh beating India?
It's all on for young and old in the West Indies in the most tantalising sporting World Cup since who knows when. Yahooo.
Even soccer's World Cup struggles to come up with dead-set upsets, although the day is getting closer when the pedantic football of England and their overrated heavyweight cronies may be obliterated by the magic and joy of African football in particular. That really will be a day to celebrate, when skill from the poor streets - and that has always been the place where football magic flourishes the best - serves it up to the fast-lane fat cats and their cynical ways.
Cricket has been boosted by these upset results, even if it is too much to contemplate any of the rank outsiders actually getting their hands on the trophy. The game is on an exciting roll, in results and style.
Cricket has undergone a significant rev-up this season. It started in Australia where the home side, the one-time red-hot favourites to win a third consecutive World Cup, were beaten by an English squad that had county trundlers written all over it.
The mood was further brightened when Australia, who sent a below-par side to contest a trophy with the famous names of Chappell and Hadlee on it, were dealt to by the Black Caps.
Suddenly, the World Cup looked a lot more interesting.
There must have been fears that Gibbs-type attacks on the minnows of the 16-team World Cup would reveal it to be a bit of a joke; that a good proportion of the teams had been selected by chucking a dart at a map.
Yes, there are teams making up the numbers, but who would have thought that one of them would be Pakistan.
Unlike most World Cups, cricket's extravaganza is not the world championship of the game. Five-day cricket remains the true test and in that the world rankings must suffice in declaring who is the best of the best.
Yet in many ways, one-day cricket's flaws are actually its strength.
One-day cricket is, as the Australian blaster Adam Gilchrist claimed recently, "a bit of a lottery". Form can be fleeting, momentum quickly discovered or lost.
It's probably no coincidence that an Australian has declared that the game is a couple of gambles removed from a Lotto draw only since the once-mighty Aussies started losing.
However, Gilchrist has a point and it's almost the beauty of the game.
One-day cricket is providing decent bang for your bucks. So many of the matches are loaded with twists and turns. Results hang in the balance, upsets hang in the air.
There are far too many one-day games for most of them to hold any historic meaning, but if sport is about enjoying the moment, then one-day cricket is doing its job.
The emotions ebbed and flowed for both sides in New Zealand's first-up win over England. Having dismissed England for a small total, New Zealand started disastrously, yet cruised home.
The only downside was the television coverage, which seemed a little pedestrian and remote.
So while the teams are adjusting to slower conditions and smaller fields, we'll have to do the same when it comes to the coverage.
The game itself, though, is flourishing.
In general, one-day scores are getting higher, the fielders are under increasing pressure and the game has probably reached a point where bowlers need to develop new skills if they are going to fight back.
As for New Zealand's chances of lifting the crown, they look as good as any in the tournament. Then again, a couple of months ago I thought that if Pakistan could strike early form, they might be the ones to challenge Australian supremacy.
It's reached the point that the more you think you know about one-day cricket the less you understand.
Some of the experts might even be in the same boat.
The New Zealand team that look so well placed in St Lucia owe their composition partly to accident as much as any grand design.
Anyway, enough of the theories. It's time to sit back and continue enjoying the ride.
