Jump to content

Cricket 30: World Twenty20 and beyond


ljkeane

Recommended Posts

So New Zealand, the West Indies and England will be three of the teams in the semifinals and India and Australia will play off for the final spot this afternoon.

It ultimately didn't have any impact on the Windies qualification from the group but it was a great effort from Afghanistan to pick up their first win in the super 10's, especially given Hamid was rather harshly prevented from bowling in the death overs as they'd clearly planned. It's hard not to enjoy watching Shahzad playing, he looks like the kind of wicketkeeper a pub team would have but he's real talent and he's clearly having a lot of fun. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Watching Kohli bat while chasing is a real treat . He just loves to chase a target down and even in T20 he is hitting the more traditional shots rather than going for the reverse-sweep,switch hits and such .

I have enjoyed the group stages immensely , most of the matches have been competitive and in general exciting . Afghanistan beating WI was a pleasant thing to watch , they could have easily won against SL as well . Hope they get more chances at the ICC tournaments .    

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Was a pretty good group phase overall: Bangladesh very nearly upsetting the hosts and Afghanistan knocking off the table-topping Windies. England were the best of a bad bunch where the remaining Group 1 teams are concerned!

I have a feeling that India will go on to win, though I'm firmly in the Black Caps' camp.:commie: 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I think India will win from here. They've gotten their bad games out of the way. The bowlers are doing enough and their fielding has been pretty good. Kohli is killing it and one or two of the rest are bound to score some runs. It will take something extraordinary (eg a 40-ball Gayle century) to stop them.

I also suspect that England are a better T20 unit than they're given credit for. NZ are in for toughest match yet in the semis.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Very good start for New Zealand but England dragged it back at the death. They seem to have found a pretty good death bowling partnership in Jordan and Stokes even if Stokes was perhaps a little lucky with the wickets he picked up.

Still, while it's not a massive total New Zealand's bowling has been good so they're still well in contention.

ETA: Comfortable win in the end for England. Fantastic innings from Roy at the top of the order from Roy and Root and Buttler were composed to finish it off.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yeah, it didn't help.

Having said that I think a few of the commentators got a bit over excited with India's batting performance because Kohli played well. The average score in Mumbai was 207, England pretty comfortably chased down 229. India were always going to have to bowl very well to defend 193.

In that vein what's going on with this win predictor they have? It seems to wildly fluctuate based on who's just done something good. At one point it had India with an 85% chance of winning, alright they got Gayle out early but defending a small total, by the standards of the ground, that's nuts.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I can't see 155 being anywhere near enough unfortunately. Oh well, I didn't expect England to win it going into the tournament and making the final isn't a bad performance at all for a pretty young side.

ETA: Well I might be wrong about it not being enough if the Windies keep losing wickets.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Well that was an absolute disaster of a last over from Stokes. I think Morgan probably got it the wrong way round with Jordan bowling the penultimate over instead of the last. Great batting from Brathwaite though.

Still, overall not a bad effort to make a real game of it from England. I thought the Windies would cruise to the win.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Good job from England to make a game of it, defending a total that was below par. Great hitting from Brathwaite and a crucial knock from Samuels as well. So that's three world cup wins for the WI in 2016. Is a resurgence on the cards?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...
1 hour ago, ljkeane said:

James Taylor has had to retire because he apparently has a similar heart condition to Fabrice Muamba. That's a real shame for him just as he was breaking into the England side, at least they've spotted it early though and hopefully he'll be ok. 

It's sad for any player to have to retire prematurely due to injury, but particularly one who was just starting out on their international career. While he may not have really secured a Test place yet, I thought he did have potential to have a long career with England.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 month later...

It's been quiet for a while but there's now some proper cricket again. Admittedly, Sri Lanka vs England isn't usually the highest-profile of Test series but the first day suggests it could be a close contest with England's middle order falling over in a heap against some disciplined Sri Lankan seam bowling. Hales and Bairstow have rescued the situation a bit, I have been impressed with Hales' restraint, he needed a good innings to cement his Test place and this could be it.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...
  • 1 month later...

Looks like there hasn't been much to discuss in the last month...

The Sri Lankan series ended up being very one-sided, although the visitor's batting did improve a bit as the series went along. Now we've got Pakistan arriving, they're always a difficult team to predict but there's potential that they could be more competitive. Their batsmen might also struggle if the conditions help the English swing bowlers but they do have a more experienced batting line-up, especially with the veterans Misbah and Younus Khan. One thing that might help them is that Jimmy Anderson is ruled out of the first Test with an injury, so we'll be seeing a debut from either Jake Ball or Toby Roland-Jones, neither of whom I know much about.

The Pakistan seamers could also enjoy the English conditions, it might not be what his tour was primarily remembered for but Mohammed Amir did produce some very effective swing bowling, we'll see if he still has the knack for it. The selectors have made the possibly surprising decision to recall Gary Ballance as Compton's replacement, so both him and Vince will have something to prove in the middle order.

I'm just hoping a Pakistan tour of England manages to pass without any of the controversy that marred the previous two tours.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

10 hours ago, ljkeane said:

Jake Ball and Gary Ballance in for England. It'll be interesting to see how Ball does, I'm not convinced about bringing Ballance back in, Root at three might be the way to go though.

Based on the first day's play I was quite impressed with Ball. Woakes was the pick of the bowlers, but Ball definitely outbowled Finn and maybe Broad as well.

Pakistan's batsmen look much more focused than they did on their last tour or Sri Lanka did this year, although they'll probably have tougher examinations than a first day at Lord's in decent weather. It was nice to see Misbah get a century on his Lord's debut, given how much effort he's put in to give respectability back to Pakistan, I was also amused by his 10 push-ups celebration, he's definitely not in bad shape for a 42-year old.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yeah, Ball did pretty well for his first test in reasonably difficult bowling conditions, Woakes' looks to be improving as well. I think they've both done enough to keep themselves in the mix for test places when everyone's fit. I do still like the look of Wood the best out of all the recent bowlers England have brought in though, whether he'll ever be fit enough to really nail down a spot has to be a question mark though.

Pakistan's batting definitely does look a lot more solid than it did last time they were in England. They'll probably be a little disappointed with the finish to the day but I think anything over 300 might end up being competitive with them having a decent looking bowling attack and England having Vince and Ballance at 4 and 5.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

Guest
This topic is now closed to further replies.
×
×
  • Create New...