West Indies shock Aussies at World T20; Yuvraj blasts Banglas

West Indies blasted their way past an apparently shell-shocked Australia to produce the second upset of the ICC World Twenty20.

Having restricted the Aussies – who won the toss – to 169/7, the Windies, fired by skipper Chris Gayle on top form, chased down the runs within 16 overs. Brett Lee’s first three overs went for 51, as Gayle (88 off 50) and Andre Fletcher (53 off 32) put on 133 for the first wicket – a record for international T20s.

Gayle’s innings included six sixes, one of them possibly the largest ever seen at the ground. He left the park to a standing ovation when he was finally out with the Windies just 12 runs short of victory.

Australia were on the back foot from the off, thanks to an extraordinary first over from Jerome Taylor.

The nine-ball over included three wides, two wickets and no runs off the bat: first, Shane Watson was caught at mid-off by Sarwan trying to hit over the top; then Ricky Ponting – having faced two consecutive wides – was trapped lbw by the first legitimate ball he faced.

When vice-skip Pup Clarke went, the Aussies were 15/3 – but then David Warner (63 off 53) led a fightback that brought them to apparent repectability.

But they were blown away by Gayle and Fletcher’s onslaught, with Ponting using seven different bowlers in the 15.5 over innings.

“We spoke about getting the first over of each innings right and as it turned out we lost two wickets in our first batting innings and they took a lot off our first bowling over as well,” said Aussie skip Ricky Ponting afterwards.

“With the game being as short as it is, you can’t afford to give momentum like that away in either innings and we did it in both.

“I thought 169 was going to be a competitive total if we could take wickets up front with the new ball but they took us on, hit some early boundaries and got the momentum going their way. They outplayed us for sure.

Australia must now beat Sri Lanka on Monday to have a chance of staying in the competition.

• At Trent Bridge, India beat Bangladesh by 25 runs. Having won the toss and batted, they looked in danger of being bogged down as Gautam Gambhir took 46 balls over his half-century. But a majestic display of big-hitting from man of the match Yuvraj Singh (41 off 18 balls) changed the momentum of the game.

India finished with 180/5 off their 20 overs. Banglas opener Junaid Siddique hit 41 off 22 including three sixes to give Indian fans something to worry about: but when Siddique fell to Ojha in the ninth over, Bangladesh were 77/4. They lacked the firepower down the order to pursue the chase and the game fizzled out as a contest, with Ojha finishing with 4/21 off his four overs.

In the first game of the day, New Zealand (90/3) beat Scotland (89/4) in a seven-over shoot-out with an over to spare. With the Black Caps still needing 22 runs off the last two overs, another upset, after England’s debacle on Friday night, had seemed on the cards. But Scott Styris and Ross Taylor blasted the penultimate over from Jan Stander for 22 to finish the rain-delayed game in no-nonsense fashion.

England lose to Netherlands in World T20 sensation

The Netherlands have beaten England by four wickets in the first game of the ICC World Twenty20, in one of the biggest upsets in cricket history. They chased down England’s total of 162/5 by running two off the last ball of the game, thanks to an overthrow.

On a murky evening, Netherlands had won the toss and inserted their hosts. England’s new opening pair Luke Wright (71) and Ravi Bopara (46) again impressed, racing to 100 from the first 11 overs, before the side lost their way. With Rob Key coming in for the injured Kevin Pietersen, England lacked the big hitters down the order to capitalise on the excellent start. Owais Shah, Eoin Morgan and Paul Collingwood were all dismissed cheaply. 

Nonetheless, despite not hitting a single six in the innings, 162/5 seemed a competitive total. But the Netherlands were inspired by the clean hitting of Darren Reekers (20 off 13) at the top of the order, before Tom de Grooth (49 off 30) put them in with a real chance.

With their most experienced pro campaigner Ryan ten Doeschate (22 off 17) coming in at No 6, Netherlands needed 21 to win off 18. Finally, it came down to two runs required off the last ball – Edgar Schiferli hit the ball straight back to bowler Stuart Broad who, in failing to run Schiferli out, threw the ball past the stumps, allowing the Dutch to return for a second match-winning single.

With the rain pouring down throughout the Dutch innings, this was a tense game with England visibly shaken by the challenge they faced and missing several key run-out chances that might have changed the course of the game. The Netherlands were  up with the Duckworth-Lewis requirement throughout, but the umpires, despite the poor conditions, showed no inclination to bring the players off.

Adil Rashid played ahead of Graeme Swann but his showing (1/36 off four) failed to apply the brakes. James Anderson (3/23 off four overs) was the pick of the bowlers but England’s batting and fielding let them down, while the Dutch were apparently fearless in their batting.

With the opening ceremony, led by Alesha Dixon, called off thanks to the poor weather, it seemed as if the ICC World Twenty20 would get off to an anti-climactic start. As it happened, the inspirational Dutch side made this a night to remember.

Now, England must beat Pakistan on Sunday to avoid being chucked out of their own tournament at the first hurdle.

The Hit Parade: the 2007 ICC World Twenty20 day by day

| Day 1 |

What’s a par score in international Twenty20? 170? 180? What about 200-plus? The West Indies race out of the traps to hit 205/6 against South Africa at the Wanderers, with Chris Gayle playing the innings of the tournament inside the first hour: 117 runs off 57 balls, including 88 runs in boundaries. By half-time the Windies are installed as second favourites to win the whole thing. By full-time, that’s out the window as slack bowling and slack fielding return to haunt them and the Saffers revisit their 438-v-434 Jo’burg heroics: they chase the target down with 14 balls to spare. Pundits don their tin hats and prepare for a big-scoring tournament – although, in fact, only one more game (India v England) would produce more runs, and no-one else would hit a century over the whole fortnight.

| Day 2 |

A sensation in Cape Town as Zimbabwe, who have not beaten a major side in an ODI for nearly four years, turn over Australia. After some – according to Punter Ponting – “diabolical” batting at the top, the world champs recover from 19/3 to make a paltry 138/9. Zims’ keep-bat Brendan Taylor (60 off 45) then shows them how its done, holding his nerve to ‘hit’ the winning leg byes with a ball to spare. “Of course I’m embarrassed,” declares Punter, talking even faster than normal. “Wehavebeenoutplayed. It is a mental thing for us. We have to start respecting the game.”

| Day 3 |

First, Zimbabwe beat Australia; now England – thanks to 79 off 37 from KP and some mid-order strangling from Mascarenhas and Schofield with the ball – beat Zimbabwe. KP puts two and two together and gets… ahead of himself: “We have a great chance to send Australia home early,” he says. “They humiliated us throughout last winter and it would be nice to give them a bit of humiliation in return.”

India-Scotland is abandoned without a ball being bowled – which, weirdly, puts India on the brink of going home if they lose too heavily to Pakistan.

West Indies are already going home – they lose by six wickets to Bangladesh, thanks chiefly to Mo Ashraful’s 61 off 27 balls.

| Day 4 |

England-Australia! In the most exciting format of the game yet invented! Should have been a thriller… but it’s as flat as yesterday’s beer, as England look at best cowed and at worst second rate. Humiliation is on the menu, as KP predicted, but it’s Australia who win with more than five overs to spare. There are 17 dot balls in the first six overs of England’s innings, as the right-armer Clark and the left-armer Johnson find the exact unplayable spot (generally very wide outside off stump) and keep plugging at it.

After England limp along painfully to 135, the pitch is apparently changed for the Aussie innings: Hayden and Gilchrist play as if on a carefree drive in the country. James Kirtley’s first over in international cricket for three years begins with three fours from Hayden. Kirtley is taken off at once and not seen for the rest of the tournament. Freddie Flintoff, the pick of the bowlers, spends the second half wincing. As do England supporters around the world.

In Durban, India and Pakistan play out international T20’s first-ever tie. With top-scorer Misbah-ul-Haq at the crease, Pakistan need just a single to win off the last two balls – but Misbah is run out off the last ball, plunging the sides into 1) a crazily extended 15-minute interlude with everyone running about, practising bowling, giving interviews and so forth and 2) an exciting (but irrelevent) bowl out. India, nominating part-time bowlers Sehwag and Uthappa in their first three, hit the stumps three times out of three. Pakistan manage… nought. Indian skipper MS Dhoni reveals he chose his bowlers based on who’d done well in practice; Pakistan skip Shoaib Malik reveals he didn’t even know there was going to be a shoot-out.

Earlier in the day, Sri Lanka hammer a world-record 260/6 (Jayasuriya 88 from 44, Jayawardene 65 from 27, Mubarak 45 from 13) to trounce Kenya by 172 runs – the equivalent of a 430-run win in a 50-over game.

| Day 5 |

Sri Lanka and South Africa win dead group-stages rubbers. On the eve of England’s game against the hosts, Paul Collingwood has a late-night trip to an ‘inappropriate’ bar that will end up with him saying sorry and being fined £1000. No one knows about the inappropriate trip at this stage. Not even, for five or ten minutes, Colly himself who takes a while to work out that he’s drinking in South Africa’s premier ‘upmarket’ lapdance bar, with 100 ‘beautiful’ ‘dancers’ in the ‘area’. He had it down as a JD Wetherspoons! And this guy’s the captain!

| Day 6 |

The Super Eights kick off. Australia, into their stride after their brushes with minnows Zimbabwe and England, give Bangladesh a thumping. Brett Lee takes the first T20 hat-trick; the batters knock off the runs with six overs to spare.

In Cape Town, England miss seven catches as they contrive to blow a winning position against South Africa. Colly is involved in the key mix-up, with Owais Shah, in the field: the Saffers are 113/6 with just 17 balls left, when the pair miss Albie Morkel off Schofield. Morkel turns into a superman, makes 43 off 20, Saffers post 154 and England never get near. KP is freakishly run-out, after colliding with bowler Shaun Pollock; Colly gets a first-ball duck and ends a glum day by sending in Jeremy Snape – five years out of ODIs and three weeks since his last county innings – ahead of in-form whacker Dimi Mascarenhas. Snape gets 7 from 400 balls (okay, 11) as England go down by 19 runs.

| Day 7 |

Pakistan shape up for being the dark horses by beating pre-tournament second-favourites Sri Lanka in Jo’burg. Coach Moores breaks Matt Prior’s thumb in training, leaving England without a specialist keeper for tomorrow’s possibly crunch game with New Zealand.

| Day 8 |

England throw it away against New Zealand, much as they did against South Africa. Except even more so. Vikram Solanki takes the gauntlets and does… alright. England have the Black Caps in the cart twice: 1) when they reduce them to 91/5 before letting them off the hook 2) when Solanki and Maddy put on 62 in eight overs for the first wicket. But England STILL lose their way, chasing 165 to win: KP gets bowled by Vettori attempting a crazy reverse sweep. There are three hapless run outs. It’s not a professional showing. Colly is fined £1000 for his visit to the lapdance club.

| Day 9 |

England’s supermodel-thin hopes of qualification for the semis end when Justin Kemp (89 from 56) manhandles South Africa to victory over New Zealand. That means England are left playing for pride against India. Which soon disappears over extra-cover, backward point, square-leg, midwicket (twice) and mid-on as Yuvraj Singh biffs his way into history by hitting six sixes off Stuart Broad. Actually, the ball flies off his bat with a series of effortless flicks as Broad tries everything to halt the raining maximums bar varying his pace, line, length and little-boy-lost facial expression.

Yuvraj, his 50 coming off an insane 12 balls, is the difference between the teams. While England prepare to fly on to Sri Lanka, Andrew Flintoff, who has played through the pain throughout the tournament, will, it is announced, fly home. Ricky Ponting is also ruled out of the rest of the tournament after twanging his hammy.

| Day 10 |

It’s come down to an effective quarter-final at Newlands between the 50-over World Cup finalists. But, once again, Australia simply blow Sri Lanka away, dismissing them for 101 and then knocking off the runs in 62 balls without losing a wicket.

“Everything happens so quickly, I don’t think there’s time to choke,” said Shaun Pollock before the tournament. Wrong! The Saffers, so far unbeaten, tumble out of the tournament in humiliating fashion: skittled for 116 (including a solitary six) by India, they lose by 37 runs. “There’s a lot of disappointment knowing you’ve lost one game in the tournament and you’re out,” says Graeme Smith, showing a masterful understanding of how cups work.

| Day 11 |

Rest day. And, according to MS Dhoni, the players really need it. “It is just a three-hour match,” quoth the stumper. “But the intensity and involvement is more than a 50-over match or even a Test match.” Australia’s always-injured Shane Watson must surely agree. He lives up to his ‘New Flintoff tag’ as he returns home with a hamstring injury, leaving the Aussies with just 13 fit players.

| Day 12 |

Pakistan and India win through to a dream final after two breathless semis. In Cape Town, New Zealand go to pieces against Pakistan. A seething Daniel Vettori describes his side’s batting as “pretty inept” as they make 143/8. Ross Taylor manages to run out two team-mates in farcical circumstances and to spill a chance in the deep off Pakistan danger-man Imran Nazir. Nazir hits five sixes in a 59 that sets up the successful run chase.

In a noisy Kingsmead stadium full of their own supporters, India unseat Australia in a terrific topsy-turvy game. Another imperious innings from Yuvraj Singh (70 off 30 this time) leads India to a mighty 188/5, before a pumped-up Sree Sreesanth despatches Gilchrist and Hayden with a) perfect yorkers and b) a load of shouting, gesturing and punching the ground. Australia’s hearts-in-mouths chase twists both ways. With 54 needed off five and Hussey and Symonds at the crease, it looks their game. But Harbhajan Singh puts the clamps on and the Aussies wind up needing an impossible 22 off the last over.

| Day 13 |

Another rest day. It’s been an amazing tournament, almost perfectly run, but the Powers That Be will insist on a fly in the ointment. Holding the final on a Monday not a Sunday. What’s that about?

| Day 14 |

India snatch the trophy in the last over of a final worthy of a great tournament. In front of 32,000 in Jo’burg, two breathless weeks of cricket comes down to one ill-judged shot. With six needed off four balls, Misbah-ul-Haq (him again) opts to try an insane paddle over his shoulder off Joginder Sharma. He’s caught at short fine leg and the game is up for Pakistan. “No-one expected us to win,” says skipper Dhoni afterwards. “But the way we played today we deserve a big celebration.”

Luke Wright: who wants to be a T20 millionaire?

This interview originally appeared in the September 2008 issue of SPIN. Subscribe to Spin magazine for 10 issues and get a free Cricketers Who’s Who 2009 worth £18.99. 

Luke Wright is in the right place at the right time: a player built for Twenty20 who has moved into the England team just as the game’s shortest form takes over the world. He bowls 85mph, swinging deliveries and is especially effective bowling at the death; he hits the ball out of the ground effortlessly; he dives around the field like Jonty Rhodes. He’s young, dynamic, blond, spiky-haired and highly marketable: in short, he’s everything that Twenty20 cricket is about right now. 
Wright, discarded by Leicestershire as a teenager, seems sure to be one of the cricketers most likely to profit in a big way from the revolution. The 23-year-old alerted the England selectors last year with a 45-ball century in the Twenty20 Cup and also celebrated his England call-up with a 73-ball 125 against Gloucestershire in the Pro40. He biffed a superb 38-ball half-century on ODI debut, against India at the Oval last year, and has since been promoted up the order to take on the vital role of pinch-hitter in both ODIs and T20s.

He goes into the series with South Africa with a batting strike-rate of 95.89 from 10 ODIs and 127.27 from eight Twenty20 internationals. He tells SPIN of his love for Twenty20 and also how he rejected a lucrative offer to play in the IPL – despite a personal invitation from Sachin Tendulkar.

You’ve gone from being a Sussex squad player to an England T20 regular over the last 12 months. How does that feel?

It’s been pretty unbelievable, really. In the domestic Twenty20 last year I was just hoping to secure my place as an opener when Matty Prior was in the England team. From there everything just seemed to go so well and I managed to play well on TV a few times. Then, when Rav [Bopara] got injured I got my opportunity.

In fact I remember saying to my Dad after Rav’s injury, ‘I just might get a chance here, mate’. My Dad said, ‘Don’t be silly son, you’ve got some work to do yet’. Then when I got my chance the whole experience was fantastic and I’m still loving every minute of it. I just want it to continue for as long as possible.

Is the T20 format especially exciting to you?
I love everything about it: the batting, the bowling and I love diving around in the field as well. I love how quick it is and how intense it is. The people in the crowd really get into it and it inspires you as players when you see how much the fans get into it. You see the families there, the kids and just seeing the smiles and enjoyment on their faces does make it a very satisfying experience, to know that you are playing some part in entertaining them and sending them home feeling happy and that they have received their money’s worth.

I love the way the players are encouraged to be innovative in Twenty20, and I’m sure we will see more reverse sweeps, switch-hitting, yorkers, slow bouncers: anything to get an advantage.

So is four-day cricket effectively off the radar for a player like you?
Not at all, I love four-day cricket as well but it is the Twenty20 that is bringing in the finances for the counties and the players. But ask any young cricketer what their dream is and I would still like to think that it is about playing Test cricket for England. That is what people remember more than anything and that is the format that has the greatest history. So four-day cricket is the best way to develop your game for that arena.
I suppose Twenty20 and one-day internationals are my own favourite forms but I am working very hard at improving in first-class cricket. But ultimately, yes, I do love the fast tempo of the shorter formats.

Is T20 and all the associated rewards the talk of the dressing-room at the moment?
Yes, I would say it is. Everyone at county level this season was desperate to do well because it was a chance to go to the Stanford event in Antigua and there was also the lure of the Champions League and obviously possible IPL deals or ICL deals. As I found out myself, everyone knows it is a chance to put yourself on the map. Just look at what happened to Graham Napier this year. It can be a massive stepping stone in your career. Everyone’s watching Twenty20: the selectors, the spectators, media all over the world – and obviously the IPL teams, as Napes discovered when he apparently had offers to go to India.

But you rejected the chance to go to the 
IPL yourself earlier this year. What happened there?
I got offered the chance to go out there for three or four weeks early in our season and was then offered another chance to go out for the semi-final stage. Ravi Bopara was in the same boat. We didn’t discuss our offers together at the time: we both wanted to focus on trying to get into the England team instead and that meant we needed to get our heads down for our counties. Remember, this season we didn’t quite know how the ECB were going to react to anybody going out to play IPL, so me and Ravi both took the safe option and stayed in England. 


Can you tell us who the IPL offers were from?
There were two or three teams that came in for me. It’s funny because one of the offers came when I was on my way to Southampton to play for England Lions. This call came when I was in the car and it was Sachin Tendulkar. I was sure that it must have been one of the Sussex lads having a laugh. But it really was Sachin.
We spoke for about five or ten minutes. He asked me how I felt about going out there to play some IPL and the basic message I told him was that I would love to play out there another time but that I was concentrating on trying to get into the England team. Chennai and another team also contacted my agent.

I wouldn’t change the decision I made for anything: England is my main concern. It sounds as though it’s going to be different next year, though: the ECB have said as long as it doesn’t interfere with England commitments they won’t mind if we spend some time there so let’s see what happens.

Do you think you impressed Tendulkar with your 50 on debut against India last year?
I hope so but I don’t know exactly. Obviously, I did okay at that time so for someone of his stature and someone who is so widely respected around the world to be ringing me was a huge honour. It was actually a surreal moment; I thought it wasn’t actually happening, but it did and it was a massive boost for me. I was on a high for quite some time after that.

This year in the Twenty20 Cup we have seen how a few journeymen or other people who might not have been recognised all that much be catapulted to stardom…
Absolutely. The biggest example would be Graham Napier. He has gone from being seen as an average county cricketer to the star of the competition and someone who is apparently attracting IPL offers. We have a young guy at Sussex called Rory Hamilton-Brown and I believe he could do the same thing as he has a lot of ability. It only takes one big performance now and you are a star across the world with so many people watching on TV and with so many media people following Twenty20.

Have you thought much about the prospect of playing in the Stanford games and becoming an instant millionaire?
It’s great that people are talking about these kinds of events and it is obviously going to be a huge occasion. I know it sounds clichéd but I really am not thinking about buying a big house or anything like that at this time as my main focus is on doing well against South Africa.

If I do well in the T20 game and the ODI series against South Africa then I should have a great chance of being there in Antigua but I can’t allow myself to get distracted by the glamour and hype before I have actually put myself on the plane.
Have we reached the time now where players are starting to think less about Test cricket and are more focused on making their name and money from Twenty20?
I think definitely people are thinking 
like that, especially those who maybe don’t think they have much of a chance of it in Test cricket. For me, Test cricket is the ultimate goal but I wouldn’t be surprised 
if we saw a lot of new names come through in Twenty20: people who think that is 
their strength.

Are you looking forward to the Twenty20 World Cup in England next year?
Yes, because we didn’t perform that well in South Africa last year. We definitely underachieved given the players we had there, so I am positive the lads will be 
very determined to put on a better show
 in our own country, where I’m sure it will be fantastic spectacle. We showed in New Zealand this year that we are improving in that format and that we can beat good teams, so it’s up to us to kick on. Again, players might be seeing this event as 
the perfect platform with huge audiences to say, “I can go and play in the IPL, or 
ICL”. It is a great chance to impress and earn a contract.

You have the same management company as Andrew Flintoff. Do you spend much time together?
Fred has been brilliant with me actually, and I spoke to him a lot while he was doing his rehab and when he was at Lancashire. He will always help me out if I need him or need some advice. He is always there for me and I am very thankful to have a someone like him to support me if I need it.

What is it like to be compared with Freddie?
It’s always nice to be compared to people like that but I won’t be allowing myself to get carried away by those kinds of comparisons: he is a world beater and I have to work hard and perform at the highest level to get anywhere near to what he has achieved.

What’s the best advice Freddie has given you so far?
He tells me to give myself a chance when I’m batting and to be aggressive when I am bowling. The best advice I have taken on board is to keep my head when I am batting. He reminded me that I don’t have to hit every ball out of the park from the start and that I should have a look and get myself in first because I hit the ball well enough to catch up later in my innings. I thought it was good advice and I would admit that I did try to be too aggressive too early at times last year. It’s all about getting the balance right.

What’s the toughest time you have had since playing for England?
Every time I have gone out to bat or bowl it has always been tough. But I have enjoyed learning to open the batting at England level. Game by game I am learning something new but it is still enjoyable even though it has been hard cricket. I have bowled overs at the death and those experiences have been good for me getting used to pressure situations. The more you are exposed to that environment the more confident you become at that level against the top players.

People said that Twenty20 was easier on the body for players than, say, Test cricket because it is shorter. But with the volume of Twenty20 growing and the matches so intense, will players suffer physically?
Maybe. It’s hard for me to say. I can only talk from personal experience and if I go back to the matches we played in New Zealand this year, me and Broady [Stuart Broad] were buzzing into the early hours, high on the adrenaline of the games.
I would go to his room and stay there until two or three in the morning and we would just talk about the match or the atmosphere and the tension of what we had gone through. But it would all be from enjoyment rather than worrying about the strain on the body. Twenty20 is fast and furious, it is intense, but it is as much fun to play as it is to watch.

This interview originally appeared in the September 2008 issue of SPIN. Subscribe to Spin magazine for 10 issues and get a free Cricketers Who’s Who 2009 worth £18.99. 

Eoin Morgan: how (and why) I play those amazing T20 shots

Subscribe to Spin magazine for 10 issues and get a free Cricketers Who’s Who 2009 worth £18.99. 

When I started at Middlesex I was a conventional player. But I began to feel I needed other options. Limited-overs cricket is pushing the game forward and scores of 300 in 50-over cricket are par now. You can’t afford to be bogged down and scoring at a run a ball is no longer acceptable. In Twenty20, especially, you have to go at eight or nine an over at least. 

I went through a period where I was getting a bit tied down and, not being the size of someone like Graeme Hick, I was looking at other scoring opportunities rather than just hitting over the top. That’s when I started to practise these sweeps. 

I don’t think I’ve ever played out a maiden in Twenty20 cricket.

I  started playing the sweep shots about three years ago. I hadn’t played much limited-overs cricket until then and Twenty20, in particular, has given players a real spur to improve. I’ve practised the shots hard – as much as I would practise the cut or a pull – and while I started out only playing them against the slow bowlers, I’ll play them against anyone now. I play them in the championship, too.
I think I played the reverse sweep twice during my last championship hundred, against Leicestershire.

You do have to premeditate the strokes, but the idea is that they feel like second nature. I don’t feel any need to play them just because people know I can. That’s the whole point of practice; it becomes instinctive. I still hit most of my sixes over mid-wicket with flicks off the seamers.

It’s great to put some pressure on the bowler; to make them change their plans; to get them wondering where they’re going to bowl next. Sometimes I’ll play the shot just to get them to change the field.

Often they’ll move mid-wicket to protect them from the reverse sweep and that opens up a gap. I like it when you can hear the fielding side becoming irritated. Bowlers hate the sweeps, too: they just don’t know where to bowl. It does make it very hard to set a field. 

“The grip for the reverse-reverse sweep  is the same as the grip for hurling, which is a sport I played when I was young, so I feel very comfortable with it. I read recently that the physical skills you learn between the ages of nine and 12 are hugely influential and that’s the period
I was playing hurling. I think it gave me strong and flexible wrists and an instinctive sense that the ball could be hit in different areas.”

A full T20 masterclass from Eoin, complete with sequence photography, appears in the July issue of SPIN, in shops June 5. Eoin will be blogging for Spin throughout the ICC World T20.

Subscribe to Spin magazine for 10 issues and get a free Cricketers Who’s Who 2009 worth £18.99. The latest issue features Stuart Broad, Eoin Morgan, Lalit Modi, Kevin Pietersen and a full Hawkeye-powered team-by-team guide to the T20 World Cup. 

Six things the ICC World T20 is going to tell us

Have England finally got it right?

Let’s look at the stats: England have played 15 Twenty20 internationals. They’ve won six and lost nine. They’ve used 43 different players. (Forty-three!) Including eight wicket-keepers. At the first ICC World T20 in 2007, England beat Zimbabwe and lost to everyone else. Do the stats lie? Not really. Twenty20 is yet another game that England has given to the world before stepping aside and letting them give us a
good whacking. For a major team in any major sport to be sixth favourites – as England are – for a World Cup in their own country is pretty much unprecedented. 

At least for this tournament England, belatedly, have the squad that the media and fans (and common sense) demanded. There’s four more new Twenty20 names in the squad for this tournament: Rob Key, James Foster, Graham Napier and Eoin Morgan, all of whom played at Twenty20 finals day last year. The crazy days of picking Alastair Cook and not Dimitri Mascarenhas have been quietly forgotten by the selectors. 

There is an optimism about England’s latest fresh start but the thinking behind it is not so different to taking the T20 specialists Chris Schofield, James Kirtley and Darren Maddy to South Africa in 2007: there, England were not outclassed, but the new-look side lacked the experience as a team to deliver the killer punch when required. 

Many players regard the secret of T20 as having a settled team, with each player familiar with his roles England, despite seeming to have settled, finally, on the 15 best individual players, don’t have that luxury.  Then again if Graham Napier hits 152 off 58 balls in every game, maybe they won’t need it.

Has the IPL put India miles ahead of everyone else?

Kevin Pietersen thinks so. “India have taken the game to a new level,” he said in March. “Their scores in New Zealand were ridiculous. Compare that to how we played in New Zealand last year and they are on a different plane. We have got to do something.” 

True enough: the theory is that the six-weeks-a-year of all-star T20 in the IPL has hot-housed India’s Twenty20 and one-day skills even since they took the inaugural title in 2007. India’s fielding, traditionally hopeless, has picked up; their bowling has more variety than ever, with at least four fast bowlers competing for spots alongside Harbhajan’s lethal mid-innings mystery spin. But it’s the batting that makes most opponents take a step back.  

Racing to a 3-0 lead in the one-dayers in New Zealand, India scored at a phenomenal 7.58 runs an over, making their 5-0 hammering of England last November look like a gentle slap on the wrist. At Christchurch, they racked up 393/5 off 50 overs; at Hamilton, they knocked off 201 to win inside 24 overs. 

The Hamilton win was fired by Virender Sehwag’s 125 off 74 balls. Was that innings more destructive than Yuvraj Singh’s 138 off 78 against England at Rajkot? Indian fans won’t care about the details: theirs is the team to beat in this tournament. Perhaps the most galling things for the opposition is that Tendulkar and Laxman, who would walk into anyone else’s side are again deemed surplus to requirements as MS Dhoni’s team defend their title.

Will it be as big a party as the first tournament in South Africa?

The 50-over ICC World Cup in the West Indies had gone on for seven weeks, with local supporters priced out of the stadiums and the cricket offering only sporadic peaks. Hopes of the first ICC World Twenty20 picking things up were not high: it had had a difficult birth; there was some dispute as to whether T20 should even be seen as an international format, particularly from India who had never held a domestic T20 tournament and initially declined the invitation to appear in the world event. When India did finally relent, they agreed to send what appeared to be a second-string team. 

Then the tournament kicked off. And it was brilliant: a short, sharp two weeks, it passed in a blur of full-on cricket in front of near-capacity attendances thanks to an inspired £1-a-ticket, bring-your-own-picnic policy; Zimbabwe beat Australia and made us all laugh and India’s team of youngsters and unknowns absolutely stormed it. 

The party atmosphere and the all-action cricket fed off each other and tournament director Steve Elworthy – the ex-South African fast bowler – was deemed to have saved the ICC from themselves. This was how an international tournament was meant to look and feel. The ECB snapped Elworthy up to repeat the trick in England. No pressure, then.

Why are Sri Lanka only fifth favourites?

Okay, they’re in the Group of Death: Group C – Australia, Sri Lanka and West Indies – the only one not to include a minnow. But surely Sri Lanka are the dark horses for this tournament? Lasith Malinga, fresh back from a long-term injury, was the top wicket taker at the halfway stage of the recent IPL, slinging down unplayable yorkers at 90-plus mph; and in Ajantha Mendis, the Sirils have world cricket’s next big star. Mendis’ weird, unplayable mix of medium pace off-spinners, leg spinners and his own ‘carom’ ball brought his 13 wickets at 11 runs each against India’s mighty batsmen last year and if Dhoni’s men eventually managed to half-work him out, the rest of the world has not yet had the chance. 

The Sirils are still a mighty sharp fielding unit too and there are few stronger batting line-ups than the one led by Mahela Jayawardene, Sanath Jayasuriya and Kumar Sangakkara. Oh, and then they’ve got Murali, too.

Will it be a breakthrough for women’s cricket?

For the first time, a women’s World Cup is being played at the same time as the men’s. The first week of the women’s tournament will be played in Taunton, before the semi-finals and final are played as curtain-raisers to the men’s semi-finals and final, at Trent Bridge, The Oval and Lord’s. 

While the England women’s World Cup triumph was well covered on TV in Australia – and shown on Sky in the UK – the attendance at the ground was just over 2000. Conversely, when England women played Australia as a curtain-raiser ahead of a 2008 CB Series game at the MCG, there were around 30,000 in the crowd. Months later, nine of the team were able to effectively turn professional, splitting their time between training and coaching on the Chance to shine scheme. 

Showcasing the women’s game on the highest-profile stage of the men’s game in June is another giant step for the increasingly professional and ambitious women’s game. 

Will the T20 sceptics come to the party?

The ECB’s bold new invention to revitalise cricket has taken off over the world. But Twenty20 is, even now, played against a certain background of scepticism from the self-appointed guardians of the game. (This while the MCC, the real guardians of the game, have got with the programme and are suggesting day-night floodlit Tests with pink balls). 

The players get it and the kids get it: Twenty20 is a proper game that needs a lot of nerve, clever captaincy and a particular kind of skill. Maybe two-and-a-half weeks of watching Virender Sehwag trying to lamp Mitchell Johnson out of the park will finally persuade the sceptics to join the party. 

Let’s concede one thing to the sceptics, though: the scheduling of this summer has been impossible. Then again: imagine the FA being told to stage the football World Cup during the domestic football season. There would be no clever answer. Well, that’s the task the ECB have had to take on. The West Indies series was a waste of time, but there’s simply too much event cricket to squeeze in this year: something has had to give and it would appear to be the Twenty20 Cup, the usual domestic centrepiece rushed through with little fanfare. 

The imaginative, if not practical, solution might have been to axe the Pro40 a year earlier and play the domestic T20 in the second half of the summer. But then it would have clashed with the Ashes

For the anti-climactic feel of the early T20 Cup matches to be taken as evidence that the game is up for T20, rather than merely the one-off result of unfortunate fixture congestion, seems wishful thinking on the part of T20′s opponents.

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ICC World T20 highlights on terrestrial TV in UK

Subscribe to Spin magazine for 10 issues and get a free Cricketers Who’s Who 2009 worth £18.99. The latest issue features Stuart Broad, Eoin Morgan, Lalit Modi, Kevin Pietersen and a full Hawkeye-powered team-by-team guide to the T20 World Cup. A must for all proper cricket fan

The BBC has signed a deal to broadcast daily TV highlights of the ICC World Twenty20.

BBC2 will show highlights of the England-Netherlands game – the tournament curtain-raiser – at 11.35 on Friday, with daily highlights at a similar time throughout the tournament. The tournament is to be screened live on Sky Sports in the UK. 

The BBC attracted widespread criticism for its failure to bid for live cricket in the last round of rights negotiations last summer. ECB sources suggested that the BBC had, simply, decided to focus its budget and airtime on its new Formula 1 coverage rather than to take on Sky in a cricket-rights battle.

However, the Corporation belatedly pitched in for rights to the 17-day tournament – but has declined to publicise the fact widely, allowing information to sneak out in a weirdly lowkey fashion.

It will be the first time Twenty20 has been shown on terrestrial television in the UK.

Details of the coverage are unconfirmed, though it is likely that the BBC would go with the same presenting team as it used in its last foray into televised cricket, during the 2006/07 Ashes/World Cup winter. Main presenter Manish Bhasin and roving reporter Richi Persad attracted criticism for their informal style – not least from our own TV critic the Third Umpire – but it seems that they may be given another chance, with extra input from some of the BBC Five Live commentators and summarisers.

Subscribe to Spin magazine for 10 issues and get a free Cricketers Who’s Who 2009 worth £18.99. The latest issue features Stuart Broad, Eoin Morgan, Lalit Modi, Kevin Pietersen and a full Hawkeye-powered team-by-team guide to the T20 World Cup. A must for all proper cricket fan

Strauss misses Twenty20 squad

Chris Tremlett and Sajid Mahmood return to England colours in the 30-man T20 preliminary squad – while Test captain Andrew Strauss is ‘rested’.

In Strauss’ absence, the captain for the tournament will be named at a later date – though the inclusion of Strauss’ Middlesex colleague Shaun Udal, who skippered the county to the T20 Cup last year, is intriguing.

Alongside Hampshire skipper Dimitri Mascarenhas, Udal will be a prime candidate to lead the side.

At 40, Udal is the oldest member of the party – while Warwickshire seamer Chris Woakes, who only turned 20 in March, is the youngest.

Essex skipper James Foster finally returns as one of three keepers named in the party, while  Yorkshire seamer Tim Bresnan and  Worcestershire fast bowler Kabir Ali are also recalled for the first time since the disastrous ODI series with Sri Lanka in 2006.

New faces include Kent’s Joe Denly (alongside county skipper Rob Key) and Middlesex and Ireland’s Eoin Morgan (but not, as widely predicted, Dawid Malan).

Chairman of selectors Geoff Miller said: “Andrew Strauss had an outstanding tour of the West Indies during a difficult winter. Andrew and the selectors believe his game is better suited to Test and one-day international cricket and it is for that reason he has not been selected in the preliminary 30-man squad. Andrew is focused on the Test and ODI format of the game despite not being included in the 30-man Twenty20 squad.

“The selectors have decided against naming a captain for the ICC World Twenty20 at this stage because we feel it is important to comprehensively review the recent tour of the Caribbean and seek input from all relevant parties including the incoming England team director who is yet to be appointed. Once these processes have been achieved the selectors will name England’s Twenty20 captain in due course.”

Full squad Kabir Ali (Worcestershire); James Anderson (Lancashire); Gareth Batty (Worcestershire); Ian Bell (Warwickshire); Ravi Bopara (Essex); Timothy Bresnan (Yorkshire); Stuart Broad (Nottinghamshire); Paul Collingwood (Durham); Stephen Davies (Worcestershire); Joe Denly (Kent); James Foster (Essex); Andrew Flintoff (Lancashire); Stephen Harmison (Durham); Robert Key (Kent); Sajid Mahmood (Lancashire); Dimitri Mascarenhas (Hampshire); Eoin Morgan (Middlesex); Graham Napier (Essex); Samit Patel (Nottinghamshire); Kevin Pietersen (Hampshire); Liam Plunkett (Durham); Matthew Prior (Sussex); Adil Rashid (Yorkshire); Owais Shah (Middlesex); Ryan Sidebottom (Nottinghamshire); Graeme Swann (Nottinghamshire); Chris Tremlett (Hampshire); Shaun Udal (Middlesex); Chris Woakes (Warwickshire); Luke Wright (Sussex).

England’s Twenty20 squad: some pointers

Note: England squad has now been posted here

It’s never been entirely clear to me why cricket and football teams have to announce these big preliminary squads ages before a tournament. They’re allowed to bring new people in after they’ve done it, after all.

I guess it’s just another pre-publicity device, designed to put the event in the minds of the media and forcing them to write about it.

I seem to have fallen for it.

Anyway, as you must know, England are now the lowest-ranked Twenty20 team in the world – or would be, if the ICC kept rankings. They don’t, but I’ve got a calculator and six wins in 15 starts puts England below even the West Indies. They’ve used 42 players in those games, including eight wicket-keepers.

Brilliant.

Andy Flower recently hinted that England might need to bring in some specialists for the Twenty20. Common sense might suggest that, given the lack of a head coach, tomorrow’s squad will leave plenty of room for fudging, and will contain a few new faces, some T20 specialists, some youngsters untried at international level – and plenty of old lags too. 

The core players who have let everyone down for the last two or three years; the young T20 specialists; the old experts. England don’t need to decide which way to jump quite yet, so I expect their party of 30 to leave their options open, with representatives of all three groups..

Muggins here is going to name his own 30, based on my own outlandish ideas and my second-guessing of the selectors and their more conservative instincts. If I name all 30 correctly, feel free to send money.

The XI that got skittled for 121 v the Windies in March were: Bopara, Davies, KP, Shah, Collingwood, Strauss, Mascarenhas, Batty, Broad, Khan, Anderson.

In addition, Andrew Flintoff, Matt Prior and Steve Harmison played in the series-clinching ODI on Friday. First-choice spinner Graeme Swann was missing only through injury.

Adil Rashid has sat on the bench throughout the ODI series, but will surely stay in the squad. And there’s really no reason to leave out Ryan Sidebottom, despite his apparent decline in form and fitness since he started to come under the charge of England’s coaching team.

I haven’t seen too much of Amjad Khan – but what I have seen – maybe unfairly – does not make me feel he is a must, by any stretch.

Flintoff’s hat-trick at the death in the series-clinching ODI on Friday once again left no doubt that he should be the first man on the England team-sheet, whatever form of the game you’re talking about.

For Twenty20, Dimi Mascarenhas must be the second.

Looking at the XI who lost the last Twenty20, there’s four who might not rank in the country’s top 30 T20 players: Khan, Gareth Batty, Andrew Strauss and James Anderson. (Maybe I’m being unfair on Anderson: in that last ODI, he showed he can bowl yorkers at the death and he is one of the top two fielders in the side – but, despite his new acclaim as one of the Wisden Cricketers of the Year I still have him down as a bowler who can go for plenty.)

Will England have got their act together already, agreed with Strauss that he needs a rest ahead of the Ashes and got a ready-made replacement skipper in place? I kind of doubt it. So expect Strauss to be in the 30 and Anderson, but maybe not Batty.

New faces? Well, Graham Napier was belatedly given England recognition when he was called up for the Lions in New Zealand last month. As well as his famous clean-hitting, he bowls at 90mph – only two English players took more wickets in last year’s T20 Cup. It’s pretty shameful that he’s not had a look-in until now.

(The Alastair Cook selection ahead of Napier and Mascarenhas for Stanford still strikes me six months later as a resignation issue for all concerned: England selectors knowingly selecting a team that they surely know to be below-strength? And if they didn’t realise that it was below-strength by choosing Cook ahead of Napier, they should be sacked in any case. Anyone disagree?)

England should be considering a roster of young players from the Twenty20 Cup champions Middlesex. Dawid Malan hit a T20 hundred off Flintoff and Dominic Cork’s Lancashire attack last summer – and then top scored when Middlesex played England at Stanford. If those performances haven’t literally put him in the shop window, then… I’ll be very surprised. On paper at least Malan’s leg-spin offers the side another option, which will count in his favour with the selectors.

Steven Finn, Malan’s lanky fast-bowling team-mate likewise bowled well to England at Stanford, suggesting he has a big-match temperament as well as the ability to bowl 85mph yorkers at will – a decent skill when you’re 6ft7. Finn is also an improbably good fielder for such a tall man.

Will Steve Harmison be in the squad? This is almost a call that could decide England’s whole summer. One bowler who showed in last year’s domestic T20 that he can do everything Harmison used to – 90-plus pace, hostility, wicket-taking and the odd bout of complete failure of control – was Saj Mahmood. Harmison himself hasn’t been trusted in a T20 international for nearly three years, but we can still probably expect his inclusion in the 30, possibly to be excised when the final cut comes. 

Since falling out with Duncan Fletcher, Essex keeper James Foster has weirdly not had a look-in at England level. Foster averaged 36, had a strike rate of 140 during Essex’s run to last year’s T20 finals day. Given that Prior might be considered as a specialist batter, it’s possible that Foster will become a third wicket-keeper in the party.

The most successful opening partnership in domestic T20 are Joe Denly and Rob Key. The pair did not set the county championship alight last year nor the Lions’ tour of New Zealand yet it’s hard to see them not being selected for this Twenty20 party. Having led Kent to the Cup in 2007 and the runners-up spot – lost by a whisker – last year, Key is also a potential candidate for the captaincy alongside Dimitri Mascarenhas. 

Jonathan Trott was the top batter on the recent Lions tour and is widely seen as the next-in-line for England in all forms. He had a go in the T20 side back in 2007 and there’s no reason to suppose the selectors won’t see him in the top 30 players now. 

Luke Wright likewise who in his 16 ODIs has shown – admittedly sporadically – that he can do the business with both bat and ball – remember when he was called up to bowl the last over of that ODI in New Zealand, held his nerve and saved the game by only conceding six? Wright also hit a century on the Lions tour.

Yorkshire’s seaming all-rounder Tim Bresnan is another ODI alumni who may return. Picked too soon under Duncan Fletcher, he looked out of his depth in the 2006 ODI thrashing by Sri Lanka but has recovered well for Yorkshire. England need to stock up on those hard-to-get away medium pacers and Bresnan, still only 24, fits the bill.

Middlesex’s Tim Murtagh took more wickets than any other Englishman in last year’s T20. Swinging it at 80mph may not necessarily make Murtagh a candidate for the next Ashes tour – but the notion of seeing the T20 side as a feeder for the Test team is plain foolishness. If we think – as we should – that playing the World T20 in England in early-season should give English-style bowlers an advantage, then let’s pick some English-style bowlers. 

Surrey’s Saffer-born seamer Jade Dernbach, 23, was the leading one-day wicket-taker in the country last year and early-season reports suggest we should expect more of the same this year. He was part of the ECB’s fast bowling development camp in Florida before Christmas and being named as something of a wild card in the England 30 might give him extra incentive in the early season Friends Provident games.

Ahead of both of those will be Kabir Ali. He swings the ball at pace and despite the dark memories of his last spell in an England shirt – 0/72 off six v Sri Lanka at Leeds in 2006 – he gets wickets quicker than anyone in the county game. His strike-rate in his 14 ODIs – a wicket every 33 balls – is similar to Broad’s (32.7) and better than Anderson’s (37.5)

Spinners? Swann and Rashid will be in there – and maybe as many as three others. The three most successful spinners in the domestic game are all veterans. Nayan Doshi (30), Shaun Udal (40) and the recently-retired Ian Salisbury. 

Personally, I see zero merit in looking to ‘blood’ youngsters when you are trying to win a tournament. Pick Udal and let him bowl at the other end to Rashid. 

Will England have forgiven Samit Patel for getting too tubby over the winter? Tricky one. Being axed for being too fat is pretty embarrassing but he certainly offers plenty with bat and ball in T20, so I’d be tempted to pick him for the 30. Then again, I don’t know if he’s spent the time since his demotion in the gym or in the larder. 

There’s nothing to suggest that erstwhile New Botham Ian Blackwell is on the selectors’ radar – but he hit 1000 runs last year and has just signed for Durham, the champions, so it might be an inspired choice to name him in the 30, again to give him that extra incentive.

It’s never been entirely clear why Sussex’s Michael Yardy got the chop from the England ODI squad – his economy rate for his darted-in spinners was among the very best in the world, while playing in a team that was generally getting hammered. And he can offer options as a finisher with the bat, too.

Batsmen Andrew Strauss, Rob Key, Joe Denly, Ravi Bopara, Kevin Pietersen, Owais Shah, Paul Collingwood, Jonathan Trott, Dawid Malan, Graham Napier, Luke Wright

Keepers Matt Prior, Steven Davies, James Foster

All-rounders Andrew Flintoff, Dimitri Mascarenhas, Graeme Swann, Michael Yardy, Adil Rashid, Stuart Broad, Tim Bresnan 

Fast bowlers James Anderson, Steve Harmison, Steven Finn, Sajid Mahmood, Ryan Sidebottom, Kabir Ali, Tim Murtagh, Jade Dernbach

Spinners Shaun Udal

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