By Adrian Meredith
VICTORIA, Australia (TheSportsNEXT) September 23, 2012: The fourth edition of ICC World Twenty20 cricket tournament is in full swing in Sri Lanka these days where 10 group matches have been played so far where Zimbabwe and Afghanistan have already crashed out of the tournament.
TheSportsNEXT’s Adrian Meredith has reviewed the best performances and highlights of the first eight matches of the ICC World Twenty20 (ICCWT20).
Match 1: Sri Lanka vs Zimbabwe
The match was not expected to be close, with Sri Lanka as hosts and probably favourites for the tournament, while Zimbabwe haven't won a T20 match against anyone for 2 years and are the lowest ranked team. And the match wasn't close either. Sri Lanka put in a pretty big total but there were no standout performances with the bat. But with the ball, there sure was. Mystery spinner Ajantha Mendis, already the record holder for best bowling figures in a T20 international, broke his own record to take 6/8 off 4 overs - the first bowler to take 6 wickets in an innings twice in T20s as well. Zimbabwe found him virtually unplayable - and, of note, before he came on they were actually in the game and giving themselves a chance of victory. Simply amazing performance.
Match 2: Australia vs Ireland
Australia (8th) vs Ireland (9th) should have been close - indeed, until a week earlier, Ireland were ranked 8th with Australia 9th. But Ireland have never beaten Australia and this match didn't look like it was as close as the rankings suggested. Ireland might have fought better but for Mitchell Starc and Shane Watson, who each took 3 wickets. If Watson's effort with the ball wasn't enough, he backed it up with an incredible 50 off 39 balls to make certain of it. Ireland fought like crazy but in the end this was a pretty easy victory for Australia and highlights how inaccurate the T20 rankings are.
Match 3: India vs Afghanistan
India were expected to win this one easily with Afghanistan only ahead of Zimbabwe in the rankings; but fear of the unknown struck India, who didn't know how to handle their impressive bowling. India were in a fair amount of trouble with too many wickets lost and run rate too low before Virat Kohli in particular made all of the difference. Kohli is surely the most in-form batsman in the world and right now would give Don Bradman a run for his money and his 50 off 39 really brought India back into the game. Afghanistan fought hard when it was their time to bat with Mohammad Nabi getting them close; but they lost too many wickets and just missed out, in a hard fought contest.
Match 4: South Africa vs Zimbabwe
If Zimbabwe vs Sri Lanka was one sided, this was expected to be even more so, and it was. Zimbabwe were slaughtered by all of South Africa's bowlers but then it was their 6th bowler used, the all rounder Jacques Kallis, who returned the best figures, with 4/15 off his 4 overs. Perhaps Morne Morkel was the better bowler on the night but Kallis returned the figures. Zimbabwe were bowled out for under 100 and South Africa mowed down the runs with no wickets lost with about 5 overs to spare, as Zimbabwe were knocked out without so much as a whimper.
Match 5: New Zealand vs Bangladesh
New Zealand have been rather horrible in the past 3 or 4 years, with their low point being 2 years ago when they lost an ODI series 4-0 to Bangladesh. So Bangladesh were given a significant chance in this match. Things were going well early for Bangladesh too, with them bowling tightly and then taking the early wicket of Guptill. But then Brendon McCullum, the leading scorer in T20 internationals, who usually opens, came in. At first, it was an annoyance. Then he was dropped with tough chances, and before you could blink he was taking the game away. It always felt like surely it would end soon, as his very risky innings led to about 4 or 5 chances missed; but by the time that he was out for 123 off 58 balls - the highest score in T20 international history - the total was looking far too big for a Bangladesh side more known for their bowling. Bangladesh fought reasonably hard but the match was over with 2 overs to go - not from being all out but because the required rate was over 36 per over. The final margin of 59 runs was all about McCullum. If he had been out off his first chance, New Zealand probably would have lost. It was that kind of a match.
Match 6: England vs Afghanistan
England have a habit of losing to minnows in World Cups and big tournaments, losing to Ireland in the last ODI World Cup and Netherlands in the last World T20 (yes, the one that they won - that was their only loss) and would have been quite nervous against an Afghanistan side that scared India. It wasn't going all that well for England, who were sorely missing the fluency of Kevin Pietersen; but then Luke Wright stepped up to the plate, scoring steadily to start with then rocking at the end, to finish with 99 not out off 55 balls, annoyingly just missing his century, and not even being dismissed. He was right to be annoyed at that miss, as that was the only interesting part of the match, as Afghanistan fell apart when they batted, and lost by a huge margin.
Match 7: South Africa vs Sri Lanka
The first match against two big teams was supposed to be a big one, with two of the favourite teams facing off. But rain played spoilsport and nearly ruined the match. But, thanks to some great grounds work we managed to have a 7 over per side contest - just ahead of the minimum allowed 5 overs per side. South Africa changed their side to suit and had everyone in there bashing it - dropping Robin Petersen for Faf du Plessis just to add bashing power. They lost wickets on their way to 78 from their 7 overs but it was all about taking extra risks. A B de Villiers was the real star, managing 30 off 13 balls to really catapult the team towards a good score. It was hard to know if it was big enough but Sri Lanka seemed to mess up with having slow batsmen at the top, batting slowly, and just not reading the ball - or the game situation. Ajantha Mendis didn't play - apparently because he is ill - though perhaps he wouldn't have been effective anyway against a top team. Sri Lanka weren't bowled out but didn't get close - managing just 45 off their 7 overs - a loss by a massive 33 runs - they scored at almost 5 runs per over less than South Africa had!
Match 8: Australia vs West Indies
West Indies were favourites for this - and some had them as outright favourites for the tournament - with Chris Gayle, Keiron Pollard and Dwayne Bravo 3 of the stars of the T20 game, and Sunil Narine coming big, while Darren Sammy isn't too bad either. They started off slowly but then after 3 or 4 overs at 5 or 6 runs per over, Gayle suddenly transformed up a gear, smashing 4s and 6s galore and suddenly West Indies were going at 9 or 10 runs per over. Shane Watson had dropped him on 2 and was paying the price. A 200+ target was on offer, and it was looking very Brendon McCullum like, with Australia having no answers before Watson came back on, and Gayle offered the second chance - a tough one skied up very high and Watson had to run at full pelt for a long distance to have a chance - and he took it triumphantly. But that wasn't it for West Indies as Marlon Samuels lifted a gear and he too scored a half century at a similar strike rate to Gayle's. Australia kept taking wickets - and West Indies kept scoring runs. In the finish they scored almost the same score as New Zealand against Bangladesh - when New Zealand won by 59 runs. But the difference is that Australia have Watson and Warner, the best opening combination in T20 cricket. Warner faced the entire first 2 overs, scoring 28 runs off them, before being given out, seemingly incorrectly, caught behind, when he didn't seem to have touched it. But then once Shane Watson finally faced a ball, he smashed it all around, and when the rain came he was 41 not out off 24, to go with his 2/29. Australia's 1/100 off 9.1 overs was deemed to be a winning score - by 17 runs - though it will be an empty victory - they still needed a difficult 90 runs off 11 overs - and could easily have lost. This was, nonetheless, the closest match of the tournament so far.
For me, the last match was the best match so far - certainly the closest - though, as I said, rain ruined it. While we had the highest score of all time (Brendon McCullum's 123) and the best bowling figures of all time (Ajantha Mendis's 6/8), with its effect on the match, the quality of the opposition and such, I thought that Shane Watson's 41 off 24 and 2/29 against West Indies was the best performance of the World T20 so far.
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