Showing posts with label World Cup. Show all posts
Showing posts with label World Cup. Show all posts

Saturday, 13 July 2019

England - World Champions




What a game, what a wonderful, remarkable game!

Thank you to both teams. 

Sunday, 16 May 2010

England World Champions? Well, if you insist!

Match: T20: Final
Venue: Barbados | Date: May 16, 2010
Toss: England elected to field
Result: England win by 7 wickets.


In T20 World Cup final today England won the toss and elected to field first. The bowlers did not disappointed the captain and wrecked the top order of Australia. Australia who had shown brilliant batting through out the tournament, failed today when it mattered the most. The top 4 batsmen were back in pavilion with the team score of just 45. But again the man for Australia was D Hussey who along with C White took the charge and helped Australia cross the hundred run mark. Hussey’s innings of 59 helped Australia post a total of 147/6 in 20 overs.

Chasing the total of 148 to be the champions of ICC T20 World Cup, England lost M Lumb in the second over and it looked Australian bowlers will not let England win so easily. But C Kieswetter and K Pietersen got into a partnership of 111 runs and made sure that England are crowned the champs of this year T20 World Cup. But England then lost both these batsmen quickly and were placed at 121/3 in 14.1 overs. They needed just 27 runs from 35 balls and had 7 wickets in hand. E Morgan and P Collingwood finally scored the required runs and England were crowned the ICC T20 World Cup 2010 Winner.

Tuesday, 23 June 2009

T20 World Cup

Blink and it's gone

So, Pakistan prevailed in the second world T20 which evens up the local tally and must give some genuine encouragement for the PCB despite the lack of home international matches.

Pakistan won the ICC World Twenty20 in an exciting finish at a noisy Lord's when Sri Lanka's total of 138-6 was overhauled with eight balls remaining. Shahid Afridi, man of the match in the semi-final, was again the hero, hitting 54 not out from 40 balls to steer Pakistan to an eight-wicket win.

Having chosen to bat, Sri Lanka lost star batsman Tillakaratne Dilshan in the first over and were soon 2-2. Kumar Sangakkara's 64 gave them hope but Pakistan paced their chase well.

Sri Lanka had progressed through the tournament smoothly, winning all their matches and relying on the brilliant batting of Dilshan and some superb bowling led by Ajantha Mendis.

But on the grand stage, both their leading players fluffed their lines, and Pakistan ruthlessly seized the initiative.

Pakistan had lost two of their first three matches and needed a win against the Netherlands just to make the last eight. But they turned a corner when thrashing New Zealand - from which point they never looked back.

They began the final in ideal fashion, with a wicket-maiden from 17-year-old sensation Mohammad Aamer.

It wasn't just any wicket-maiden - a rare event indeed in this format. The fact that the tournament's leading run-scorer Dilshan had been dismissed made Aamer's over extra special.

Dlishan craves deliveries on a good length so he can sweep and drive, but keeping the ball short and straight, Aamer bowled four dot-balls then enticed a top-edged pull to short fine-leg.

Pakistan began superbly with the ball at Lord's, and kept it going
The wicket seemed to scare Sri Lanka's other batsmen, who had not enjoyed particularly good tournaments, and it was the fast-medium bowler Abdul Razzaq who reaped the rewards.

Jehan Mubarak, promoted up the order, skied a catch into the off-side, Sanath Jayasuriya crashed a six and two fours but then dragged one on, before Mahela Jayawardene edged an attempted late-cut to slip.

Sangakkara and Chamara Silva had a major repair operation on their hands, coming together with the score 32-4 in 5.3 overs. They put on 35 from 36 balls which at least stopped the rot, but the arrival of Umar Gul dented Sri Lanka's renaissance.

Silva mistimed a pull to midwicket and Isuru Udana swished and missed the last two balls of a fine over. It got even better for Pakistan when Afridi bowled Udana to leave the score 70-6 from 13 overs.

Finally, some positive running between the wickets from Sangakkara and Angelo Mathews saw nine runs come off a Saeed Ajmal over and then Gul, so brilliant in Pakistan's last three victories, suddenly lost his length and was hammered for 14 in an over.

Mathews played his part too, clubbing a couple of boundaries on the on-side before tucking into the final over, bowled by Aamer.

The decision to give the teenager the final over looked a questionable one, and with Mathews flaying a boundary through the slips and muscling a six through the on-side 17 more precious runs came Sri Lanka's way.

Pakistan's chase was given impetus by Kamran Akmal, who hit big leg-side sixes off both Mendis and Mathews to take his team to a very respectable 48-0 from seven overs.

Jayasuriya, Sri Lanka's sixth bowler, then immediately had Akmal stumped, but the other opener Shahzaib Hasan, who had been so quiet, drilled consecutive boundaries off Mendis, the mystery spinner who Pakistan were playing so well.

When he fell to Muttiah Muralitharan, the required rate hit eight an over, but Pakistan still had eight wickets in hand and just 64 more runs were required.

Afridi, who had had time to play himself in, now hit Muralitharan into the Tavern Stand and then launched him over wide mid-off for four.

That made Pakistan hot favourites, but just 16 runs came off the next three overs, so 26 were still wanted from 18 balls. But Afridi, with Shoaib Malik playing a quiet role in support, now smashed Udana for six over midwicket and pulled him past fine-leg for four more, leaving an easy seven runs needed from the last two overs.



Jardine's Verdict: A deserved win for Pakistan and hopefully the first step for them back to complete international acceptance.

Tuesday, 9 June 2009

What do Bangaldesh, Scotland & Australia have in common?

They are all out of the World Cup

Group Stage First Round

ICC World Twenty20 2009: Group A
P W L T N/R R/R Pts
1 India 1 1 0 0 0 1.25 2.0
2 Ireland 1 1 0 0 0 0.68 2.0
3 Bangladesh 2 0 2 0 0 -1.0 0.0

ICC World Twenty20 2009: Group B
P W L T N/R R/R Pts
1 England 2 1 1 0 0 1.18 2.0
2 Netherlands 1 1 0 0 0 0.05 2.0
3 Pakistan 1 0 1 0 0 -2.4 0.0


ICC World Twenty20 2009: Group C
P W L T N/R R/R Pts
1 West Indies 1 1 0 0 0 2.41 2.0
2 Sri Lanka 1 1 0 0 0 0.47 2.0
3 Australia 2 0 2 0 0 -1.33 0.0


ICC World Twenty20 2009: Group D
P W L T N/R R/R Pts
1 South Africa 1 1 0 0 0 6.5 2.0
2 New Zealand 1 1 0 0 0 2.29 2.0
3 Scotland 2 0 2 0 0 -5.28 0.0

Ooops - No. 2

The Aussies are out of the 20/20 World Cup

BBC Reports...

Kumar Sangakkara and Tillakaratne Dilshan hit brilliant half-centuries as Sri Lanka dumped Australia out of the ICC World Twenty20 at Trent Bridge.

Sri Lanka put the Aussies in, and only some determined batting from their tailenders got them up to 159-9.

Spinner Ajantha Mendis tied most of the Aussies in knots, taking 3-20.

And a wide from the first ball of the final over, bowled by Mitchell Johnson, condemned Australia to their second heavy defeat in this tournament.

Having been blown away by Chris Gayle at The Oval, the move up the M1 to Nottingham brought no less misery for Ricky Ponting's men.

His team now have two empty weeks in Leicester before moving down to Sussex for their first tour match before the Ashes.

Afterwards Ponting told BBC Sport: "If you're a little bit off in this game, you pay for it. "Now we have to move on as quickly as possible and focus on the Ashes."

Australia had their moments in this match, but their specialist batting and their seam bowling was again a major let-down, and that is bound to concern Ponting.

During the early exchanges, Shane Watson hit debutant Isuru Udana for two fours and a six, then Ricky Ponting took advantage of a wayward opening over from Lasith Malinga, taking him for three fours.

That left Australia in good shape at 47-1 from just five overs. But they scored at just half that pace over the following 10 overs while losing five more wickets.

Sangakkara kept shuffling his bowlers around, but it was Mendis who did most of the damage.

Ponting was bowled as he backed away to leg, Watson was lbw on the sweep and David Hussey also fell lbw as Mendis's unusual spin-bowling wreaked havoc.

But Australia were then helped by two big overs. Johnson climbed into Muttiah Muralitharan's final set of six, hitting him for two sixes and a four.

Udana's final over included the wicket of David Hussey, but it also cost 18 - including a four and a six off the bat of Brett Lee.

And although two more wickets fell in the final over, bowled by Malinga, Australia's tailenders somehow scrambled 12 more runs off it with two lucky deflections for four.

So despite being in terrible trouble at 94-6 after 15 overs, a haul of 65 runs from the last five had hauled them back into the contest at the halfway stage.

Johnson ended up with 28 not out off just 13 balls, a contribution that gave him and his fellow bowlers a bit of momentum as Sri Lanka's chase started.

However, Sri Lanka's batsman took the initiative back again, despite losing Sanath Jayasuriya to a fine David Warner catch at deep square-leg.

Dilshan (53) was in a hurry, cutting, pulling and driving the seamers - almost at will - and Sangakkara.

He gave Watson plenty of grief, but was finally undone by Clarke's first delivery, which turned and trimmed his bails.

That left Mahela Jayawardene to continue the fight with Sangakkara (55 not out), but the pair were made to work for their singles as they dealt with Clarke and the other spinner Nathan Hauritz.

Just as had happened with Australia's innings, the runs dried up alarmingly, and from having needed barely seven an over the required rate went up to nine, with the out-of-sorts Jayawardene holing out off Hauritz into the bargain.

That was the cue for Sangakkara to hoist Hauritz for two effortless sixes, one swept the other driven straight, as though to demonstrate he had been toying with the Sri Lankan fans all along.

He remained coolness personified, sweeping Nathan Bracken past the short fine-leg for four more to reach his fifty.

Jehan Mubarak's six in the penultimate over off Lee - who again proved so expensive - eased the tension completely.

And it was a tame way for Australia to go out of the tournament when Johnson slid one down the leg-side.

A delighted Sangakkara said: "It was a great performance. When you play against Australia the key is to believe you can win.

"Our strength has always been spin bowling and we played two guys whom the Australians haven't seen much of. So their batsmen couldn't really target one single bowler."

Jardine's Verdict: Whilst there but for the grace of God and all that, it is still bloody funny!

Saturday, 6 June 2009

Thursday, 4 June 2009

Symonds Sent Home - Again!

He's going home, he's going home, he's going, Symo's going home!

Australia have sent Andrew Symonds home from the World Twenty20 tournament in England for disciplinary reasons after less than 10 days in Blighty!

Cricket Australia said the controversial all-rounder had been dismissed after breaking team rules relating to alcohol and other issues. The 33-year-old, who had returned to the Australia set-up after a spell out because of disciplinary issues, was absent from training on Thursday.

Symonds had already been left out of Australia's 16-man Ashes squad. The incident is the latest in a long line of off-field misdemeanours involving the Queensland player and will be a major blow to Ricky Ponting who publicly backed Symonds for an Ashes spot as well as to play a major role in the 20/20 World Cup.

In January, he was fined by Cricket Australia over a remark he made in a radio interview and he has a history of drinking related problems, stretching back to 2005. In August 2008, he was been sent home from Australia's one-day squad to play Bangladesh in Darwin after missing a compulsory team meeting to go fishing.


Jardine's Verdict: A disaster waiting to happen? Or the sad demise of a gifted cricketer? A mix of the two most probably. However, the news is a real blow for Aussie hopes but also shows a tough no-nonsense managerial approach. Barmen the length and breadth of Britain will be reeling!

Wednesday, 6 May 2009

Don't worry that's them out of it!

Australia have included controversial English all-rounder Andrew Symonds in their 15-man squad for the World Twenty20 in England, which starts on 5 June.

So, we can write them off. The rest of the squad is...

Ricky Ponting (c), Michael Clarke (vc), Nathan Bracken, Brad Haddin, Nathan Hauritz, Ben Hilfenhaus, James Hopes, David Hussey, Mike Hussey, Mitchell Johnson, Brett Lee, Peter Siddle, Andrew Symonds, David Warner, Shane Watson

Jardine's Verdict: On paper a strong squad. In reality? They are no longer invincible despite the emergence of the prodigously talented Mitchell Johnson. Michael 'Mr Cricket' Hussey is a liability and Symonds is drinking his way through the wine list in the last chance saloon. Brett Lee, out for too long, too slow and a surely only picked on history not form. David Warner the new 'Slogging Sensation' is too hit and miss and the lack of a steadying slow bowler is their real achilles heel.

Tuesday, 5 May 2009

Introducing the future 20/20 World Cup Winners!

India

In the meantime England have announced their 15 man squad. We know, we all said the same thing. Where is Phil DeFreitas?

James Anderson, Ravi Bopara, Stuart Broad, Paul Collingwood (capt), Andrew Flintoff, James Foster (wk), Rob Key, Dimitri Mascarenhas, Eoin Morgan, Graham Napier, Kevin Pietersen, Owais Shah, Ryan Sidebottom, Graeme Swann, Luke Wright.

Jardine's Verdict: Well, as hosts we do have to submit a team to fulfill our fixtures and that is exactly what we've done. Not a chance