Sunday, June 21, 2009

Pakistan deserves the T20 title

Before 10 years on June 21, 1999 Pakistan lost the final of ICC World Cup V/S Australia at Lord's. Exactly after 10 years they were once again in the final of ICC World Cup V/S Srilanka at the very same venue. But this time it wasnt 50 over game it was Cricket's shortest version 20-20. And the result was also different. Pakistan won the match against the Srilankans as they beat them by 8 wickets.
Pakistan came in to this tournament facing some tough and unusual situations. The team hardly played any cricket in the year.The team didn't do too well in the warm up games and in the group satge.But in the Super 8 round they won against Ireland and New Zealand. They faced South Africa,the favourites of the tournament in the semi-final and won against them. The final was against Srilanka against whom they lost in the Super-8 stage. But it was a new day. They forgot the past. They had some plans for every player of the oppsission team and they successfully implimented the plans. They believed in their selves and gave their 100% in the final and won the T20 World Cup at the Home Of Cricket at Lord's. Last time they almost clinched the victory from India at the Wanderers, Johannesburg but couldn't win. This time they didn't make even a single mistake in the final and became the World T20 Champions.
Pakistan taught the lesson that even in the T20 Cricket you need to play some sensible cricket and you need to get your basics right. Afridi and Malik batted very sensibly. They are the real champions. There is no doubt that the best team won the tournament.
Srilanka also played well in the tournament. Sangakkara led his side very well and played an excellent knock in the final but they couldn't win.

Thursday, June 4, 2009

No favourites in T20 WC: But my money on Australia

This year's WC is starting just after the IPL. Different players from different countries have done well in the IPL. According to most of the people Indian team is favourite to win the T20 WC in England. I think in this format of Cricket its difficult to select a favourite.There is nothing like favourites in the shortest version of Cricket. Any team can do well on a pirticular day. Before 2 years in the same tournament at the Rainbow Nation nobody was considering Indian Team as favourites but at the end Indian team won the tournament.
Indian team is looking strong,no doubt in that with some in form players like Raina,Rohit Sharma,RP Singh,Pragyan Ojha,etc. And we have few excellent players for this format of the game like Gambhir,Sehwag,Dhoni,Yuvraj,Pathan Bros.,etc. The team is looking very balanced. People also beilive that we have got very easy group in the group stage round. India is in group A withBngladesh And Ireland. But we should not forget these both sides created a major upset by beating India and Pakistan respectively. If this can happen in a 50 over game,they can rewrite the history in a T20 match.So India will have to play both the matches very seriously in group stage. There are other fine teams like Australia,South Africa,New Zealand,etc. India will have to face them in super 8 round. So its not going to be easy for the Indian team to retain the title.
If I have to pick a side as a favourite for the WC,it will be Australia. Many people are not considering Punter & Co. as a strong contenders for the tournament. According to me the Australians will give their more than 100% to win the tournament. Some players like Ponting,Mike Hussey,Shaun Marsh,Shanw Watson didn't play in the 2nd edition of IPL. I think that will help them as they have got enough rest and all the players are feet to play.
Their bowling attack will be led by Mitchell Johnson and it has become stronger as Brett Lee is back. Though David Hussey hasn't done well in the recent past I think he should be in the team as he can do the job with the bat and the ball and can be a trump card for the kangaroos. David Warner is also one of the player to watch out for. And Ricky "Punter" Ponting may come with some surprises.
If i have to rate my top 4 favourites teams to win the T20 WC 2009-England, the list will be like this :
1) Australia 2) South Africa 3) New Zealand 4) India