T20 Final Report

Again I was 50 percent wrong. I expected a South Africa- Srilanka final, but Pakistan knocked out South Africa in a clinical performance, and further, went on to win the championship without much trouble. It was a fight between two of the best bowling sides in the tournament, and Pakistan, just like one of their star players Abdul Razzaq made a fairy tale comeback and won the championship that evaded them by 5 runs in 2007.

Semi-final #1: South Africa vs Pakistan

The tournament favorites were rocked early despite capturing wickets. Kamran Akmal's 12 ball 23 set the tone and South Africa's impeccable seam attack was under pressure for once. Afridi, promoted to No. 3 in the batting order played a mature hand to everyone's surprise, by scoring 51 off 34 balls with 8 fours. South Africa came back strongly with some fantastic death over bowling to restrict pakistan to 149. During their chase they got off to a reasonable start through Kallis and Smith. Young seamer Aamer removed Smith while Afridi sent Gibbs and Devilliers back quickly. Some brilliant containment by Gul, Afridi and Ajmal left South Africa needing 23 off the last over. Despite Kallis scoring 64 and Duminy scoring an unbeaten 44 pakistan qualified for the finals for the second time in a row.

Semi-final #2: Srilanka vs West Indies

An astonishing solo from Tillakaratne Dilshan and a clinical bowling performance booked Srilanka's final ticket. Put into bat, most Srilankan batsmen struggled to get going, but Dilshan didn't. With a fine unbeaten 96 off 57 balls he carried Srilanka to 158. He didn't get enough strike towards the end of the innings to complete his 100. Jayasuria's painstaking 24 off 37 balls was the next best score for Srilanka. But the runchase was off to a nightmare of a start. Windies lost Xavier Marshall, Lendl Simmons and the in-form Dwayne Bravo for ducks in Angelo Matthews' first over itself. They never got back and were blown away for 101 runs, out of which skipper Chris Gayle made an unbeaten 63. No other batsmen reached double figures as the Lankan bowlers were at their miserly best.

Final: Pakistan vs Srilanka

Labelled as firm favorites the Islanders won the toss and choose to bat. Aware of Pakistan's middle over and end over bowling strength they went hard at the new ball, a move backfired horribly. Srilanka were reduced to 34/4 after the 6 powerplay overs, with come-back man Abdul Razzaq picking up three wickets and young Aamer bouncing Dilshan out for a duck in the very first over. Srilanka found themselves in an even more deeper hole at 70/6 but their inspirational captain Kumar Sangakkara combined forces with young all rounder Matthews to carry his team to 138/6 in 20 overs, with the pair plundering 59 runs in the last 5 overs. Pakistan's chase was so un-Pakistan. They were, for a change, very professional. Kamaran Akmal was again in good form and smacked 37 off 28 balls with 2 fours and 2 sixers. Despite loosing the second wicket at 63, Afridi, promoted again to No.3 and Shoaib Malik played mature hands in seeing Pakistan through with 8 balls to spare. Afridi's 40 ball 54 included 2 sixers and 2 fours and was the most mature innings of him ever. He was named man of the match, and Dilshan just pipped Afridi for the Man of the Series Award.

After the incidents at Lahore, where the touring Srilankan team was attacked by gunmen, Pakistan has been starved of cricket with teams refusing to tour. With the 2011 World Cup 50 over competition moved away from Pakistan, this is a very very very important victory for Pakistan as a Nation. Cheers Pakistan, Well Played.

For more news, statistics and photos please visit Cricinfo

ICC T20- Super 8's Report

Ooops..My prediction was only 50% right. In my previous post I predicted India, South Africa, Srilanka and New Zealand to be the semi-finalists but India and New Zealand didn't make it. They've been replaced by Pakistan and West Indies. Let us take a deeper look into how the Super-8s went on:

Group-E (India, England, West Indies, South Africa)

It was a tough group and close games were expected. But it was not the case. South Africa out bowled England, out batted West Indies and out played India to enter the semifinals as the Winners from this group. South Africa bowled out England for 111, Scored 183/7 against West Indies and atlast defended a moderate 130 against a down and out India. AB Devilliers, Kallis, Gibbs and Smith in patches were the stars with the bat, while the 19 year old Wayne Parnell was the star with the ball ably supported by Johan Botha and Roelof van der Merwe. They were brilliant in the field as usual. West Indies pace bowlers blew away the match fancied Indians with Bouncers. Dwayne Bravo with an unbeaten 66 of 36 balls and 4 wickets was the star, but Fiedel Edwards set the tone with Aggressive pace bowling. The Windies also beat England in a rain-shortened chase. Chasing 80 in 9 overs Windies top order lost their heads, collasping to 45-5 with 22 balls remaining. But the Guyanese pair of Ramnaresh Sarwan and Shiv Chanderpaul put on 37 off 18 balls with just 4 boundaries to see them through to semi-finals. England, the hosts had the consolation of beating defending champions India. Taking a leaf out of the Windies book the Englishmen also bowled hostile bouncers at Indian batsmen to come out on top by 3 runs. India failed to win a single game and already Indian fans are demanding for Skipper MS Dhoni's head. They even failed to overhaul South Africa's dismal 130 in an attempt to get a consolation win.

Teams	Mat	Won	Lost	Tied	N/R	Pts	Net RR
South Africa	3	3	0	0	0	6	+0.787
West Indies	3	2	1	0	0	4	+0.063
England	3	1	2	0	0	2	-0.414
India	3	0	3	0	0	0	-0.466

Group-F (Ireland, Pakistan, Srilanka, New Zealand)

New Zealand began convincingly with a 83 run win over Ireland and Pakistan started with a loss against Srilanka. But in the end the table turned. Srilanka, with tremendous middle over bowling strength won all their three matches comprehensively. Yes, their batting and opening bowling looked not so great, but Muralitharan, Mendia and Malinga is a combination any team would dream of in a T20 match. Mendis and Malinga took wickets while Murali tied the batsmen down. Tillakaratne Dilshan tops the run charts for the tournament ably supported by Mahela Jayawardane. Pakistan, after the loss against Srilanka, some how found the desire to win. Abdul Razzaq returned to the side after two playing in the unofficial Indian Cricket League for 2 years. But it was the brilliant bowling of Shahid Afridi and Umer Gul that helped Pakistan. Gul's 3-0-6-5 against New Zealand was a fantastic T20 spell (Best T20 bowling figures and the first ever 5 wicket haul). Pakistan beat New Zealand and Ireland with comfort. The Kiwis had their chance of making it to the Semis ahead of Srilanka based on Net Run Rate, but they failed miserably in a chase of 158. Ireland showed some fight against Srilanka where they lost by 9 runs, but were beaten comprehensively by New Zealand and Pakistan.

Teams	Mat	Won	Lost	Tied	N/R	Pts	Net RR
Sri Lanka	3	3	0	0	0	6	+1.267
Pakistan	3	2	1	0	0	4	+1.185
New Zealand	3	1	2	0	0	2	-0.232
Ireland	3	0	3	0	0	0	-2.183

Semifinal Line-up

South Africa vs Pakistan
Srilanka vs West Indies

Given the form shown by the teams it should be a final between South Africa and Srilanka. But the other two mercurial sides can sprang in a surprise anywhere along the line. So, adios from me until the finals.

ICC T20- First Round Report.

ICC T20 has reached the second stage, the Super-8 stage. How teams have fared so far? Has everything gone as expected? Any upsets? Lets see:

Group- A (India-A1, Bangladesh-A2, Ireland)
India and Bangladesh were expected to make it to the second round. But Ireland sprung in a surprise by kicking an abject Bangladesh out of the competition with a 6 wicket victory, fashioned by Trant Johnston and the O'Brien brothers, Niall and Kevin. Bangladesh had lost their first game against a classy Indian out-fit. So Ireland replaced Bangladesh as the A2 in the second round. India's swashbuckling opener Virender Sehwag has been deemed unfit and Dinesh Kartik replaces him.


Group-B (Pakistan-B1, England-B2, Netherlands)
Netherlands almost caused an upset. They beat England in the tournament opener to put the hosts on the verge of a defeat. Pakistan turned in an abject performance against England that made sure the hosts were through to the next round. Pakistan, the last years finalists needed a convincing win over Dutch to qualify for round-2, which they achieved through useful batting contributions and excellent spin-bowling. Despite England topping this group on Net Run Rate, Pakistan are the B1 and England are B2 in the Super-8s. For more details on how the tournament works please refer the end of the article.


Group-D (Australia-C1, Srilanka-C2, West Indies)
Termed as group of death, this group lived up to the expectations. 50 Over World Champions Australia were Chris Gayled and Genocided out of the competition with the Lankans topping the group table with two wins out of two. The Lankans probably have the best T20 bowling attack. Their middle order is brittle but the top order always makes up. Windies are far more dangerous when their captain, 'Calypso King' Gayle, fires, as he did against the Kangaroos. Since West Indies were replacing Australia, they are the C1.


Group-D (New Zealand-D1, South Africa-D2, Scotland)
As expected South Africa and New Zealand qualified. The match between the top two was a classic as South Africa defended a modest 128 to win by a run. South Africa, under the Impressive Graeme Smith, looks the hot favorites. Even from the Warm-up matches they are playing the same XI something none of the other 11 teams didn't even come close to doing. With Smith leading 'his' team like a colonel, they are on course to win a first cricket WC Silverware. Despite topping the group South Africa are D2.


The Super-8 Groups
Group E: India (A1), England (B2), West Indies (Replaced C1), South Africa (D2)
Group F: Ireland (Replaced A2), Pakistan (B1), Srilanks (C2), New Zealand (D1)
The A1, A2, B1, B2, C1, C2, D1, D2 Confusion.
These were the rankings before the tournament.

India - A1	Pakistan - B1	Australia - C1	New Zealand- D1
Bangladesh - A2	England - B2	Sri Lanka - C2	South Africa - D2
Ireland	Netherlands	West Indies	Scotland

As the tournament progressed, the teams that qualify for the second round were divided onto two groups based on the following rule:

Group E	Group F
A1	B1
B2	A2
C1	C2
D2	D1

The top two ranked teams in each group are seeded 1 and 2. They will retain this seeding for the Super Eights stage, irrespective of whether they finish first or second in their group, unless they are knocked out by team 3 in their group. In this instance, team 3 replaces the position of the team they knock out. For example, if Bangladesh wins Group A and India comes second, for the purposes of the Super Eights, India will still be A1 and Bangladesh will be A2. If for example, Ireland qualifies instead of India, Ireland will become A1. (Source: ICC)

My Semifinal Predictions:
India, South Africa, Srilanka and New Zealand

For Scores and other tournament features: Cricinfo

Let's enjoy the entertainment version of the great Game. I'll be back after Super-8s. Untill then Adios......