Posted on May 25, 2010 | Category: Twenty20
Two games ago, England dominated the West Indies and put a highly defendable 5/191 on the board only for the heavens to open up and have Duckworth-Lewis set an incredibly gettable total thanks to a quickfire burst from Chris Gayle. England were now in the familiar situation of being knocked out of the tournament. England’s choices were simple. Beat Ireland or exit the tournament. In this do or die match it looked like it would be the latter as England could only put the sub par total of 8/120 on the board. It looked like for the second time in the row England would be beaten by a minnow that was until, the clouds opened up and the rain came along and lead to the match being a No Result. England’s solitary poor performance in the tournament didn’t matter and they snuck into the Super Eight stage via superior Net Run Rate.
They were never going to do anything except provide a sort of feel good moment for the tournament. The story of the brazen side against the odds making it onto the big stage due to their hard work and determination. The Afhanistani cricket team, despite gaining ODI status in April 2009, had yet to face a Test nation for obvious reasons. But on May 1st 2010, the Afghanistan national cricket team took on India. The Indian bowling attack bombarded the Afghans with bouncers with five of the eight dismissals simple knicks back to Dhoni. Only Noor Ali and Asghar Stanikzai made double figures taking Afghanistan to 8/115 a total India chased down with five overs remaining. Afghanistan just looked happy to be there.
At the last World Twenty20 in England, West Indies uncovered India’s weakness against short pitched bowling. Something which the England team used to knock India out of the Super Eights. Flash forward to the World T20 this year and we had both teams meeting each other once more with Chris Gayle being a one man show blasting 98 off 88 and falling agonisingly short of becoming the first man to score two T20I hundreds. 170 runs was India’s target and Chris Gayle turned to Jerome Taylor and Kemar Roach to send down a barrage of thunderbolts. While it’s acceptable for minnows like Afghanistan to have troubles against short balls, surely you’d have thought the inaugural World T20 champs could cope. West Indies chalked up a win and left India on the verge of another World T20 knockout. What added insult to injury was that Gayle was dropped on 46 in the 12th over when West Indies was 2/72.
Pakistan vs New Zealand should always have constant matchups against each other every year. No matter what the format, the medicre nature of both teams always ends up in close fought nail biting resolutions to their matches and their Super Eight encounter was no exception. With New Zealand falling over themselves as per usual it was up to Daniel Vettori to once again haul his side from the fires with a regulation 38. The game looked to be Pakistan’s until New Zealand had them on their knees at 5/58. Abdul Razzaq and a suprisingly composed Salman Butt took Pakistan to the brink of victory. But a fantastic bit of fielding from Ross Taylor on the boundaries edge dismissed Abdul Razzaq leaving Salman Butt to take it home for Pakistan. With 11 required off the last over and Salman Butt on strike it looked like a win. • 4 • 4 1 W was the final over from Ian Butler and for all intents and purposes it looked like Pakistan was knocked out…
Both teams were destroyed in their Super Eight encounter by Australia and this latest match in the constant India v Sri Lanka series of games was do or die. The in form Suresh Raina helped India charge along to 1/90 after ten overs and it looked like a massive run chase for the Lankans. Some excellent bowling from Thilan Thushara managed to reduce India’s total to a fairly par 163. Sri Lanka only needed to make 143 to knock India out and that total looked quite unreachable in the first two overs with the dismissals of the in form Jayawardene and the sitting Member for the Matara District, Sanath Jayasuriya. Luckily Dilshan finally found some form and along with Sangakkara and Angelo Mathews took Sri Lanka to the brink of victory. With three to win off the last ball Chamara Kapugedera launched a six into the stands Javed Miandad style to give India an exit of the tournament.
In Game One if it wasn’t for an bold 81 from Jayawardene and clinical bowling, New Zealand would have humiliated Sri Lanka so their next game against Zimbabwe, happy to be back in the fold and with a warm up victory over Australia under their belt, became a matter of survival. With Dilshan failing again, Sangakkara, Chandimal, Matthews, Kapugedera and the sitting Member for the Matara District Sanath Jayasuriya making a total score of 34 between them, it was up to the inform Jayawardene to build Sri Lanka’s innings all on his own. Without slogging, Jayawadene played an innings that would even make Gideon Haigh stand up an applaud and secured a victory for Sri Lanka.
Sri Lanka’s 2010 World T20 campaign can be summed up in two words: Mahela Jayawardene. When the Member for the Matara District Sanath Jayasuriya was dismissed for 6 off 10 at the start of the third over, it looked like it was business as usual and Mahela would have to carry the Lankans on his back again. Suprisingly that was not the case as Sangakkara finally remembered he was Kumar Sangakkara and combined with Jayawardene to plunder runs from the Windies bowling line up falling for 68 in the 19th over. By that time Sri Lanka was well past the 160 run mark heading towards 200+ runs and it looked like Jayawardene would be the first man to score more than one T20I century and have back to back T20 tons. Both Mahela and Sri Lanka fell short with Sri Lanka putting 195 runs on the board and Jayawardene stranded on 98*.
Australia and the World Twenty20 have always had a rather horrible relationship with poor Australia getting the poor end of the stick. An unprecedented five wicket maiden in their opening game against Pakistan didn’t really matter since they already put 191 runs on the board so victory was assured. In their next match Michael Clarke won the toss and chose to bat, something that around the 13th over he would have been regretting. Somehow Bangladesh had managed to reduce Australia to 6/65 and an easy chase looked on the cards for the Bangladeshi’s. Not on Mike hussey’s watch! A quickfire 47 off 37 combined with Steve Smith’s 27 off 29 took Australia to 7/141 a total that Bangladesh would NEVER reach regardless of what Jamie Siddons would have you believe.
England may have invented the Twenty20 format in 2003 but they were no way in hell the masters of it. Australia on the other hand have never treated it seriously as a format giving more attention to their Test and ODI dominance. Well in 2010 the oldest rivalry in Cricket was introduced in the newest format. Arguably the two in form teams of the tournament had met in the final (and in turn making this the first time an Asian team hasnt made the World T20 final) with Australia unbeaten and after the only trophy not in their cabinet and England just desperate not to be runners up yet again. Who would have guessed in the big match it was England that kept their cool and controlled the match resulting in England’s first ever ICC Trophy ever.
Pakistan had somehow managed to worm their way into the semi final largely due to the other teams falling over themselves and their title defence was on the line. In a highly suprising act of teamwork, the Pakistani’s set Australia the daunting task of chasing down 191 to make the final due to an impressive showing from the Akmal brothers. In reply, Australia was in trouble at 4/67 with Cameron White and David Hussey set the task of needing 12 runs an over. When Dave Hussey fell in the 13th over for 13 followed by Cameron White’s departure in the 17th over, Australia required 56 runs from 24 balls and the run rate getting steeper and steeper. With some fine glovework from Kamran Akmal (yes that Kamran Akmal), wickets falling around a dehydrating Mike Hussey, 18 runs needed off the last over and Mitchell Johnson on strike, it looked like it was going to be another England v Pakistan World Cup Final. The Pakistani’s thought so, their fans thought so and even Kamran Abbasi thought so.
Unfortuately, Mike Hussey didn’t think so. A quick single from Johnson put Mr. Cricket on strike with 17 required off 5. Saeed Ajmal gave Hussey a bouncer which was pulled over the boundary for six. The next delivery had Hussey drop to one knee Yuvraj Singh style and launching another six. Ajmal had started some bleeding with 5 off 3 balls needed. A cracking four from Hussey leveled the scored and Hussey sealed the win with a massive six to leave Pakistan shellshocked, Michael Bevan’s New Years in Sydney not so cool anymore and Saeed Ajmal joining Misbah-Ul-haq as yet another Pakistani final over casualty. Forget Yusuf Pathan’s 100 against Mumbai, Mike Hussey just played the greatest innings in Twenty20 to date!
» Filed Under Twenty20
