KFC Big Bash 2010 Australia
| Team | Mt | Pts | Nrr |
|---|---|---|---|
| West End Redbacks | 5 | 8 | 0.74 |
| XXXX Gold Qld Bulls | 5 | 6 | 1.003 |
| DEC Bushrangers | 5 | 6 | -0.869 |
| Retravision Warriors | 5 | 4 | 0.68 |
| RTA SpeedBlitz Blues | 5 | 4 | -0.764 |
| PKF Tasmanian Tigers | 5 | 2 | -0.728 |
Mohammad Yousuf must be a changed man. There cannot be any other way to describe him otherwise. For a cricketer who quit Pakistani cricket in a huff to join the rebel Indian Cricket League T20, then had events flipping and flopping between the two extremes of being a Pakistani international cricketer to being christened a pariah to their cricket, to being selected as the captain of the side, his recent worry on how Pakistani cricket was suffering due to the excesses of T20 makes him go a long way in their cricket.
Probably Yousuf does understand that if anything, his T20 career is all but finished. It was done and dusted even before the teams went to South Africa for the 2007 edition of the ICC World T20, when the selectors had refused to select him in the squad. Mind you, his international career had been on a relative high at that moment, but the wise men clearly saw what he hadn’t; the format needed someone with the penchant to field better than he ever did, and run between the wickets in a manner that Yousuf would have probably never imagined in his life. So, almost three years after that fateful unacceptability of change, the batsman seems to have reconciled to his fate and realised that the likes of ICC World T20 and IPL may not be his cuppa coffee anymore. Especially after not a single team wanted to bid for him during the IPL auctions and then, with the deteriorating Indo-Pak relations over the last one year or so.
It is no surprise then, that the Pakistani captain is all of a sudden worried about the future of Pakistani cricket in relation with the T20 cricket. However, and I understand this is only conjecture – and a far-fetched one at that – I would like to see what Yousuf does if he does have the fortune of being selected by one of the franchises in any of the forthcoming IPLs. Sachin Tendulkar has retired from T20 cricket, and so has Ricky Ponting. Will Yousuf reject the contract to set a benchmark and for the betterment of his nation’s international performance? Only time can tell!
Talking of Yousuf and the country that he is touring currently – Australia – the KFC T20 Big Bash got underway this week. The first round of matches saw Queensland take on Victoria, Western Australia play South Australia and Tasmania feature against New South Wales. The incentive is there for all the teams to grab; a chance to represent their side in the Champions League T20 for a multi-million dollar prize money!
New Zealand international cricketer Ross Taylor had been picked up by Victoria in place of Sohail Tanvir and he immediately stuck gold with a 36-ball 58 and took the previous year’s runner-up to 157/8 in their 20 overs after having slumped to 5/3 at one stage. Andrew Symonds’ return lasted all of 14 balls in which he scored 16, but with 37 needed off the last four overs and with four wickets remaining, it could have been anybody’s game. Rain intervened, and the Bulls were fund four runs short of the target.
South Australia then had their international stars, Keiron Pollard and Shahid Afridi, win their first game against Western Australia. First, Pollard spanked a 31-ball 45, and then Afridi ran through the WA innings with a 4/19 in his four overs.
In the third game, Dave Warner of the NSW Blues smacked the quickest fifty ever in the competition off 18 balls, and despite a strong start by Tim Paine – 48 off 18 – the rest of the Tasmanians collapsed to 163 all out to hand the opposition over a 32-run win.