The UK county cricket season finished last weekend, although with the riveting World Twenty20 on, it got a bit left behind in the media, and on this blog as well. And with England starting their winter of cricket with the first one dayer against Sri Lanka on Monday there is no room to rest at the moment in cricket news terms!

In the county championship division 1, Sussex were the first side for a while to win back to back titles. Spearheaded, again, by Mustaq Ahmed, Chris Adams’ team did enough to hold off Lancs and Durham, who finished second and third.

In the second division, Somerset didn’t surprise many people by winning promotion back to the top division. With players such as Tresco, Langer, Cameron White playing, and Caddick having had his best season for a while they won at a canter. With the restrictions not allowing as many overseas players next year we have seen the last of White there for a bit, but Langer remains as captain and will be hoping to finish near the top of the top division next season.

Otis Gibson was one of the stars of the county season, taking 80 wickets, and at the ripe old age of 38. With Alan Donald busy elsewhere for England’s tour of Sri Lanka, Gibson will be the bowling coach for them, a role he has done for Peter Moores at the academy recently.

Mark Ramprakash had another barn-storming season with the bat, and finished the season with a batting average of over 100! Two magnificent years in a row for the guy – now if only he’d had this sort of form when he played for England…

For a more in depth view of which were the players of the season, take a look at the cricket blog over at the googly – they see more county cricket than I do and do a much better job bringing it all together!

In what was allegedly a scintillating game India won the World Twenty20 by the skin of their teeth! I was annoyingly at work – holding the final on a Monday lunchtime was the worst decision the organisers could have made and I’d love to know their reasoning behind it. I was pressing the F5 key on my keyboard regularly to keep up with the latest score, and the momentum kept swinging from one team to the other – but in the end the Indians did what they’ve threatened to do so many times and actually perform on the day!

image courtesy bbc sport

India didn’t have to rely on Yuvraj in the final, with Gambhir being the one who took the initiative and scored almost half of his teams runs. Pakistan didn’t put the vital partnerships together, and it was looking very difficult to chase down the total until Misbah-ul-Haq came to the crease. He did so well until the final over, when with only six needed from four balls he played a dangerous shot and was caught.

So congrats to the Indians, they’ve played well in this tournament and havn’t relied on one player too much which shows a good team effort. The one thing this tournament has given and that is entertainment – the players may not have liked the idea of this tournament and some in the media were a bit against it but it has been a success. The grounds have been packed, the pitches good enough to allow the batsmen to hit some almighty shots, and the bowlers have charged in with a smile on their face (sometimes) after being battered all around the ground. I think this first tournament has shown that this format of the game is here to stay which if you ask me is a good thing!

After an exhilarating day of cricket the final of the World Twenty20 will be a mammoth match up between Pakistan and India, who pushed aside New Zealand and Australia respectively.

In the first semi Pakistan weren’t really troubled as New Zealand didn’t put enough runs on the board to pressure them. The side that got knocked out of the “real” world cup in the West Indies in the first round have therefore made it to the final of this one – how different the two types of game are!

The second semi was a lot closer throughout, and Australia could and possibly should have won it. Yuvraj was again in scintillating form with the bat, hitting one almighty six which beat the longest one in the tournament so far. Dhoni continued his good batting so far in the tournament also, and it was this big hitting that got the Indians to a big total. Hayden and Symonds were going along well and got the required rate right down. It was at this point I thought they should have gone on and won, but a couple of wickets put paid to that, and the new batsmen couldn’t come in and match the required rate.

So we have a sub-continent match up between possibly the two most passionate sets of fans, and this should be a real spectacle. So quite why it is being played on a Monday at 1pm I do not know, and this is probably the only mistake the organisers have made. We probably shouldn’t be surprised that the two teams in the final are there – they are two teams with match winners in the side, but have so often failed to deliver in longer forms of the game. They seem to thrive in the shorter format where the bat can be thrown at almost everything. The bookies can’t split the two teams at the moment, and it will just depend on who turns up on the day as to who will lift the trophy. I’m going to stick my neck on the block though and say India – they seem properly up for this, and that will make the difference!

Who do you think will win? Leave a comment and let me know!

The current world Twenty20 has definately been a tournament for the batsmen, and today showed that more than ever with India’s Yuvraj Singh battering six 6’s off one over from England’s Stuart Broad. It was the first time that it has been done in a Twenty20 International game, and the first time since Gibbs did it in the World Cup – but its been a special year and I doubt it will happen for at least a couple of years more!

He hit them all very sweetly, and despite Broad giving him a little bit too much room to swing through the ball they weren’t that bad deliveries. Just a case of seeing the ball the size of a beach ball and hitting the middle of the bat! That over really shell shocked the English, and despite putting a good chase on it was going to be tough to reach the Indian’s score.

So we come home early (I won’t say I told you so here and here) from an international tournament again, and now its time for the ECB to decide what to do with Freddie and the tour to Sri Lanka coming up! On the plus side, the Aussies can get knocked out tomorrow as well, and wouldn’t that be a shame!!

Well well, we couldn’t go through any kind of world cup without someone being caught out by the tabloids, you just wouldn’t think it would be the skipper Paul Collingwood!

According to the Sun, he was at a strip club, the night before the defeat to South Africa – having been at a couple of bars earlier in the night. In fairness to him, it has been said that he only had one drink, but the utter stupidity of going out at all cannot be stressed enough. I don’t normally get on my high horse about this kind of thing as I’m hardly a saint, but I’m not an international cricketer! I don’t know if he’ll be disciplined by the ECB and once its done there is nothing you can do – but do these guys really think they’re going to get away with it when everyone will recognise them during the tournament?

Maybe we would laugh it off it we’d won and suggest we should do it everytime but the fact was we lost, and as such he shouldn’t get away with a small mention in the tabloids so I had to bring it to your attention! Anyway, gotta go now as I’m off to the local strip club….

This world Twenty20 stuff is happening so damn quickly I havn’t even been able to keep abreast of everything going on so far. Just at the tip of the iceberg we had Australia losing to Zimbabwe, then stuffing us out of sight – Sri Lanka setting an international Twenty20 high score – India and Pakistan in a bowl out – West Indies losing their two games and going home, and it goes on!

There have been three games on most days, and at most inconsiderate times for those of us at work! Then with all the other sport going on at the moment I’ve not been able to see much of the highlights on Sky either. Tomorrow sees England lose to South Africa (most probably) in their first super 8 game, but its all happening too quickly – bring back the bore fest of the “normal” world cup – at least I could keep up with that! I do keep a check on Live Cricket Updates though to help me try and know whats happened – I recommend it!