ICC T20 World Cup belong to spinners

After the hectic Indian Premier League (IPL) it was time for ICC T20 World Cup. India started the championship with defending champions tag and it was easily going on for India in the league phase against Bangladesh and Ireland. Meanwhile Australia was surprised by West Indies in their opening match and then Sri Lanka knocked them out of the tournament. Australia was clearly not up to their 100%, what ever the reason might be.

Netherlands (Holland is other name) pulled up surprise win over England in the tournament opener match. After this match much was expected from Ireland and Scotland too. Suddenly Ireland pulled up an odd win against the struggling Bangladesh team. So, suddenly people started thinking that Holland will upset the Pakistan team in their next match. But Pakistan completely showed the world that Holland need to work a lot to be good team. Holland team needed was to score some 150 runs to get into Super 8 with help of better run-rate of that Pakistan. But Holland batting collapsed for just 93 runs while chasing a huge target of 176 to win and in the process they were not able to cross the 150 score as well. Scotland was having poor tournament and same was case for Bangladesh.

The teams finally qualified into Super 8 were India, Ireland, Pakistan, New Zealand, West Indies, South Africa, Sri Lanka and England. Australia was eliminated in the first round itself and it was big surprise of the tournament. In the Super 8 all the eight teams were divided into two groups. In the group E- India, South Africa, England and West Indies and in the group F- Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Ireland and New Zealand.

All a team need to get into Semi finals is to win 2 matches. India was not up to their peak form and team was wanting in many departments. India lost all the three matches in Super 8 and the Semi finals fight was between other 3 teams. South Africa won all their ties and the contest was between the West Indies and England. The match between England and West Indies had rain interruption at wrong time unfortunate and this interruption became a boom for West Indies. England gave a competitive score of 161 in their 20 overs but rain interruption brought the D/L method into play and score was revised. West Indies has to score some 82 runs in 9 over’s and this target was chased by West Indies successfully in 8.2 over’s. It was terrible bad luck for England in my view.

In the other group Sri Lanka just like South Africans won all the matches. New Zealand had a terrible batting performance against the Pakistan team and this is enough for them to knock out of their spot in semi finals. Ireland played well but their batting was very weak and they have no answers to play against spin of the opponent team’s. New Zealand was having lot of injury problems in their team and the batting was wanting against the match with Pakistan.

In the first semis, South Africa took the Pakistan and this match was very close. But South Africa has trouble in playing against good spin and Pakistan used their spinners very well and won the match and entered into Finals of ICC T20 World Cup for the second time. In the last edition of ICC T20 World Cup Pakistan were runners-up. The second semi final was one sided affair, West Indies batsmen fell like pack of cards while chasing pretty gettable target of 159. Here captain of the West Indies team Chris Gayle remained unbeaten on 63 (50) and his team was bundled out for some 101 runs in 17.4 over’s.

It was Pakistan Vs Sri Lanka finals on 21st at Lords. Sri Lanka won the toss and preferred to bat first and they were depending a lot on T Dilshan. This time it was not his day and he was dismissed for duck and soon 2 more wickets fell quickly. Sri Lanka was struggling 32/4 and all their good batsmen were out. Luckily Sri Lanka captain came to rescue and Sangakkara with Silva put a good partnership. In the end Mathews scored quick 35 (24) and take Sri Lanka score to 138. Sangakkara was unbeaten on 64 (52) and now it is up to Sri Lanka bowlers to do some miracles for them.

Pakistan batted very sensibly and reach the target in 18 over’s. Afridi batted sensible for his quick 52 and he was well supported by S Malik from other end. Pakistan won the ICC T20 World Cup in professional manner. Sri Lanka once again lost the finals and could not win the World Cup. Sri Lanka was the finalist in 50 over’s format in 2007 World Cup played in West Indies. Australia won when rain and bad light helped them to win against the Sri Lanka. But I appreciate Sri Lankan team for their gutsy performance. Sri Lanka was playing this major tournament after they were attacked by terrorists in Pakistan. Pakistan peaked up at the right time and they deserve this World Cup. Pakistan team was also having tough time because of the terrorist attack on Sri Lankan team in their backyard. No country was willing to tour their country and they were badly affected when franchisees of IPL have not allowed the Pakistani players to play the IPL. Pakistan played cricket like professional outfit even after so many off field events happened and won the World Cup against all the odds.

Dilshan was declared as the Man of the tournament and Afridi was given the man of the match. Some of young players who blossomed in this world cup are A Mathews, L Simmons, W Parnell, C White, P Ohja, David Warner, Ravindra Jadeja, Saeed Ajmal, M Aamer, I Udana and A Redmond. The above said players played well when they were given chance and proved their talent in them. It was bad tournament for India, Australia, England, New Zealand and Bangladesh.

Finally, this World Cup was dominated by spinners and the pitches were very sportive one. Both the batsmen and bowlers had got chance to show their skills. Friends, that's all for now and will come up with more soon..

By Madhu Vamsi... :)