Sri Lanka entered this tournament, playing their first international game since the devastating bombings in Pakistan. They did not disappoint, accounting for Australia and the West Indies with ease. Heading to the super8s, making totals became a big problem and many teams faltered because of their bowling. What made Sri Lanka such a dominant side was no matter what score they made, their bowlers made the scores defendable. Sri Lanka’s MMM combination comprising of Mendis, Malinga and Muralitharan were absolutely brilliant with the ball - restricting runs, creating pressure, taking wickets and eventually winning games. The starts with the bat were Dilshan and Sangakarra, who were major contributors in Sri Lana’s totals. However, their fairytale tournament ended with a comprehensive defeat at the hands of Pakistan. Nonetheless, a great tournament for Sri Lanka given the context of their most recent events. Grade: A
Pakistan, the most unpredictable...
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A Tale of Upsets
The ICC World Twenty20 2009 Tournament has been quite a spectacle to watch so far. One asset of this tournament that makes it so fascinating to watch are the upsets. Unlike the older formats (that is, test and ODI), the Twenty20 format is so fast and action-packed that
“Anything can happen…”
What better to kick off the twenty20 tournament than to have the hosts upset by an associate side. That’s right, England were beaten in a last ball thriller by the Netherlands. Wright’s superb 49-ball 71 was negated by Doeschate’s 2 – 35 and Grooth nice 30-ball 49 cameo. It was great to see how much this game meant for the Netherlands, as they all rushed out into the middle in celebration after the last ball win. It was indeed a real and successful wake-up call as England have not looked back, defeat last year’s champions, India and Pakistan.
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What better to kick off the twenty20 tournament than to have the hosts upset by an associate side. That’s right, England were beaten in a last ball thriller by the Netherlands. Wright’s superb 49-ball 71 was negated by Doeschate’s 2 – 35 and Grooth nice 30-ball 49 cameo. It was great to see how much this game meant for the Netherlands, as they all rushed out into the middle in celebration after the last ball win. It was indeed a real and successful wake-up call as England have not looked back, defeat last year’s champions, India and Pakistan.
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The Theatre of the Absurd
There is something no right about the Indian Premier League Season 2 2009. Part-timers are taking hattricks, teams are losing from just winning positions, teams are winning from impossible situations and teams at the top of the (points) table are going down to teams ranked below them...
“THE THEATRE OF THE ABSURD”
Rohit Sharma and Yuvraj Singh are two part time bowlers and hardly bowl for India. Yet they are the only two bowlers in this tournament to have taken hattricks. Another part-timer who has taken a decent bag of wickets is Suresh Raina. He has hardly bowled for India and has one career wicket to his name in all forms of cricket for India. Notice that all these part-timers are Indian – bizarre! Here are their statistics with the ball in this tournament (courtesy of cricinfo):
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Rohit Sharma and Yuvraj Singh are two part time bowlers and hardly bowl for India. Yet they are the only two bowlers in this tournament to have taken hattricks. Another part-timer who has taken a decent bag of wickets is Suresh Raina. He has hardly bowled for India and has one career wicket to his name in all forms of cricket for India. Notice that all these part-timers are Indian – bizarre! Here are their statistics with the ball in this tournament (courtesy of cricinfo):
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From one Spectacle to Another - ICC World Twenty20 2009 Preview
With the end to the second season of the Indian Premier League, another exciting tournament takes its place in the ICC World Twenty20. The fast-growing rise in popularity in the Twenty20 format is what makes this tournament one of the most exciting for the year. In a sense, it is just like the IPL except players will be playing for their own countries, meaning players will be more passionate and determined to take their countries to victory.
Here are the prospects of the test-playing nations:
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Here are the prospects of the test-playing nations:
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The Underperformers
So far in this Season of the Indian Premier League, we have seen the best of the players. However, we have also seen the worse of players.
The first person that comes to mind is no other than the 1.5 million dollar man, Kevin Pietersen. I won’t say too much about him as you have probably heard enough of him in the previous article:: “Sorry, but no Refunds.” Pietersen had scored 93 runs at an average of 15.50 before he went. Surely, such a performance is not worth the 1.5 million. He played the odd good shot, then predictably got himself out.
Another player who comes to mind is supposedly one of the “most destructive batsman in the world” - please stand Brendon McCullum...
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The first person that comes to mind is no other than the 1.5 million dollar man, Kevin Pietersen. I won’t say too much about him as you have probably heard enough of him in the previous article:: “Sorry, but no Refunds.” Pietersen had scored 93 runs at an average of 15.50 before he went. Surely, such a performance is not worth the 1.5 million. He played the odd good shot, then predictably got himself out.
Another player who comes to mind is supposedly one of the “most destructive batsman in the world” - please stand Brendon McCullum...
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Sorry but no Refunds!
The IPL journey for the “re-injured” Andrew Flintoff ends with a serious knee injury that sidelines him for around 3 months. The IPL journey for Kevin Pietersen ends on Wednesday as he heads home for the West Indies Series. Both are the two of the most expensive players in the IPL but are frankly two of the most disappointing players.
The situation is worse for Pietersen, whose captaincy has led the Bangalore Challengers to 1 win and 4 losses from their 5 games. To top it off, he has scored 80 runs (including two ducks) from 5 games at an average of 16.00 and a strike rate of 109.58. C’mon KP!
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The situation is worse for Pietersen, whose captaincy has led the Bangalore Challengers to 1 win and 4 losses from their 5 games. To top it off, he has scored 80 runs (including two ducks) from 5 games at an average of 16.00 and a strike rate of 109.58. C’mon KP!
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