Friday: India face first real test of ICC World Twenty20
June 11, 2009 by Nick Sadleir
Filed under News
At Lord’s on Friday, the defending World T20 champions do battle with the most unpredictable side in world cricket. It should be a corker.
The group stages have not given us any conclusive proof of what to expect from either side. While India have cruised to wins over the inferior opposition of Bangladesh and Ireland, West Indies have a) thrashed Australia before b) looking back to their usual haphazardness against Sri Lanka.
On Wednesday, in a dead rubber, Sri Lanka named their best side and played to win and maintain momentum, while the West Indies rested key players and showed that they couldn’t give two hoots whether they won or lost.
Sri Lanka scored 192 runs and in reply the West Indies fell 15 runs short, far fewer than the number of runs they gifted to Sri Lanka through over ten counts of appalling outfielding from, some of whom wore neon pink, yellow and orange sunglasses. Chris Gayle’s pair looked like the kind you get in a one pound store – fortunately he only used them to watch from the sidelines as he was sitting out to rest his various injuries.
You never know which West Indies will turn up on the day.
Maybe it will be the West Indies that thrashed Australia through Gayle’s onslaught of 88 runs off 50 balls looked dangerous with the ball and didn’t field too badly, which is saying a lot.
By contrast, India found themselves in the easiest pool of the opening round. Bangladesh and Ireland might have given India an effortless route through to the next round, but they offered precious little by way of match practise.
Virender Sehwag, the most explosive batsman in world cricket, has pulled out of the tournament, thanks to his shoulder injury. Luckily India have a more than able replacement in Rohit Sharma, the Under-23 player of the IPL. Sharma grafted a graceful 36 off 23 balls against Bangladesh, which he bettered with an unforced and unbeaten 52 off 48 balls against Ireland. He is a batsman in form who offers a handy bowling option too. Sharma took one of the three hat-tricks in the IPL and is just one of a team of potential match-winners.
Dinesh Kartik, who was excellent with the bat and the gloves during Delhi’s IPL campaign, has been added to the India squad in replace of Sehwag.
Zaheer Khan showed he has recovered from his own shoulder injury when he claimed the figures of 4/19 that helped his side reduce Ireland to 112/8 in and 18-over match on Wednesday.
“It will be good if we can get early wickets against the West Indies,” Zaheer said after India’s eight-wicket victory. “Removing Gayle will be a great advantage for us. I am hopeful because we are clicking as a bowling unit and each bowler understands his role.
“We are chipping in with wickets at the right time.”
“The shoulder is coming along well. I feel better day by day and I am improving, I feel 100-percent now” added Zaheer.
Captain M.S. Dhoni admitted that his team was yet to peak when he said, “Every game you start from scratch.”
“The bowlers did very well and it’s a real positive that they are doing their jobs. But we can do better in the field. It was not our best day. I am talking about 85-90 percent efficiency, but we can do it.”
The match is certainly India’s first real test of the tournament and after South Africa’s comprehensive win over England, it will no doubt tell us a lot about who is likely to go through to the semi-finals from that group – and what England have to do in the next three days to stay on at their own party.
West Indies (possible): Gayle, Fletcher, Marshall, Chanderpaul, Sarwan, Bravo, Pollard, Ramdin, Taylor, Benn, Edwards.
Lendl Simmons – who came in for Gayle – batted, bowled and fielded well against Sri Lanka – and may retain his place, possibly at the expense of Pollard.
India (possible): Gambhir, R. Sharma, Dhoni, Yuvraj, Raina, Y Pathan, I Pathan, Harbhajan, Zaheer, I Sharma, Ojha.
The Hit Parade: the 2007 ICC World Twenty20 day by day
June 5, 2009 by SPIN
Filed under Featured Content, SPIN Gold
| 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.”
