T20 World Cup

England go through to the super-eights because of superior run-rate.

England qualified for the second round Super Eights of the World Twenty20 following a no-result washout with Ireland on Tuesday.

It was tough on Ireland, who had given themselves a shot of qualifying and more glory in the Caribbean, having knocked Pakistan out of the 2007 World Cup in the West Indies, by restricting England to 120 for eight.

Former Ireland batsman Eoin Morgan top-scored with 45.
When rain fell early in Ireland’s reply, England were left fearing a second dose of Duckworth-Lewis misery in as many days after they made 191 against the West Indies only to lose by eight wickets after a downpour left the hosts with a far less imposing target of 60 in six overs here on Monday. Read more »

New Zealand advanced to the Super Eights of the World Twenty20 by beating Zimbabwe by 7 runs under the Duckworth-Lewis method on Tuesday.

Man of the Match : Nathan McCullum

“After a tough start we did well to fight back, Nathan McCullum and Styris did well to pull things back. I suppose their confidence in the middle was dented and I am pleased with the effort of my boys. We played the same team in both games, pretty comfortable with the line-up now, looking forward to the game against SA first up.” Says Vettori

“Very disappointed, we got off to a great start but didn’t play well in the middle. Inexperienced batting did us in, the guys didn’t apply themselves in. We have the potential to do well, just that the consistency is lacking.” Says Utseya

West Indies smashed England by eight wickets and won the game through the second round in rain-affected ICC World Twenty20 Group D match in Guyana on Monday.

Brief scores

England 191-5, 20 overs (E Morgan 55)

West Indies 60-2, 5.5 overs

A smashing hit by Eoin Morgan (55) and Luke Wright with 45 not out takes England to an impressive score 191/5 to chase the victory.

After the rain stop, West Indies began with a revised target of 60 in six overs, under the Duckworth/Lewis method

England began with an impressive start as with Michael Lumb and Craig Kieswetter while Lump took 16 off one Ravi Rampaul over.

However, Shivnarine Chanderpaul with his (15 ) and Andre Fletcher (12)  not out’s  put their score on high mark  with a ball to spare as they scored the eight runs which they were looking off at the last over, from fast bowler Stuart Broad.

Though, Morgon played on a remarkable note with just 35 balls and struck three sixes and six fours and the fatest bowler Rampaul’s took a costly 52 runs in total in 3 overs.

Teams

West Indies: Chris Gayle (capt), Andre Fletcher (wkt), Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Ramnaresh Sarwan, Narsingh Deonarine, Dwayne Bravo, Kieron Pollard, Darren Sammy, Nikita Miller, Sulieman Benn, Ravi Rampaul

England: Michael Lumb, Craig Kieswetter (wkt), Kevin Pietersen, Paul Collingwood (capt), Eoin Morgan, Luke Wright, Stuart Broad, Tim Bresnan, Graeme Swann, Michael Yardy, Ryan Sidebottom

Sri Lanka’s Mahela Jayawardene smashing hit with a sublime century blow out Zimbabwe in their rain-affected World Twenty20 Group B match at Providence on Monday.

Mahela Jayawardane gave a delightful innings which includes 10 fours and 4 sixes cover-up 173/7 off 20 overs.

With the sudden rain halted twice, Zimbabwe strikes out on 29/1 off five overs – well behind on the Duckworth/Lewis system.

It was pretty bad day for Zimbabwe as they have to stop at 4/0 off one over and they were unable to overcome with revised target of 104 off 11 overs. Since, they fail to clear the singe boundary and further managed to secure 100 runs off 10 overs.

Jayawardene’s 63-ball century powered Sri Lanka to 173/7 and place himself on 4th position after Chris Gayle, Brendon McCullum and Suresh Raina with an outstanding hits that cover-ups a century in Twenty20 internationals. Read more »

Australia began with a wonderful opening in their ICC World Twenty20 campaign and smashed Pakistan by 34 runs at the Beausejour stadium on Sunday.

Man of The Match : Shane Watson

Australia began on a slower pace as with four of the first five deliveries dot balls and an exceptional four from David Warner.

Shane Watson began with an awesome performance for his 49-ball 81, this is followed by  David Hussey – 53 from 29 deliveries  left the Pakistani bowling to drive the score to a intimidating 191 after skipper Michael Clarke won the toss.

Shaun Tait, Dirk Nannes and Mitchell Johnson – with the smashing hit, the trio made a sizzling shot for the men in the middle

Despite the loss of Warner and Clarke, the game was on the flow as with Watson hits with consecutive sixes in ninth over to stabilize the half century.

With this win, Australia is heading towards their final group match against Bangladesh.  Since, its gives them a full confidence for them to place a victory in Super Eights.

“It was nice to hit some out of the middle. It did not go well in the practice matches but we had some all round contributions that helped us win the game. We were thinking 175 when we started but David Hussey’s big hitting made us confident of reaching 190. David Hussey’s big hitting was fun all the way. I am enjoying the role as opener and I am thinking about continuing with the role for some more time to come.” Says Shane Watson

“We got the victory and we batted really well to set up this victory. The bowlers bowled well and the fielding was sharp. It was a brilliant performance by Watson and David Hussey. The fast bowlers, part timers and the spinners will play a big part in the tournament. This is a big ground and it will be a big challenge as to how we adjust when we play in Barbados.” Says Michael Clarke
“Australia played really well, especially David Hussey, Watson and Warner and 191 is a very hard total. They played very well against the spinners and I tried some experiment with the bowling which had worked earlier but it did not work today. We lost some wickets early on and that is why the run-rate was going up all the time. The bowling and the catching has to improve if we have to go ahead in the tournament.” Says Shahid Afridi

India blow a super victory to enter the Super Eight stage after beating South Africa by 14 runs in their last Group C match of the World Twenty20 at the Beausejour Stadium here Sunday.

Man of the Match: Suresh Raina

India: 186/5 (20.0 Overs)

South Africa: 172/5 (20.0 Overs)

Suresh Raina’s awesome performance leads India to power his team to 186/5 at the end of their fixed overs. The youngest player Raina gave a superb innings with just 59 balls which included 9 fours and 5 sixes.

India was little slow at the initial stage as the runs after the first half of the innings was moving out of their hands due to swift loss of wickets. But, gradually it picked up very well as with Raina’s brilliant innings

With the of loss Yuvraj Singh, the game was still on the flow as the Yusuf Pathan the young Indian blasted with18 runs of Kleinveldt in the 17^th overs  as India was endangered to run up a big total.

“Delighted that the team won. We did well to keep the wickets it ll the end to get to the huge total. We hope to carry on the form into the super 8s. Yuvi complemented me very well and I knew that if I bat through the innings I would get past 80 or 90 runs. AB, Kallis and Smith batted well but Nehra did well to hold his nerve and pull it off for us.” Says Raina

“Good start to the tournament, we need to just carry on this momentum. We haven’t seen many sides score those many in the last 5 overs, the batsmen batted really well, Raina and Yuvi were superb. 170 was a par score on this wicket I thought. PK wasn’t even needed because the wicket was on the slower side, and the spinners did a good job for us.” Says MS Dhoni

“We left far too many runs for the guys coming in, 75 in the last 5 is very hard to get. Raina played a great knock, he made us pay after we let him off the hook, dismissing him off a no-ball. 186 was always going to be a daunting task on a huge outfield like this, so we have a lot of work to do, we were just simply not good enough. We got a lot of ideas, hopefully we can keep the graph going up, we need to keep a level head about things and get ready for the next game.” Says Smith

Teams:
India: Murali Vijay, Suresh Raina, Yuvraj Singh, MS Dhoni (capt& wk), Yusuf Pathan, Ravindra Jadeja, Harbhajan Singh, Praveen Kumar, Ashish Nehra, Piyush Chawla and Dinesh Karthik

South Africa: AB de Villiers, Albie Morkel, Dale Steyn, Graeme Smith (cap), Jacques Kallis, JP Duminy, Loots Bosman, Mark Boucher (wk), Morne Morkel, Roelof van der Merwe and Rory Kleinveldt

Pakistan smashed Bangladesh with a 21-run victory in the opening Group A match of the Twenty20 cricket World Cup in St Lucia on Saturday

Man-of-the-match: Salman Butt

Pakisthan superhero Kamran and Salman made impressive scores of 73 each and shared a 142-run. The duo’s partnership with identical scores gave Pakistan a remarkable total of 172 for three.

With a set target of 172 for three, Bangladesh was going through well but sudden loss of their openers Imrul Kayes and Tamim Iqbal before a 91-run stand between Mohammad Ashraful (65) and Shakib Al Hasan (47) resurrected their hopes.

However, Bangladesh managed to score 151 for seven with Mohammad Ashraful top scoring with 65 runs while skipper Shakib Al Hasan made 47. Though, Mohammad Sami, making his Twenty20 international debut, took three wickets for 29 for Pakistan.

Butt, whose ability to play in the Twenty20 format was always questioned though he palyed preety well as his innings with a 46 balls with eight fours and two sixes prove well for this tournament. Read more »