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!
The ICC has announced the venues for the World T20 to be held in West Indies next year. There are four grounds on which the games will be played, namely, Barbados, Guyana, St Kitts and St Lucia, with the final to be played at Kensington Oval in Barbados.
Zimbabwe has returned back to the World T20 after having not been included in the 2009 version because of the political differences between the two governments of Zimbabwe and England.
There are nine other test playing nations, and the remaining two slots will be filled by two qualifiers from the qualifying tournament which will be played in October in the UAE. This will include surprise teams like Afghanistan, UAE and USA.
The world T20 will have Pakistan, Bangladesh and Australia in the first group. India, South Africa and the first qualifier will form the second group, while New Zealand, Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe will be in Group C.
Group D will consist of West Indies, England and the second qualifier.
The women’s world t20 will also be played in concurrence with the men’s tournament, as had happened in 2009.
Pakistan had won the men’s tournament this year, while England had beaten New Zealand in the women’s final.
A lot had been spoken about how T20 cricket would signal the end of the bowlers around the world and how spinners will be the ones most affected. The conspiracy theorists had alleged that not too many of the youngsters would ever prefer being bowlers given the way things were shaping and that without the flight, spin or any other kind of assistance, the spinners would be a dying breed.
If the 2009 version of the ICC World T20 was anything to go by, all those theorists would now be chewing on their words and trying to hide their face. The tournament went on to not only show the importance of the bowlers, but had three of the top five bowlers in the most number of wickets list as spinners!
Even without taking statistics into consideration, there was enough evidence in the tournament, that scoring off the spinners was very difficult; most batsmen tried getting their runs in the first six overs as the next six would invariably leave them struggling for the runs. And that, on grounds which usually do not support spinners to extent one would find in the sub-continent.
Quite clearly, the spinners are here to stay, whether it is the most traditional format of the game, or the most recent, wham-bam version!
Pakistan has won the second edition of the ICC World T20 by beating Sri Lanka rather easily by eight wickets in the finals. Sri Lanka had gone into the game having not a single game, but were outplayed by a team that batted, bowled and fielded much better than them.
Sri Lanka had opted to bat first, but lost wickets at regular intervals to slump at 70/6 and with only Kumar Sangakkara at the crease. In partnership with Angelo Mathews, Sangakkara added a nice little 68 to get the Lankans to 138 in their allotted 20 overs. And on a pitch that looked to have something for the pace bowlers, the target looked a trifle dicey.
However, the Pakistani batsmen were disciplined, without being too flashy and yet, scored the runs at the desired rate. The openers, Kamran Akmal and Shahzaib Hasan did get out in quick succession, but Shahid Afridi’s continuing form and Shoaib Malik’s cool head took the Pakistanis past the total and won them the tournament.
Afridi’s knock won him the man-of-the-match, as did his 1/20 in the four overs, while T.Dilshan won the man-of-the-series for being the highest scorer of the tournament. It was a pity that he had to end up being on the losing side today!
South Africa v West Indies
Match 17 - Group E
Where: The Oval
When: Jun 13, 2009
Winner: South Africa by 20 runs
New Zealand v Pakistan
Match 18 - Group F
Where: The Oval
When: Jun 13, 2009
Winner: Pakistan by 6 wickets (with 41 balls remaining) Read the rest of this entry...
Jacques Rudolph, the South African cricketer, accidentally killed a pigeon while attempting to throw the ball to a team mate during a Twenty20 match. It was during a Twenty20 county cricket game between Yorkshire and Lancashire in England on the 29-May-2009. Lancashire won by five wickets.
