Indian cricket team started the World Cup against Bangladesh. They won comfortably, but their tied match (even after scoring 330+ runs) against England and their loss to South Africa (where they lost 9 wickets for 29 runs) had left them with 7 points with one more match to go.
Frankly, other than the match against England and Bangladesh, Indian batting has looked pathetic.
But thankfully, Bangladesh has obliged England, India and West-Indies by losing to the mighty South Africans. Now Bangladesh is stuck on 6 points but with such a bad net-run rate that their hopes lie in India beating West-Indies by 100s of runs or by chasing the entire West Indian total in 5 overs. With our boys in such glorious form, it we can consider it a impossibility.
The quarter-final scenarios for India!
India can either come in 2nd in the group with 9 points or lose to West Indies and end up 3rd.
If India is second in the group they will play Australia or New Zealand in the QFs.
If India ends up third they play Sri Lanka in the QFs.
India whatever happens will not play against Pakistan in the Quarter Finals.
Wow, lets see how this drama unfolds on Sunday, 20th March 2011 in Chennai.
Cricket is a game that always has romance behind it. Small teams beat big teams, reputations are lost and made and teams find themselves in the dumps and manage to rise up from the ashes to become champions. That what a cricket tournament is all about and this ICC T20 World Cup is the same. Here is a bit on the four semi finalists and their prospects and what might drive them to become champions.
Australia has won 4 world cup tournaments in the ODI format along with winning the Champions Trophy twice. They were ranked the no 1 in Test cricket for pretty much the last 15 years until recently when India and South Africa have started to outshine them. There is on silverware Australia has not won and that is the T20 World Cup trophy. So Australia would be desperate to win this time around when their side is probably the most complete and consistent running upto the semi finals.
England has been a surprise in this tournament. They always had talented players but always ended up losing tournaments. When it came to major ICC tournaments unlike Australia which has won almost everything England has a empty trophy cabinet. So this would be a fantastic chance for them to start winning something on the world stage.
Pakistan has had its cricket battered and injured. Sometimes by terrorists who fired bullets at visiting teams and at other times with their captain trying to bite the cricket ball. They are a group of rag tag team which play like champions one day and the next day play worse than a school team. Sometimes they play like both on the same day so they are unpredictable at best but they are defending champions and would love to show the world that they rule T20 cricket again.
Sri Lanka is a fine unit. If you think about their performances they featured in T20 World Cup final last year. They also were runners up in the ODI world cup in 2007. It is obviously talented and have probably the best T20 bowler in Malinga. They would love to win this World Cup and usher in a new era in Sri Lankan cricket like Ranatunga did way back in the late 90s when they won the World Cup.
So that finishes my views on what this T20 World Cup victory could mean to the four finalists. I have a feeling the Australia will end up winners in this edition. So who do you think will win the T20 World Cup?
13th May 2010 21.00 IST England vs Srilanka, Gros Islet – First Semi Final
14th May 2010 21.00 IST Australia vs Pakistan, Gros Islet – Second Semi Final
India has had a rich history of Batsmen who had wrists of steel and footwork fancier than a gazelle. But they have always had a problem facing short balling and always had a issue with unearthing good fast bowlers. India has always suffered when fast bowlers gave the batting order some chin music but off late India has had the Dravids and Tendulkars to deal with the short stuff and manage.
But the T20 World Cup does not feature these old guys and we have new young breed of batsman who instead of playing a straight forward drive end up playing the scoop. The performance of our batsman must have left MS Dhoni popularly nicknamed as Captain Cool as Captain Clueless.
The curious case of being clueless
MS Dhoni won the toss on two occasions and decided that the pitch had a bit in it for the fast bowlers and so decided to bowl first to get early breakthrough. So far so good, but then India had two pacemen, one spinner and 5 part times spinners.
So India ended up opening the bowling with Harbhajan Singh a spinner and used up his three overs with the new ball on a seaming wicket. So what followed against Australia and West Indies was pretty similar that part time spinners went for sixes and fours all the time and the only respite was when the batsmen thought of taking it easy.
Strangely Indias big win against South Africa came while batting first and that was when Indian batsmen played out the new ball and hammered the older one.
India is pretty much out of the T20 World Cup and will have to beat Sri Lanka and hope that Australia beat West Indies. Too many ifs and buts and frankly not so good for us fans who like a straight forward victory march.
Dhoni is not to be entirely blamed for the bad show as some of the fancied names like Murali Vijay, Y Pathan and R Jadega have hardly made their presence felt.
When Ravindra Jadega bats at number 9 and bowls only 2 overs as a part timer then we are playing with 10 and a half players instead of 11. But then I did warn you that it is Captain Clueless who is picking the team. 😛
The ICC T20 World Cup in the West Indies has unraveled two new players. No they do not play for any team and don’t bat or bowl or field for that matter. They are not even controversial umpires. They are mathematicians who came up with the Duckworth-Lewis method of calculating target scores in case of rain shortened matches.
Duckworth-Lewis method is a statistical method which involved calculating progressive scores based of past scores in One Day Internationals along with using wickets in hand as a resource to score more runs later on in the innings.
Take for instance the match between England vs West Indies. England scored a fantastic score of 191/5 in 20 overs. In the second innings it rained and West Indies had to scored 60 runs of 6 overs. So instead of scoring almost over 9.5 runs an over for over 20 overs it left West Indies to score 10 runs an over for only 6 overs.
I think West Indies can count themselves lucky. I think the problem here is that in a T20 match giving wickets a lot of importance as a resource could be counter-productive unlike in ODIs.
For instance even if a team has lost 6 wickets in 15 overs and has scored 120 runs they can still put up 160-170 runs with the last 4 wickets. The last 4 wickets can be more effective in 5 overs of a T20 innings than a 12 overs of a 50 over match.
So do you think T20 cricket need a different way to calculate scores and chuck the Duckworth-Lewis method atleast in this format of the game. Do let me know through your comments.
The T20 World Cup tournament will start in a couple of days on 30th April and all the big boys of Cricket will try to go all out to win the coveted trophy. This is the third edition and India along with Pakistan have been the previous winners.
So who will win the trophy and become World T20 Champions?
I do not think it is fair to expect Zimbabwe, Bangladesh, Afghanistan and Ireland to have any real possibilities to become T20 Champs. It might be a miracle to see anyone of these teams to come up to the Semi-Finals.
So that leaves us with 8 teams and here is a analysis of their strengths and weakness.
Australia
Probably one of the most talented teams with great fielding. Australia has not one only one type of International event and that is the T20 World Cup. Knowing the proud Aussies they would be desperate to win. Their weakness could be a lot of youngsters led by a slightly inexperienced captain in Micheal Clarke. But then again MS Dhoni did lead a very young and inexperienced to T20 glory in 2007.
Player to watch out: Doug Bollinger especially after his fantastic performance for IPL champions Chennai Super Kings.
England
I feel England takes limited overs cricket not too seriously and they probably take T20 format even less seriously which of course hampers their ability to win big tournaments. So I would be very suprised to see them win, but then the T20 experiment did begin in England and their county cricketers are quite familiar with the format.
Player to watch out: Kevin Peiterson was very good during the Bangalore Royal Challengers and considering the great batsman he is I wont be surprised he wants to conquer this format.
India
India will be strong contenders with probably the most experianced T20 side thanks to IPL. MS Dhoni continues to be a very good captain but it still is a little weak in the bowling department. India will worry about Yuvraj Singh’s form with the bat.
Player to watch out: Suresh Raina has really blossomed into a big match player and world class fielder. It would be interesting to see Raina do wonders to stake his claim for ODI and Test squads.
New Zealand
New Zealand have always been the dark horses with limited talent but a very professional side. Many of them were with the IPL teams. Their strengths are their professionalism and fielding.
Player to watch out: Brendon McCullum will always be that spark of genius the Kiwis need but seem to be lacking to truly be a champion side.
Pakistan
Pakistan will struggle to defend their title. I feel their side will be depleted after so many players being dropped. Afridi is the captain but even he has earned bad publicity for biting the cricket ball to tamper with it. Pakistan still has incredible talent with in all probability cause some upsets but I doubt will have the consistency to become champions.
Player to watch out: Umar Gul can be dangerous as he showed during last years tournament that a quick burst of wickets can be match winning almost always.
West Indies, Sri Lanka and South Africa
All teams are strong but I still feel they lack the finesse to become champions in the T20 format. South Africa has struggled in T20 almost always and most of their players except Kallis did not have a great IPL. Sri Lanka are probably still rebuilding and look the most promising amongst the three.
West Indies will be playing at home and will be a force to reckon with considering they will have the likes of Keiron Pollard and Chris Gayle.
So who do you think will win the ICC T20 World Cup?I think Australia just might but truly do want India to win it. 😛
The Indian Premier League is over and it is back to international nation versus nation cricket. The T20 World Cup starts on the 30th of April 2010. Indian will be led by MS Dhoni who would be full of confidence after leading Chennai Super Kings to IPL glory.
Here are the Groups the teams have been divided into.
Group A
Group B
Australia
New Zealand
Pakistan
Sri Lanka
Bangladesh
Zimbabwe
Group C
Group D
India
West Indies
South Africa
England
Afghanistan
Ireland
Here is the match schedule for the league phase.
Fri April 30 22.30 IST
New Zealand Vs Sri Lanka
Guyana
Fri April 30 2.30 IST +1d
West Indies Vs Ireland
Guyana
Sat May 1 19.00 IST
Afghanistan Vs India
St Lucia
Sat May 1 23.00 IST
Bangladesh Vs Pakistan
St Lucia
Sun May 2 19.00 IST
India Vs South Africa
St Lucia
Sun May 2 23.00 IST
Australia Vs Pakistan
St Lucia
Mon May 3 19.00 IST
Sri Lanka Vs Zimbabwe
Guyana
Mon May 3 23.00 IST
West Indies Vs England
Guyana
Tue May 4 19.00 IST
New Zealand Vs Zimbabwe
Guyana
Tue May 4 23.00 IST
England Vs Ireland
Guyana
Wed May 5 19.00 IST
Australia Vs Bangladesh
Barbados
Wed May 5 23.00 IST
Afghanistan Vs South Africa
Barbados
All timings are Indian Standard Time.
Indian cricket squad for ICC T20 World Cup in West Indies
MS. Dhoni (capt)
Gautam Gambhir (vice capt)
Harbhajan Singh
Ravindra Jadeja
Piyush Chawla
Dinesh Karthik
Zaheer Khan
Ashish Nehra
Praveen Kumar
Yusuf Pathan
Suresh Raina
Rohit Sharma
Yuvraj Singh
Vinay Kumar
Murali Vijay*
*Murali Vijay has been included as replacement for V. Sehwag.
So are you looking forward to seeing countries play against countries again after the massive buzz of IPL? Do let me know by dropping in your comments.
A chubby body and a childish face – That is the physical appearance of the Australia’s best captain – Ricky Ponting. Quote the word ‘physical’ in bold letters, because his mental appearance is far from this childish physical features. Inside that chubby face there is a mysterious, cunning and sharp mind which could bring home victory and supremacy in the match.That’s the reason why he still wears the Aussies captain’s cap !
He is the man who led the Aussie team which won the World cup in 2003 and 2007. A captain who led the team to victory, twice – itself shows us Ponting’s class ! Ponting, a good captain, with aggressive ideas, clinical batting and agile fielding proved him to be leader of the best cricketing team in the world. His Velcro-hands and bat has always created terror in the opponents minds. He is the one and only threat for the world’s best batsman – Sachin. As Ponting has records which are very near to Sachin’s records. He has scored more than 30 centuries and broke Gavaskar’s record last year, which Sachin too had broken. If Sachin retires now, it’s sure that at-least some of his records would be overwritten by Ponting.
He had been the captain of ICC ODI team for several times. Remember that ICC team is formed by selecting only the best players around the world. Choosing Ponting as the captain of the ODI team itself shows his value.
He will truly be remembered by every cricket lover for his enthusiastic captaincy and batting skills ……
This time when the Indian team starts its campaign in the World T20 Cup, there are two major differences more than any other.
First, the team looks stronger and better prepared for the shortest form of cricket.
Second, the expectations from the fans are way more than expected.
Given the balance and experience of the side, fans have all the rights to demand nothing less but retain the cup.
Pick any playing 11 out of the 15 member squad and you will have around 8 batsmen and 9 bowlers, courtesy – a big bunch of the all-rounders… A world class seam attack, superb spin attack, very successful part time spinners, a great opening pair, a solid middle order and a super cool minded captain!
If the trophy was to be given based on the cumulative talent of the players on papers, India would have already won it. J No doubt, they start the tournament as the favorites. With a very narrow margin loss to New Zealand and a huge win over Pakistan in the warm-up matches, India has announced that they are in England to win the title.
The line-up
Opening
Be it Shewag and Gambhir OR Rohit and Gambhir (in case Sehwag is not fit) both the pairs have the potential to make the opposite team’s captain run out of ideas. Gambhir got back his form in the match against Pakistan and Rohit looked good filling in Sehwag’s place in his absence during the warm-up matches.
Middle Order
Raina, Dhoni, Yuvraj and Yusuf
All of them are so good in hitting the ball outside the stadium and rotating the strike at almost every ball other than that. The middle order of the team is like a big fort wall and any team playing against India will have to work really hard on their strategy to stop them.
Batting Depth
Jadeja, Irfan, Zaheer and Harbhajan
Jadeja got some good practice in the warm-up match against New Zealand and has placed his candidature well to be in the playing eleven, but then who will sit out to give him space? Not at least in first few matches.
Spin Attack
Harbhajan and Ojha
Both are in good form and have the potential not to allow opposition take middle overs easily.
Pace Attack
Zaheer, Ishant, RP Singh, Praveen and Irfan
Ishant looked good on English pitches during the warm-up matches… good to see him getting over the IPL non-performance in a quick time. The only question that remains is who amongst these five will sit out from the playing eleven?
Part-time Bowlers
Yuvraj, Jadeja, Rohit, Raina, Sehwag and Yusuf
Plenty of options for Dhoni… he can comfortably use them to complete at least one bowler’s quota of 4 overs.
The overall balance of the side displays an immense talent and energy required to defend the title. But, the format of the tournament is such that a single ‘off’ day can put the team out of the contest.
Overall, it should be exciting to see how team India plays and progresses during the tournament to defend its title.
