By Adrian Meredith
VICTORIA, Australia (TheSportsNEXT) October 3, 2012: Ah, the permutations! To put it simply, all 8 teams had a chance of making the semi finals and all 8 had a chance of missing out. There you go. For the top two in each group, winning would guarantee a spot, while for the bottom 2 a loss would mean that they couldn't make it; but for the middle two a win might not be enough and a loss may be enough. Gah! Anyway, enough of that, let's focus on the matches.
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17th Match, Group 1: England vs New Zealand pitted two teams who were both 1 win and 2 losses for the tournament, both 0 wins and 1 loss in the weak group in the Super 8. England were favourites, virtue of being reigning champions and until recently ranked 1st in the world; but their performances of late have been a lot weaker. Batting first, New Zealand got off to a slow and shaky start, losing both openers early, as well as number 3 Brendon McCullum, whose amazing 123 against Bangladesh seems to be a one off - poor Bangladesh probably should have qualified if not for that innings! Indeed, New Zealand were in trouble right through, and English bowler Steve Finn opened up debate after kicking the stumps over while bowling, the ball was hit for 4 by James Franklin and then it was called a dead ball - not a no ball - cancelling the run. The majority seem to think that it should be a no ball, as it is effectively cheating, by overly distracting the batsman. Steve Finn is basically the only one doing it regularly so he is, in effect, cheating. Finn finished with 3/16 off his 4 overs, having kicked over the stumps several times, and New Zealand finished with a mere 6/148, far from enough to be competitive. England started cautiously before Vettori came on in the 4th over - an odd time as spinners usually either open the bowling or wait until after the 6 over power play - but it worked to dismiss out of form wicket keeper batsman Craig Kieswetter. But from there it was easy as Luke Wright went on a rampage, scoring 75 off 43, including 5 6s and 5 4s. Wright was out with 7 runs required in 10 balls; but they needed just 3 more balls as England completed an easy victory.
18th Match, Group 1: Sri Lanka vs West Indies had the two teams that had won their first Super 6 matches facing off, with Sri Lanka marginal favourites, largely because of home ground advantage. West Indies batted first but after a typically cautious start, Gayle was out before he went on with it, out for a mere 2 off 9 balls while Johnson Charles was out the other before for 12 off 21 balls. Ajantha Mendis, fresh from getting belted all around by New Zealand, having previously got 6/8, now was suddenly back in form, getting 2 for 12. Marlon Samuels and Dwayne Bravo tried to spark a recovery but it was all too little too late as West Indies finished with a pathetic 129. Sri Lanka made short work of it with Mahela Jayawardene scoring 65 not out off 49 balls as Sri Lanka lost just 1 wicket in reaching the target with almost 5 overs to spare. Ajantha Mendis could have got the man of the match award for his 2 for 12 but Jayawardene got it.
19th Match, Group 2: Australia vs South Africa had Australia with 1 win while South Africa had 0, but South Africa were still probably favourites. Xavier Doherty, playing his first match this tournament, opened the bowling and had Richard Levi out clean bowled in the first over, to send the momentum going Australia's way. Doherty ended up with 3/20 off his 4 overs, also getting Kallis and J P Duminy! But right when it all looked over for South Africa, their middle order brought them back into it, through Behardien and especially Robin Peterson. Shane Watson almost overshadowed Doherty's performance by taking 2 for 29 himself, as they were the only two Australian bowlers that took wickets. Australia started slowly when batting, with David Warner clean bowled in the 4th over with just 10 runs on the board. But after a fair amount of watching Michael Hussey and Shane Watson launched, with Watson finished with 70 off 47 balls, the highest score in the entire game. Cameron White got a bash at the end when it no longer mattered as Australia cruised home with 2 and a half overs to spare, having only lost 2 wickets.
20th Match, Group 2: India vs Pakistan pitted famous rivals, with India having won the past 8 World Cup matches (including both ODI and T20 versions), going back to 1992. Both teams seemed to know it as it seemed a foregone conclusion that India would win from the very start. Nobody scored more than 28 and Pakistan finished all out for just 128. Wickets were shared around, and India showed that they do best when going in with 7 batsmen and 4 bowlers, as Yuvraj Singh took 2 wickets and even Virat Kohli managed to take 1 wicket - and bowl 3 overs. Gautam Gambhir was out caught and bowled in the first over but from there it became very easy for India as Virat Kohli continued on with his amazing form, scoring 78 not out off 61 balls as India won with 3 full overs to spare, having only lost 2 wickets.
21st Match, Group 1: New Zealand vs West Indies should have been simple for West Indies and this time Chris Gayle didn't block so much, smashing 3 4s and 2 6s out of 30 runs off just 14 balls, before he was dismissed. Johnson Charles, his new opener, failed this time, managing only 8 off 9. Bowler Andre Russell was promoted right up to number 3 for some reason, scored 6 runs, and was out. And it looked like an overly risky time to experiment. West Indies were going at around 8 or 9 runs per over early, on target to lift it up to 200+; but the problem was that they just kept losing wickets. In the end, their run rate lowered all the way down to 7.12 and then they were out before the end of the 20th over, all out for just 139. The thing is that this wasn't so much good bowling from New Zealand but more bad tactics from West Indies, with the riskiest element of it the promotion of Andre Russell. Thankfully for West Indies, New Zealand weren't playing particularly well and struggled to cope with what was an ordinary run rate. Brendon McCullum failed again, scoring just 22 off 18, and it was all left to Ross Taylor. We soon learned that the calculations meant that whoever lost in this match was definitely out of the competition, due to New Zealand having a higher run rate than West Indies. And West Indies were looking a very good chance of losing. Thankfully for them, they had 2 wonderful spinners in Samuel Badree and Sunil Narine, with Narine especially running through the New Zealand batting. Sunil Narine had figures of 3 for 20 and was definitely a match winner. But then, with 14 required off the last over, and the top 4 bowlers all bowled out, West Indies had a choice of using either Keiron Pollard, who had bowled 2 poor overs, or Chris Gayle who had bowled 1 really bad over, or they could have used the specialist bowler Andre Russell who oddly hadn't bowled at all. But instead of all of that they used Marlon Samuels! It was an incredible move! It very, very, nearly failed, but tight fielding managed to secure the tie - New Zealand's second in their 3 Super 8 matches. This time around it was New Zealand going through for the suicidal 2nd run off the last ball and getting run out. Phew! Now, with New Zealand batting first in the Super Over everyone expected star bowler Sunil Narine to bowl; but instead it was Marlon Samuels! He was smashed all around for 17 runs! It looked for all the world like New Zealand were going to win! Chris Gayle came out to bat, with Marlon Samuels opening with him and first ball from Tim Southee it was a no ball and was smashed over the boundary for a 6! From there, West Indies managed to get the job done fairly easily, with a ball to spare, the 5th ball just going over the fielder's head for 6. Phew! But tactically this was a terrible effort. West Indies, on talent, should have won this easily. Their captain Darren Sammy will have to do a much better effort in the semi finals.
22nd Match, Group 1: Sri Lanka vs England had a fairly simple equation for Sri Lanka - win and they were through - or lose but not by much. For England it was even simpler - any kind of victory would be enough, as their run rate was better than West Indies. Sri Lanka batted first and were consistent right the way through, a real team effort, all 8 batsmen getting to double figures, but nobody getting more than 42, all scoring at a run a ball but nobody going berserk, on the way to 6 for 169. Stuart Broad managed 3 for 32 and Graeme Swann took 2 for 26 but the runs looked to be simply too many. When England came out to bat, they were just nudging it around before Lasith Malinga came in for the 3rd over and immediately took 3 wickets in 4 balls - his 3rd, 5th and 6th. And then, incredibly, he didn't bowl the next over! No hat-trick ball, let's let England get a partnership going! Sri Lanka dominated this match so comfortably that it was scary. It was like they didn't even have to lift a gear. New bowler Akila Dananjaya took 2 wickets but when Malinga returned, he took 2 more wickets, but no hat-trick, finally finishing with 5 for 31. In between all of that, Samit Patel managed a useless 67 off 48, that never looked likely to drag the total into manageable proportions, while Graeme Swann had a bit of fun in scoring 34 off 20, as the only two scorers of over 12. But all that their efforts did was to make the margin look close. In the end, the margin of 19 runs heavily flattered England - in reality England were flogged. This result also meant that Sri Lanka qualified along with West Indies - England would have needed to get the runs within 7 overs to knock Sri Lanka out.
23rd Match, Group 2: Australia vs Pakistan had, until a couple of days ago, the two undefeated teams, except that India had spoiled the party by beating Pakistan. Australia decided to bat 2nd, so that they would know exactly what they needed to qualify for the semi finals. While they'd like to win, they knew that they only needed to lose narrowly to qualify, and by batting 2nd they knew just how close they had to get. Pakistan didn't bat overly well early until Nasir Jamshed and Kamran Akmal brought them back into the match. But a score of 149 looked inadequate. It looked like Australia would reel the target in easily. But first they were looking at what they needed to qualify for the semi finals - 112. Their aim was to get that 112 first, make sure of that, then, if they get that early enough, then go for the win. Pakistan opened with 2 spin bowlers, and the combination of Mohammad Hafeez and Raza Hasan were really troubling Australia's champion opening partnership - the best openers in World T20 cricket, in Shane Watson and David Warner. They were going at around 3 or 4 runs per over, far too low when they needed 7.5 for the win, and low even for the 5.6 they needed to qualify. Then Watson was surprised in the 4th over to be out LBW, before he even got going, to Raza Hasan. The very next over, Mohammad Hafeez had David Warner out LBW. That may sound suspicious, but both were out plumb - no umpiring errors here! From there, Australia fought back through Michael Hussey and captain George Bailey, both trying to preserve wickets and lift the run rate, a hard ask indeed, as Pakistan switched to 2 more spinners in the world's best T20 bowler Saeed Ajmal and the 2nd best Shahid Afridi. Bailey was finally out LBW as well, this time for 15. Cameron White tried to break the shackles but after smashing one monster 6 he was out on the boundary going for a second. Glenn Maxwell, supposedly the big hitter yet striking at just over 100, looked all at sea and was out cheaply and then came Matthew Wade, the last of the recognised batsmen, with 5 down for 65. Australia needed 47 runs off 39 balls just to qualify for the semis - let alone the 85 off 39 balls that they needed to win - and this with just 5 wickets in hand! Just qualifying was going to be tough! But Wade blocked while Hussey picked his balls and smashed it around in a truly amazing innings of 54 off 47 balls. It was a match winning innings, in a sense, as all of Australia were so happy when Hussey hit the winning runs, uh, the runs to qualify Australia for the semi finals, as they passed 112. It was hard work, very hard, but they had done it. Pakistan didn't care and the crowd didn't care, but Hussey sure did. By that stage Wade and Cummins were out and it was just Hussey and Mitchell Starc together, just 3 wickets in hand, with 5 balls to go to get the last 38 runs to win the match. 38 off 5 is a bit much, and instead they added just 5 more. Australia had qualified and, barring a miracle, so too had Pakistan. For me, Michael Hussey was the man of the match but since Pakistan won, Raza Hasan got the man of the match award for his 2 for 14 off the full 4 overs.
24th Match, Group 2: India vs South Africa now had only one more place up for grabs - India had to win by at least 31 runs or with 24 balls remaining to qualify - otherwise Pakistan would. South Africa were no chance to qualify. South Africa's aim was to thwart India, either through victory or through losing by less than that, and making sure that India wouldn't qualify. Finally they would get to play spoilsport, as so many other teams had played to them in tournaments past. India wanted to bowl first so that they would know how many overs they would need to chase down the target but instead South Africa won the toss and, just to upset India, they bowled first. Indian commentators were complaining that Australia, Pakistan and maybe even South Africa too had all conspired to make sure that they couldn't make the semi finals - the ridiculous story going was that Australia were afraid to face India! Yet Australia's opponents were going to be West Indies and why would they be afraid of India who they just beat easily a few days earlier? Australia had simply looked after themselves by making sure that they qualified; it just so happened that they were unable to go for the win. India looked like they thought that the result was a foregone conclusion. Batting first they should have adopted the kind of approach that West Indies tried against New Zealand - taking huge risks to try to get 200+. Instead, they plodded around and nobody really launched, plodding along to a mere 152 off their 20 overs, meaning that South Africa had to get a mere 121 to thwart them. That target was easy for South Africa and they then seriously threatened the victory target too. In the end, India held on for a tight 1 run win, but it was the emptiest of victories, for South Africa very much felt like they had won the game - after all, they had succeeded in their aim to thwart India, and India, in spite of the victory, very much felt like losers. Yuvraj Singh was something of a surprise choice as man of the match for his 21 off 15 balls and 2 for 23 with the ball, rather nondescript figures. But in reality there was no real man of the match. There was more one team stuffing up the other to get revenge on the whole choker tag - they made sure that it was India who choked this time around, caused by them.
