And now for the Cricket!

The WorldT20 Tourney has experienced more twists and turns then I expected. We are currently towards the end of the Super 8s phase, and after the events of last night I feel it’s about time we take a look at some of the happenings.

India:

Surprise surprise, the defending champions have been bundled out, thanks to a weakness towards short balls, exploited by first West Indies, then England. Popular theory points to the Captain as the person at fault. I’m inclined to agree, and the fact that two teams exploited the same weakness shows a failure by management to not identify this problem early on. To me, Sehwag’s absence cannot be used as an excuse, as India has enough talent to compensate, as showcased in the recent IPL. The constant shuffling of the batting order, the captain’s baffling decision-making such as the failure to utilise his part-time bowlers enough, and failure to deal with the weakness towards the short ball all contributed to their team’s demise.

Ireland:

They are out of the tournament, but I expect their departure today to be given the due respect it deserves. Kudos to Ireland, and looking forward to seeing more of them in the future.
For all their lack of real talent, they have more than made up for it, showing the drive, motivation and hunger that has been sorely lacking in some of the top sides here, like this next one.

Australia:

Case in point. Adam Gilchrist needs to come over and teach them a thing or two about T20. Clearly the upcoming Ashes is a distraction, but to enter into a tournament with such a high reputation and play the way they did reeked of overconfidence and a failure to adapt.

Pakistan:

It certainly pissed me off when Younis Khan said what he did after losing the first match against Ireland, but, on hindsight, it seems to have been a tactic that has caused other teams to underestimate them. Pakistan are clicking well at the moment, their bowling has been amazing, but their batting remains a concern. Abdur Razzak’s return seems to have helped, but they’re gonna have to have a lot more batting practice in the nets if they plan on making the finals.

England:

Suddenly The Ashes doesn’t look a distraction as it is to the Aussies, yet they still look terribly fragile. At the moment they seem to be the least talented bunch in the Super 8s after the Irish, but they will make it to the semis if they beat West Indies. Not bad after the Dutch howler.

The rest of ‘em:

South Africa has been clinical, Sri Lanka, New Zealand and West Indies are performing more or less as I expected.

 All in all, it’s been a fun tournament, my main regret is not being able to watch the matches, hopefully I can catch the finals. My predictions for the semis other than SA who’ve qualified, are Pak, NZ and WI.

In closing, here's the Cricinfo recap as to what each team needs to do to make it to the final four:

Cricinfo recap

Enjoy the matches!