World Twenty20 News
I’ve not been able to talk much about the upcoming World Twenty20 taking place in South Africa in September. There has been plenty of news from around the countries but time constraints have meant a lack of coverage here! I’ll try and wrap up the most interesting bits so far now.
We’ll start with the hosts South Africa as there is quite a story to tell here! They left out Jacques Kallis, the finest all rounder in the world, believing he scores too slowly in the shorter forms of the game. He was getting stick around the time of the World Cup in the West Indies, but he should still be in the squad if you ask me. And then when Mark Boucher stood up for his mate, he got severely reprimanded as well! Cricket politics are never the most straight forward in South Africa so I won’t go too deep into it – and they still have the players who can make a big impact in the game such as Smith, Ntini and the like.
Australia have lost Shaun Tait through injury, but Brett Lee comes back – so that’s one step back and three forward then! If the Aussies don’t win the cup then blow me over and call me Maria. Although of the countries taking part they don’t have the most experience in this form of the game, I’m going with the “best players will adapt” thinking here.
Murali will be missing for Sri Lanka which will be a huge huge blow to their chances of winning, although they will still be in the reckoning if they play as well as they did in the West Indies. Jayasuriya could be the real key to the way they start games with the bat and set them off to some good targets.
England might as well not bother going such is the chance we have of winning with some journeymen county cricketers. If we win, I really will eat my hat. I can’t bear to talk about our team anymore so I won’t. Not even the one-day resurgence against India makes me more positive about our chances in South Africa.
I heard in the news in the past couple of days that the organisers were planning to make sure they didn’t make the same mistakes as the “Real” World Cup organisers did. Well they’ve got a headstart as the tournament only lasts a couple of weeks, and dull and one-sided games will be less than half as long as the routs in the West Indies! They also plan to let plenty of people into the large stadiums, with tickets apparently going for as little as £1.38 – now if that doesn’t get the grounds full I don’t know what will!
Right, there’s a headstart on what has been happening, for the latest up to date news from all the main sources in the world, check out the World Twenty20 page at Live Cricket Updates! Just before the start of the tournament I’ll also come back with a view of the tournament from a betting point of view – those who have read for a while will know I’ve been doing ok in this recently!
Australia Win the World Cup
In pure darkness, in a bit of a farce, Australia deservedly lifted the World Cup last night thanks to a magnificent innings from Adam Gilchrist. The best team of the World Cup won, although not quite in the way that cricket lovers around the world would have hoped.
The day started badly with a bit of dodgy weather around meaning the start of the game was delayed and delayed, and when they got round to agreeing a start time the game was to be 38 overs each. Not perfect when this is the final of the premier one day competition, but at least both sides knew the score from the beginning. Adam Gilchrist hasn’t had the best of tournaments (by his standards), but he set upon Vaas early on and was delight to watch. His eventual score of 149 had really set up the Australian total, and it was always going to be tough for Sri Lanka from there.
Sangakarra and Jayasuriya started slowly, but once they felt the pace of the pitch they started to release themselves, and a real contest looked like it was on. Just what the World Cup wanted in a final! But a couple of wickets from Aus, then a bit of rain lost any momentum that the Sri Lankans had. Then we had the start of the farcical events.. Sri Lanka came back onto the field after a rain break, and they may have known, but no-one else knew what total they were now chasing after losing a couple of overs! By this point it was close to all over anyway, and then a couple more wickets meant it was a matter of time before the game was over.
Cue the really farcical events.. The light was offered to the batsmen, who accepted it with three overs left and knowing they had no chance of winning. The Aussies celebrated, the Sri Lankan’s had accepted it was over, but the umpires read the rules their way and said they would all have to come back the next day for the final three overs! They wouldn’t though, as the duckworth lewis method would have been enforced, but the umpires were having none of it. So we had three overs of Australia bowling spin, and Sri Lanka just standing there in the dark hitting the ball back to the bowler. Completely farcical, and I’m sure there will be some ramifications.
However, for me it doesn’t take away from Australia’s achievement of winning another World Cup, and in completely dominant fashion. They beat all comers, look strong in every department and I find it hard to believe we beat them in the CB series earlier in the year! They had Hayden to thank for scoring a shed load of runs, Gilly for the MOM performance in the final, Tait coming to the party and bowling well, and of course to the leading wicket taker in the cup, Glenn McGrath. He now retires from cricket, and as one of the very best bowlers there has ever been.
I’ll take a couple of days to reflect on the cup before I pick my best XI, as there’s been a lot of good performances over the long long period of the cup! And for now, time to move onto domestic cricket and the English summer of test cricket as well!
Semi Final Match Ups
The World Cup semi finals are upon us, with four teams all capable of winning the cup, if they play to their best.
The first semi final sees the potentially exciting game which looks like it could go either way between Sri Lanka and New Zealand. I can’t really pick a winner in this game, with both sides having match winners - but it depends which ones of them are fit and turn up. For Sri Lanka there is of course Murali and Vaas with the ball, and they are hoping to have Malinga back as well after missing the last four games. With the bat they need Jayasuriya to get them off to a good start as he can be explosive in the power plays. New Zealand are hoping to be back to full strength also with Bond and Oram returning, and they need Bond in particular to try and restrict the score in those early powerplays. The top order for New Zealand hasn’t really got going yet, but Styris has been a revelation with bat and ball, and he could continue to do just that. Which way will it go and which match winner will it be? I can’t say, but it should be good viewing!
The second semi final between South Africa and Australia looks to be more clear cut, but it can be dangerous to say that too early. These two played each other earlier in the tournament and the result could have been closer if South Africa didn’t collapse like they did in that game! I think if they bat first they can cause Australia a problem if they score a total in the mid 300’s, but if they are asked to chase such a total then I wouldn’t be so confident. Overall though, the Australians are a stronger side throughout and I see them going through to the final.
It’s taken a while to get to this period of the World Cup, but I’m looking forward to the final three games and seeing someone lift that Cup on Saturday!
Fletcher Resigns, Lara Retires
A couple of big bits of news came out from the World Cup arena yesterday - the first was the expected news that Fletcher is leaving his post as England coach, and the second was that Lara has retired from all international cricket.
Fletcher’s position had become pretty untenable after the ashes whitewash and poor performance from England generally over the last year or so. Fletcher has done lots of good things we all know that, but 7 years in the job is long enough and there needs to be a fresh impetus. When Fletcher took over we were ranked the worst test nation, and to get us up to 2nd is a great achievement, but you must start to run out of fresh things to say to a team to attempt to motivate them. Also, our one day cricket has not improved one bit, and as an England coach you have to get both forms of the game right. We’re a fickle bunch in the UK, but we do demand a fair bit of success. Just look how long England football managers get before the media get on their back, and thats the kind of thing you’re dealing with in England.
We are expected to put Peter Moores in charge temporarily in the next couple of days, and he’s a highly rated coach so it will be good to see what he can do for the test series against the West Indies.
Moving onto Brian Lara, he’d already announced that he was quitting one day cricket, but now he has said he is quitting the test arena as well. This is a real shame as he is a great batsman, and one I was hoping I’d get to see play in the test series over here next month. He scored just under 12,000 test match runs which is a true testament to the staying power he had at a time that West Indies cricket wasn’t at its strongest. He held the world record for the highest test match score twice, and at 400 not out the current record will be difficult to beat. The West Indies will find it hard to replace a man with such a record, but there are a few players coming through for them at the moment and it is a good chance for them to stand up to the challenge and make the spot their own.
Cheerio World Cup
Well, what can you say after a dismal, embarrassing defeat such as the one England suffered yesterday at the hands of South Africa? The answer to that I’m not sure to be honest. We won’t be in the semi-finals, but then we never even looked close to deserving to be there. In the last FOUR world cups, we have beaten one, just ONE, major country - yet blind optimism helps us fans through normally.
All that has gone, after the debacle of the defeat in Australia on Australia Day when the game was over within a couple of hours, and now the pathetic showing in the world cup. What to do though is now the question. And to be honest, I agree with much of what Aggers says on the BBC blog. We need a new one day captain, one that can command a position in the team other than as specialist captain. Send Vaughan back to Yorkshire to put in some big time in the middle, as he clearly can’t put an innings together at the moment. And I hope it happens before the test series against the West Indies, as I’d like him to lead from the front as captain in that series.
Fletcher has done some good stuff, but I’m sick of hearing from him, and Vaughan to the same extent, saying how everything is alright. It clearly isn’t, no matter how much you say you’ll learn and come back stronger etc etc. I don’t know who the answer is as coach, whether its someone from the county circuit, or whether you could entice someone such as Tom Moody from the Sri Lanka position. Its not for me to decide, I just want something done, otherwise it looks like we are tolerating failure, and we’ve had enough of that…
Semi Finals Shaping Up
After England’s loss to Australia, and South Africa beating the West Indies yesterday, the semi final line up is starting to become a bit clearer. The West Indies are out of the reckoning after losing yet another super eight game, and England can join them if they don’t win against Bangladesh later today.
The likelyhood is that even if we do win later we will still be up against it and we will have to beat SA when we meet them next Tuesday. SA demolished the Windies yesterday with the bat, and I can see something similar happen when we play them. Although, as they showed against Bangladesh, they are capable of screwing up when expected to do well, so I won’t write our obituary just yet.
I’ve put Sunday’s loss against Australia to the back of my brain, something I had to get rather good at whilst I was out in Australia! If anyone manages to beat Australia then they’ll be World Champs - they have too much class in too many places, and the way they managed to strangle our run rate in the middle of the innings was brilliant. They just have to decide who to put in place of Watson if he doesn’t make it back to full fitness.
