Afghanistan win the ICC World T20 Qualifiers
Romance in sport is what drives the fans to the grounds. And makes them flick their television sets on more eagerly than any other time. A generation or two onwards, when the fans look back at cricket as we know it today, they would probably be savouring the emergence of a new powerhouse in the international cricket, Afghanistan!
For the time from when the Afghanistan team had won the Division Five title in ICC’s qualifiers for the World Cup of 2011, their story has been seeped in romance, grit, gumption, and to say the least, glory. They had narrowly missed out on qualifying for the World Cup 2011, but thanks to that performance, they had managed to qualify for the ICC World T20 Qualifiers which was played in Dubai recently.
There were ten teams in that tournament, and only two out of those were to qualify for the ICC World T20 in West Indies to be played in April this year. In the competition were the teams like Ireland, who have played in the World Cup before and qualified for the Super Eights in 2007, Netherlands, who have not only played in the World Cup, but also in the 2009 edition of the ICC World T20 and beaten England, Kenya, who have featured in the semi-finals of the 2003 edition of the World Cup and others like Canada, UAE and Scotland, all of whom have done their bit at the highest level.
So, while Afghanistan’s record before the tournament would have put them amongst the top four favourites, they were up against some fierce competition across the board.
And not only did they pass the examination, but they also aced them with wins over Ireland, Scotland, USA and UAE in the league stage. This ensured their place in the finals of the tournament, and more importantly, a slot in the ICC World T20 to be played in West Indies later this year. The cherry on the cake was then provided by Nowroz Mangal and Mohammad Shahzad, both of whom assisted the side in a facile win over the Irish in the finals of the tournament, to lift the trophy as well! In turn, this gave them a right to play India and South Africa in the World T20.
Ireland, on the other hand, had qualified for the finals after their first match loss to Afghanistan. They beat Scotland, USA, UAE and Netherlands, en route the finals, and had it not been for a rather arduous schedule, they would have probably done much better than they actually did.
Like all of the other teams, they played their first three league matches in three days, and qualifying for the Super Fours meant that they had to play their remaining two games off consecutive days as well. So, after featuring in five matches in as many days, they qualified for the finals, which was to be played on the same day as the final league game; ensuring back-to-back games for the Irish, in a span of a couple of hours!
The coach, Phil Simmons, a former West Indian all-rounder was obviously an unhappy man at the scheduling, but would have taken heart from the fact that they qualified for their second successive ICC World T20. Last year, they had played India and Bangladesh in the first round, and while they lost to the Indians, they had bundled Bangladesh out of the tournament and qualified for the second round. This time around, they face West Indies and England in the first round of the tournament.
I may be thinking far, but the romance that I was alluding to in sport may not be over. While expecting the Afghan side to beat India and South Africa may sound a bit far-fetched, they may give the two sides a run for their money. However, what could even be more probable is that Ireland could surprise either of West Indies or England in the first round to enter the second! That will be some day.
In the end, the score-line of 1-1 justifies the kind of cricket that was on display in the two game T20I series. The pitches were tailor-made for allowing the batsmen to get away with murder – and more – whereas the bowlers could be proud to not concede more than eight in an over on an average. There were a couple of short spells where the bowlers did look like they did have an outside chance of being anything apart from just number-fillers, but that was too few and far between and in the end, more than 800 runs were scored in the two games at an average runs per over of more than ten.
Need to stick their hands into Glue instead of Butter:
Looking back at the just concluded T20I series between India and Sri Lanka, the one mighty factor that will probably remain etched in most cricket fans’ minds, is probably the appalling levels of fielding that were on display. It began with the Indians in the first T20I, continued with them in the second T20I as well, before managing to rub off on to the Lankans at Mohali.
The sheer numbers – of dropped catches and missed run-out chances – do not do any justice to the almost comical depths of despair that the fielding fell to. Yet, for the sake of driving home the point, India missed out on five catches and a run-out in the first game, while ‘improving’ it in the second by dropping six. Lanka then sealed the supposed pact by letting go of another couple but missing half a dozen run-out chances in the process!
Ironically, Team India had only just appointed Michael Young, as their fielding consultant for a period of two weeks. And given the display in the fielding, either this will be the last of the contracts he ever signs with the Indian side, or the signing could not have come at a better time and would probably culminate into a much longer contract.
Either way, the commentator and former Indian captain, Sunil Gavaskar had the last say in the matter when he exclaimed, “The manner in which they are fielding, they will not even catch a cold in this Mohali weather!”
‘It is almost all over for the opposition when Sangakkara sings!’
The form exhibited by the Sri Lankan skipper in the final test match at Brabourne, after four successive relative failures should have sent the warning signals to the Indian bowlers. As it turned out, either the signals were ignored, or the execution to those well-laid out plans was wayward, and the Lankan captain smashed two successive half centuries in the games to lead the side to 200 plus totals in the process. The two half centuries, incidentally, came off 21 and 29 balls respectively.
The difference in the two games was that while Chamara Kapugedera afforded him good enough support in the middle overs of their innings, his dismissal in the middle of the innings in the second T20I led to a Lankan collapse. Those nine less runs and the fact that they fielded worse in the second game ended Sri Lanka’s hopes of winning it 2-0.
The Indian fightback:
For about three out of the four innings during the series, India had been thoroughly outplayed before Virender Sehwag, MS Dhoni and Yuvraj Singh combined well to bring India home. It was the highest ever total chased in a T20I as they had in the second game, and was abetted in no small terms by the lack of an effort exhibited by the tourists on the field.
However, credit must be afforded where its due, and the batting approach adopted by the Indian top-order was quite different from what it had in the first T20I where the batsmen barely seemed to have much strategy going in for the chase. Gautam Gambhir had provided the Indians with a start that they could have only dreamt of, but the batting display by the rest of the batsmen was nothing short of nightmare. In the second T20I, there was a healthier approach towards chasing it down, with a definite plan of how the batsmen needed to go about it, instead of smashing every ball in the air.
Match to India!
Change of format, will continue to look to continue winning streak
After a rather one-sided test match series which has already given a peek-review into how run-gluttonous the rest of the tour would be, the Indian s will host Sri Lanka for a two game T20I series. And despite what transpired in the test series, the T20Is promise to be lot more closely fought, thanks mainly due to the format itself, and partially due to the fact that the Indians have struggled to get the results their way in the T20s. This piece previews the T20I series between India and Sri Lanka.
New Personnel add spice:
It wasn’t a surprise when the Indian selectors decided to get in quite a number of new guys into the T20I squad. Especially given that the Indians have had a rather rough year in this format of the game. What has been surprising, it is that the majority of the changes have been afforded to the bowling department, whereas the batting is mostly unscathed.
India will obviously be bolstered by the presence of Virender Sehwag, who had missed out on the ICC World T20 due to a shoulder injury, but apart from him, the batting line-up is fairly the same. Yusuf Pathan should hold his place in the lower order as an off-spinning all-rounder. The bowling, on the other hand, could see some changes, what with the presence of Ashok Dinda, Sudeep Tyagi and R.Ashwin. At least one of these three should make their international debut, and in the absence of Harbhajan Singh and Zaheer Khan – both of whom have been rested – the support cast will look to make their presence felt. Sreesanth is in the squad, but may miss out after he was hit by a stomach bug.
Sri Lanka will welcome their grand old man, Sanath Jayasuriya, into the playing eleven. However, his form will be much dissected and another couple of failures could very well send him into retirement. Muttiah Muralitharan will miss the T20s due to injury, and that could mean that Ajantha Mendis will have another opportunity to get one back from the Indians. Off-spin bowler Muthumudalige Pushpakumara could be thrown into the deep end, and it will be interesting to see how the Indians handle him.
India’s appalling T20 record to the fore?
Believe it or not, but India has had a terrible T20 record following their ICC World T20 win in 2007. Post that tournament, India had beaten Australia in a one-off game at home, but beyond that, lost to the Aussies, Kiwis (twice), England, West Indies, South Africa, while winning their only game of note against Sri Lanka. Despite all their players being a part of the IPL in both the seasons, it is very evident that the Indians have not been very comfortable with this format of the game and this discomfiture will be put to fore in the series.
Sri Lanka had a good run till they lost to Pakistan in the finals of the ICC World T20 this year, after which they have lost four successive games. Plus, they would be reeling under the mental agony from being bruised by the Indian batsmen in the test matches.
All in all, the cliché needs to be sounded out. It is a format where the tag of favourites remains as just that – a tag!
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.
- November 17, 2009
- article by Suneer Chowdhary
- 0 comments
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!
- November 10, 2009
- article by Suneer Chowdhary
- 0 comments
Brendon McCullum looks to sweep, Sri Lanka v New Zealand, 2nd Twenty20, Colombo, September 4, 2009
The second T20I between Sri Lanka and New Zealand was again played at the RPS in Colombo, and for the fourth time at this stadium, the Sri Lankan side came out second. This game, as compared to the previous one was a rather one-sided one, with New Zealand piling up 170 in the 20 overs and then restricting the Lankans to only 148. Clearly it was a far cry from the side which had only just finished runners-up in the ICC World T20 and then beaten New Zealand in the test series.
The stars of the match for the Kiwis were Jesse Ryder and Brendon McCullum, who added an 84 for the first wicket – McCullum also getting his form back – whereas Martin Guptill closed the innings nicely with a 20-ball 32 to propel the score forward. Ajantha Mendis was the pick of the bowlers with 1/21 off four, along with Sanath Jayasuriya who bagged a wicket more and conceded a run more than Mendis.
In reply, Sri Lanka fell Read the rest of this entry...
- September 5, 2009
- article by admin
- 0 comments
Jacob Oram celebrates the wicket of Nuwan Kulasekera, Sri Lanka v New Zealand, 1st Twenty20, Colombo, September 2, 2009
Despite Tilakaratne Dilshan’s continuous batting exuberance, the Sri Lankan side collapsed like nine pins while chasing a target of 142 for a win against New Zealand to lose the first T20I by three runs.
With only 142 needed for a win, the Sri Lankan side had raced off to 67/2 in less than seven overs, and needed only 75 runs in 13 overs for a win with eight wickets standing. A walk in the park? Not when you have a middle-order like the Lankans’ in this game. It capitulated like nine pins and there was not a single player who could guide the team to a victory after the Dilshan blitzkrieg (57 off 28 deliveries).
Earlier, the Kiwis had scraped their way up to 141 as well. Again, it was a one-man show, with Ross Taylor taking up the attack to the Lankan spinners. He smashed a 45-ball 60, but there was only Martin Guptill to support him with an innings of 29. Jesse Ryder was the only other batsman to get to double figures with a 13 to his name!
Daniel Vettori who had successfully throttled Read the rest of this entry...
