T20 World Cup

India wins a comprehensive 7 wicket victory against Afghanistan in the Twenty20 World Cup Group C match in St Lucia here on Saturday.

Scores:
Afghanistan 115-8 off 20 overs
India 116-3 / off 14.5 overs

After electing to bat first, Afghanistan began with a good start as Noor Ali scored 50 off 48 balls. Though, it no longer last long in this tournament as India restricted them from 115/8 to chase the victory.

With the set target of 116 for victory India made gave a awesome performance and swiftly covers home with  over 5 overs to spare as the credit goes to Murali Vijay – who score (48) and Yuvraj Singh (23) who’s partnership of 55 helped India to recover after losing two earlier wickets. Read more »

Brief scores:

Man-of-the match : McCullum’s

As per the PTI, Up against an unheralded Afghanistan in their tournament-opener, India will have to guard against complacency to ensure a flying start to their campaign in the T20 cricket World Cup here tomorrow.

It has been observed that there is very little room left for errors in the slam-bang format of the game though India will be playing on a promising note. Since, India has to put all the effort to get an honor in the International level.

Skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni has already warned his star-studded team not to underestimate Afghanistan.  However, teammate Yuvraj was also worried about the X-factor of their opponents, who have caught the imagination of the world over the last two years.

“It can be dangerous when you don’t know what the opposition is like. After ten overs you will end up in a situation when you don’t know what you are going to do.

Sri Lanka skipper Kumar Sangakkara has won the toss and elected to bat first game of the season this year at Twenty20 World Cup.

The Kiwis have left out Kyle Mills, Daniel Vettori indicated offspinner Nathan McCullum will open the innings on a slow turning wicket.
“We would have batted as well.

We need to restrict them and bat well later on. The warm up games were good. We have left Mills today. We may ask Nathan McCullum to open the bowling today as well.,” said Vettori.

Sri Lanka meanwhile have dropped Sanath Jayasuriya down to number six in the order and will open the batting with Mahela Jayawardene and Tillakaratne Dilshan.

New Zealand team – BB McCullum, JD Ryder, MJ Guptill, LRPL Taylor, SB Styris, GJ Hopkins†, JDP Oram, DL Vettori*, NL McCullum, SE Bond, TG Southee.

Sri Lanka team – TM Dilshan, DPMD Jayawardene, KC Sangakkara*†, ST Jayasuriya, CK Kapugedera, AD Mathews, LD Chandimal, SL Malinga, M Muralitharan, BAW Mendis, UWMBCA Welegedara.