The Champions League T20 format and schedule may not yet be out, but the teams that are definite out of the tournament are the ones from England. With the English first class dates clashing with the Champions League T20, the ECB has decided not to send their two sides for the tournament, and this means that there will be only ten teams in the tournament.
However, that does not prevent the ECB from going ahead with their T20 Cup, or the Friends Provident T20 Trophy that got underway on the 1st of June, with the game between the last year’s winner, Sussex and runner-up Somerset.
And much like last year, Sussex hammered Somerset at Hove, after piling on 155/7 in 20 overs. Luke Wright’s 39 at the top of the innings was the highest score, but that was enough for the side to win by 52 runs. Craig Kieswetter celebrated his call-up to international cricket with a 47, but none of the rest including captain Marcus Trescothick got going and the hosts won easily.
Sussex then won their second game of the tournament as well, as they beat Middlesex by 28 runs. Middlesex had contracted Adam Gilchrist for this season, but he failed with the bat.
In two of the other interesting games, Loots Bosman messed up the Yorkshire bowlers with a 50-ball 94, to win the game for Derbyshire by 65 runs, whereas Hampshire made heavy weather of the target of 115 set by Kent, before winning with two balls to spare.
The format of the tournament works like this. The 18 counties are divided into two groups based on their location, called the North Group and the South Group. Each of the nine teams in each of the groups then play against each other twice, on a home and away basis. Based on the results and the points table, the top four sides from each group qualify for the quarter-finals of the Friend’s Provident T20 tournament.
These eight sides then go on to play in the quarter-finals, and then, the winners of the quarters will play in the semi-finals and then the final. Earlier, both the finalists went on to qualify for the Champions League T20, but for this year, that will not be possible and hence the sides will probably not be motivated enough for the same.
Earlier, this tournament was called the T20 Cup, and has been played since 2003. Surrey won the inaugural edition of the tournament, and then, they were runner-up in 2004, before being losing semi-finalists in 2005 and 2006. The 2004 edition was won by Leicestershire, who then went on to win it again in 2006, with Somerset winning it in 2005 under Graeme Smith. Kent won in 2007, Middlesex in 2008 and Sussex are the defending champions by beating Somerset in 2009.
Warwickshire have entered the quarter-final of all the editions except 2006. Any guesses who will win the tournament this season?
Bosman smashed English bowlers in both games
A week ago, I had predicted that the T20I series between England and South Africa would be rather close and should end in a 1-1 score-line here. As it turned out, the prediction wasn’t too far off the mark as the sides traded games and in the end the series was tied.
The two matches were played at Johannesburg and Centurion respectively, the same venues that the Champions Trophy had used. In that tournament, the pitch at Centurion had turned out to be a run-fest, whereas that at Wanderers in Johannesburg was the one on which the bowlers had a gala-time. As it turned out in the series, both the pitches were so full of runs that it almost seemed like the bowlers were there to fill in the number only.
In the first match, South Africa elected to field on the premise that it is rather difficult to set targets in a T20 game on a flat-as-a-pancake pitch. Their decision almost worked as Joe Denly was dismissed off the very first ball, but first Jonathon Trott – playing in the country of his birth – and then Paul Collingwood and Eoin Morgan smacked the hosts around to get to 202/6 in the twenty overs. Morgan was at his merciless best and got to an unbeaten 45-ball 85.
South Africa replied equally strongly with Graeme Smith and his new opening partner, Loots Bosman, adding 97 in less than nine overs. One wicket brought two, but the South Africans looked good to get to their total, when it started to drizzle. At the end of 12 overs, the South Africans were a couple of runs ahead of the target, but a superb over from Anderson brought them a run behind the par score when the heavens opened for good. The match ended there, with the Proteas going down by one run!
They made a fine comeback in the second game as Bazooka Bosman - as he is known - continued his supreme touch to seal Heschelle Gibbs’ ouster – for the time being. His 94 came off only 45 balls, and by the time he was out, the South Africans had scored 170 in only 13 overs! They ended with 241 to their name – lest one forgets, this was in 20 overs only – and then restricted the English side to 157/8 in their twenty overs to easily win the game. Trott scored his first half century in T20Is.
The good news for England was the return of Kevin Pietersen after being out of the game for more than six months due to an Achilles Heel injury.
In the meantime, the IPL committee met in Bangkok to discuss the details of the next season of the IPL. What has emerged is that the players will not be able to sign contracts with the IPL and not feature in the tournament on the grounds of playing for domestic cricket back home. In fact, apart from injuries or international commitments – and extreme scenarios – the players will have to honour their commitment to the league through its entire duration. The rationale behind this has been the move is said to be the advancing of the league to February-March instead of April-May. Many of the domestic competitions are still on, especially in Australia, New Zealand and South Africa.
There was also an announcement that seven out of the eight franchises have agreed to the inclusion of the extra teams in the fourth season of the IPL. Apparently, Chennai Super Kings has opposed the move so far.
And to end the piece, another piece of trivia for you. South Africa’s 241/6 in the twenty overs was the second highest total in a T20I, behind Sri Lanka’s 260/6 in 20 overs against Kenya in the first edition of the ICC World T20. The highest total ever chased successfully in a T20I is 208 by South Africa against West Indies – again, in the ICC World T20 in 2007.
Flip-flopping his retirement plans!
When Younis Khan had announced his retirement from the T20 format of the game, there were many an expert who had expressed their surprise over his announcement. Some had graciously used the usual set of clichés in ‘retire when they ask why, rather than why not’, while there were others, most notably the cricket followers from the other countries who had smirked at the seemingly inexplicable decision.
All of a sudden, Pakistan became embroiled in a match-fixing controversy, where the captain Younis Khan tendered his resignation from the longer formats of the game as well, but was coaxed into continuing. As it turned out, Younis has now done a total U-turn, and expressed his intentions of returning back to the most condensed format of the game as well. And the reason, in Younis’ own words is, ‘if my country-men and my players want me to come back I will!’ Probably Younis Khan has been inspired by Imran Khan, who was convinced into taking the reigns of the side again and led them to a World Cup triumph.
Some things never change in Pakistani cricket, I guess.
Moving on, after a hiatus of almost 20 days, the T20 cricket resumes action when the South Africans take on England in a two match T20I series. At the best of times, it is difficult enough to predict favourites for matches in this format, but these games could be particularly close.
It is the South African bowling attack has been found wanting this season in both, the ODIs and T20Is. Especially on pitches which have not had too much for the bowlers, the likes of Albie Morkel and even the usually difficult to get away, Dale Steyn have had a problem or two. Of course, Charl Langeveldt’s return to the squad – and in all probabilities to the playing eleven – could mean good news for the Proteas, given that his bowling in the death overs has won his side many games.
The one other plus that the English side could possess is that their middle-order seems like it is T20I ready. The troika of Kevin Pietersen, Luke Wright and Jonathon Trott add a lot more spice to the batting and this you-blink-you-miss format seems to have been made just for them. Trott has yet to play in a single T20I but if his record in the T20s for his county side, Warwickshire, is anything to by, then he could be quite a handful.
My personal call for this will be 1-1, and the one batsman I would be most interested in watching would be Pietersen – especially after the statements of his team-mate, Graeme Swann, about how he needs to earn back his place, would spur him on.
To end this piece, just a spot of T20 trivia. Chris Gayle is the only cricketer so far to score a century in the T20Is and he had done it in the very first game of the ICC World T20 in 2007 against South Africa. The highest score by an Indian batsman is 75 by Gautam Gambhir, in the final game of the same tournament against Pakistan!
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