20/20 World Cup

So far...

The group stage of the tournament was rather pathetic. With only 3 teams in each of the 4 pools, and two progressing from each pool to the Super 8s stage meant that the majority of games played were either huge mismatches or totally unimportant, with a couple of notable exceptions.

Pool A:
Bangladesh were terrible, beaten by the Irish and Mauled by the Indians. The Indians also handled the Irish with ease. The most boring pool
Star Players:
Hard to single out anyone from the Indians, everyone performed solidly. Rohit Sharma looked solid at the top of the order, while Ojha took 4/21 on debut vs. Bangladesh, while Zaheer took 4/19 against a hapless Irish side. For Bangladesh everyone was terrible, Junaid Siddique scored 41 from 22 balls against Ireland and was really the only bright spot for them in what was a poor effort. For the mighty Irish, the O’Brien brothers were impressive in the run chase against the Bangers, Niall 40 from 25, while Kerry finished of the innings with a brisk unbeaten 39 from 17 balls.

Pool B:
The first game of the tournament was a huge boil-over as the Netherlands defeated the English at Lords – one of, if not the most, embarrassing moments the Poms have suffered at the ‘Home of Cricket’. Ultimately though it was the Dutch who failed to progress from group B after the English beat the Pakistanis, and Pakistan then mauled the Dutch to take 2nd spot thanks to a superior net run rate.
Star Players:
Luke Wright smashed 105 in his two matches for England, Derrick Nannes of the Netherlands bowled fast (150kph+).Tom de Groot and Peter Borren were the heroes of their successful run chase against England. None of the Pakistanis impressed, Afridi got 4/11 vs. the Dutch though.

Pool C
Great value for many cricket fans around the world as the Australians were dumped from the tournament after just 3 days. First they were blasted off the park by Chris Gayle (88 off 50 balls) and Andre Fletcher (53 off 32 balls) after setting 170 to win in their first game. In their next game against the Sri Lankans the Aussies again batted first and set 160 to win. Opening the batting Dilshan was fantastic. When he fell for 53 from 32 balls Sangakkara took over and put on a steady unbent 55 to see the Sri Lankans home and knock the Aussies out of the tournament. Sri Lanka played the West Indies in the final irrelevant pool fixture, and it was a blast from the past as Sanath Jayasuriya blasted 81 from just 47 delivers. Dilshan impressed again with 74 from 47 balls. Set 193 to win the Windies were never really in the contest, Bravo however scored an attractive 51 at the end of their innings.
Star Players:
Tillakaratne Dilshan was a revelation at the top of the order for the Sri Lankans blasting 127 runs in his two innings, while Mendis looked dangerous, and was too good for the Aussies dismissing Ponting, Watson and Mike Hussey. David Warner scored an un-characteristically quiet 63 of 53 against the Windies, with just one 6, although it was hit out of the oval and into the neighbouring school. Chris Gayle was impressive in the Australia game, but with him sitting out the second game vs. Sri Lanka the team looked terrible, and fielded terribly.

Pool D:
Went as expected, NZ and South Africa both beating Scotland handily and South Africa defeating NZ by 1 run in the final pool match which was largely irrelevant. It was a bizarre chase for NZ who only lost 5 wickets in total, including a suicide run out on the final ball, but failed to reach a pedestrian 129 to win. The end loss by 1-run was also somewhat misleading, with Jacob Oram edging us towards the total but never looking capable of actually hitting any runs, and with 4 runs needed of the final ball he failed miserably
Star Players:
For New Zealand Brendan McCullum scored 75 runs, including a measured 57 against South Africa and Ian Butler was impressive, taking 5/32 in the two pool matches, including 3/19 in 2 overs during a 7over a side affair with the Scots. For South Africa, van der Merwe bowled well against NZ (2/14 in 4 overs) while AB de Villiers hit a sparkling 79 not out of 34 balls against the Scots. For Scotland Ryan Watson moosed an exciting 27 from 10 balls against NZ while Lyle Coetzer scored 75 runs in two games.

Super 8’s
The teams are now regrouped into Group E (India, England, West Indies and South Africa) and Group F (Pakistan, Ireland, Sri Lanka and New Zealand). The teams now start with a clean slate (NO points are carried forward form the group stage) and play the three other teams in their group once. After this round the top two in each group qualify for the Semi Finals. I’m picking India and South Africa to advance from group E, while Sri Lanka and New Zealand look the best in group F.

Super 8 games start tonight with a double header at Trent Bridge -NZ vs. Ireland (I’m backing the kiwis by a lot) and England vs. South Africa (SA should be to good for a shoddy English outfit) although the forecast suggestes weather may be the winner tonight