West Indies crowned ICC World Twenty20 champions

By Fathima Zanaida

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (TheSportsNEXT) October 7, 2012: West Indies stunned hosts Sri Lanka by 36 runs to win the ICC World Twenty20 2012 at R Premadasa Stadium Sunday.

 

The victory was attributed to a counterattack by Marlon Samuels (78) who struck six towering sixes after West Indies could manage only 32 runs from first 10 overs.

West Indies finished with 137 for six before their bowlers did the job as Sri Lanka were bowled out for 101 runs from 18.4 overs.

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Shortcomings of ICC World Twenty20 Format

By Mark Richardson

WELLINTONG, New Zealand (TheSportsNEXT) September 30, 2012: Former New Zealand top-order batsman Mark Richardson wrote in an article published in NZ Herald on Sunday, “Twenty20 cricket is fast becoming the preferred shorter version of the game and I believe will supersede 50-over cricket”.

The complete article is here as follows:

As T20 becomes more meaningful, so too does the ICC World T20!

I'm no fan of the tournament's format: It feels too instant and exposed to the rather flukey nature of T20.

This tournament really begins at the super eights stage and if you lose your first game there, you are immediately fighting for your life or relying on results beyond your control.

The group stage is not particularly meaningful and I don't think teams are too concerned how they're seeded in the super eights.

To be fair, the group stage is a bit more than practice because if a minnow topples you, you could effectively be gone after one game.

In T20, a minnow could cause an upset but if they go through ahead of one of the top eight, they will not seriously threaten to make the semis and will turn their group of four into something less than super.

This is the one form of cricket I feel lends itself to an eight-team round robin. With the shape world cricket is in, a competition where the top eight play each other once and the top two progress to a final is the most meaningful.

It removes the element of luck and reduces the impact of the one-off performance until the final.

Because of the brevity of T20, this can be achieved without dragging out the competition. Three televised games a day is not overkill and while I agree the volume of cricket in a year is taxing for players, a single T20 fixture is not. Surely for the sake of a meaningful T20 world championship, they could pack a lot of cricket into a short period of time.

Yes, it is important for the ICC to encourage emerging nations and grow the game but ruining marquee tournaments to accommodate minnows, as they have done with the 50-over World Cup, is not the way.

The minnows should be given pathways to inclusion in the big events but not as it's currently done.

If T20 cricket is to surpass one-dayers in importance, then I urge the ICC to learn from its mistakes at the last two World Cups. The game is no longer a slap-happy slog fest so don't undersell its importance with a slap-happy tournament.

As for last night's game, I hope for their sake the Black Caps won because all too often they have underperformed in must-win outings and their performances leading up to meeting the under-performing English were better than the points table reflected.

Original Source: http://www.nzherald.co.nz/opinion/news/article.cfm?c_id=466&objectid=10837441

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ICCWT20: India vs Afghanistan Scorecard

By TheSportsNEXT

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (TheSportsNEXT) September 19, 2012: A brilliant performance by Virat Kohli, Yuvraj Singh, Ravichandran Ashwin and Lakshmipathi Balaji saved the day for Indian cricket team in their first outing of the ICC World Twenty20 2012 (ICCWT20) against minnows Afghanistan at R Premadasa Stadium on Wednesday.

Virat Kohli was declared Man of the Match but there were other glittering performances which made the match of the highest quality. Let’s take a look at the scorecard below:

2012 ICC World Twenty20
Match 3: India vs Afghanistan
Group A	Venue:		R Premadasa
Result	India won by 23 runs
Date	9/19/2012
India Innings
Name		Dismissal		Runs	Balls		4s		6s		S/R
Gautam Gambhir		b Shapoor Zadran		10	8		1		0		125
Virender Sehwag		c Shahzad b Shapoor		8	10		1		0		80
Virat Kohli		c Nabi b Karim		50	39		4		2		128
Yuvraj Singh		c Shapoor b Karim		18	20		0		1		90
Suresh Raina		b Nabi		38	33		6		0		115
Mahendra Dhoni		Not Out		18	9		2		1		200
Rohit Sharma		Not Out		1	1		0		0		100
Did Not Bat: Irfan Pathan, R Ashwin, Zaheer Khan, L Balaji
Extras	(lb 2, w 14)		16
Total	(5 wickets; 20 overs)		159		7.95 Runs Per Over
Afghanistan Bowling
Name			Overs		M	R		W		Econ
Shapoor Zadran			4		0	33		2		8.25
Dawlat Zadran			4		0	25		1		6.25
Gulbodin Naib			2		0	15		0		7.5
Karim Sadiq			4		0	33		1		8.25
Mohammad Nabi			4		0	35		1		8.75
Samiullah Shenwari			2		0	16		0		8
Afghanistan Innings
Name	Dismissal		Runs		Balls	4s		6s		S/R
Mohammad Shahzad	c Yuvraj b Balaji		18		16	3		0		113
Nawroz Mangal	lbw b Yuvraj		22		18	1		1		122
Karim Sadiq	c Gambhir b Yuvraj		26		26	3		0		100
Asghar Stanikzai	c Dhoni b Yuvraj		6		9	0		0		66.7
Mohammad Nabi	c Sharma b Ashwin		31		17	2		2		182
Samiullah Shenwari	c & b Ashwin		1		2	0		0		50
Shafiqullah	lbw b Pathan		8		9	0		1		88.9
Gulbodin Naib	c Raina b Balaji		5		14	0		0		35.7
Najibullah Zadran	Run Out		5		2	1		0		250
Dawlat Zadran	b Balaji		8		5	2		0		160
Shapoor Zadran	Not Out		0		0	0		0		0
Extras	(lb 2, w 3, nb1)		6
Total	(AllOut 19.3 Overs)		136		6.97 Runs Per Over
India Bowling
Name			O		M	R		W		Econ
Zaheer Khan			4		0	28		0		7
Irfan Pathan			2		0	21		0		10.5
Lakshmipathi Balaji			2		0	10		0		5
Rohit Sharma			3.1		0	31		1		9.78
Yuvraj Singh			1		0	13		0		13
Ravichandran Ashwin			3		0	18		1		6

Watch ICC Twenty20 2012 Live

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