T20 World Cup: Live Matches Discussion

First topic message reminder :

Hi all,

I've set up our very own 606v2 T20 World Cup SuperBru tipping competition for anyone who is interested.

http://www.superbru.com/worldt20/player_home.asp

First game is Sri Lanka v Zimbabwe on Tuesday, September 18 at 19:30 (local time) in Hambantota.

The full list of fixtures is here:

http://www.espncricinfo.com/world-twenty20-2012/content/series/531597.html?template=fixtures

The pool code for 606v2: playsacs

Everyone is welcome.
Enjoy the matches and best of luck to your team.

Who do you think will win?

A difficult game to judge Pakistan on - vs England and the like you'd expect their average batters not to be able to get so many runs, but Ajmal, Afridi and co. to be more dangerous. Mohammad Sami should be nowhere near the team in my opinion.

India played to form - strong with the bat but very average with the ball. Pathan was back to my general view of him (not any good) rather than the last few matches where he's actually taken quite a few wickets.

They definitely need to play five bowlers in my view. Deciding which batsman misses out is a tough call (probably Sharma) but they leave themselves highly restricted if any of their bowlers get hit - they already need 4 overs from part-timers and might need more. Having said that Yuvraj is a bit better than a part-timer and probably as good as Samit Patel is.

Yeah Pakistan are a very good value bet, but the nature of the comeptition makes noone strong favourites. England have restored a bit of their reputation and shown they can win games without KP but the general assumption is theyll struggle against spinners and lack a bit of class through the side.

That will be our problem, PSW. Spin will be the death of us for sure.

But then their record against spinners hasnt been bad at all in recent T20s. Obviously ignore Aus and SA games where the "spin" options were somewhat light...but Narine was dealt with no problem, the Pakistani trio only got at them in one of the 3 games on their patch (and lets face it when we talk about spin now thats who we really mean), and Ashwin didnt take a wicket in the Kolkota game.
In this format England really havent had great issues dealing with spinners of any type.
We do assume they will though.

India living up to the expectations and low ratings I have given them.

Their bowling was slaughtered by the relatively weakest of the batting sides amongst the top contenders.

Dhoni is a defensive captain....and we are reaping what we sow......defensive bowlers....
120kph line-length Balaji might deliver some not very damaging overs in IPL.....but at the international level he is canon fodder.
Good hitters would fancy getting even 20 off Balaji in crunch last overs....

and Harbhajan...shouldn't even be in the squad of 15....leave aside the final eleven.

Dhoni's desire to play line-length gentle medium balaji.....and impotent bowlers like Pathan and Harbhajan for their batting skills........smacks very Floweresque.

they should have brought sami ahmed, awaana, VP Singh, harshda Patel type 140kph IPL successes if he was even going by IPL success

and the openrs are yet to fire.......

so it all comes down to not facing too much damage bowling first and chasing it down on the back of kohli, raina, rohit and Dhoni ........too many iffs to click togfether for Idia to win.....
and hence they won't go too far

Joined the Superbru LB.

Getting to SA's chances.

I am not convinced our combinations have settled yet, but I think we will most likely play Robin Pietersen, Justin Ontong, JP Duminy and Johan Botha or at least a combination of them.

Most likely Kallis and Amla to open and AB to cover the middle.

Steyn and Morkel as seamers, the rest could be just about anyone.

Cheers Biltong. Great to have you on board mate.

Zimbabwe win the toss and choose to field.

Zimbabwe leave out Ray Price for a third seamer, whilst Sri Lanka give Dilshan Munaweera (who'll open with the other Dilshan a debut)

Bizarre omission of Price.

SL to score between 160 and 180, Zimbabwe haven't been in good form recently, and should fall 50 or so short.

SL have gotten just past the predicted range: 182-4. SL look like a decent line-up with Mendis in at 5, although surely a Chandimal would be better than Thiramanne coming in at 6? Let's see how their bowling goes now.

In my defence (for getting the score wrong), Zimbabwe's fielding was awful: runs given away in the last 3 overs alone. Two catches dropped and numerous run-outs missed. frankly that would have been an embarassing performance for a France U19 side, let alone a side playing in the world T20. Nerves can only be so much of an excuse.

Sri Lanka's running was very dodgy, including the run-out of Sangakara off the penultimate ball, even if it got Perera to the crease. Never felt Dilshan was a good runner, and he was involved in a few mix-ups today, as well as refusing an easy 2nd when batting with Jayawardene.

Perfect example 3rd ball of the 18th over as to why the long-barrier is poor practice: an extra run given away needlessly off a ball moving very gently out to long-on.

Cremer and Utseya did ok, signs that spin will play an important role.

Finally, what's up with the over rate? 1h45 for 20 overs? Really??

Think Zimbabwe indeed missed a trick by not playing Price. He has been a good containing bowler. The 3rd seamer went for 49.
Don't think Zimbabwe can win many a match with their batting fire power, its their restrictive bowling that could open up a chance for a surprise win, but since that is gone, this match has to be a goner as well.
The only player who could take the Lankan bowling to task in this Zimbabwe lineup is Elton.

Taylor and Hamilton can hold their own in this format, but they are more in the mold of building an innings, even a T-20 one at that.

Zimbabwe are 20 without loss in the 4th over.

Mike Selig wrote:Finally, what's up with the over rate? 1h45 for 20 overs? Really??

that is still quicker than the IPL

And what is it with Ajantha Mendis - he does not spinthe ball, when he played for Somerset was smacked all over the park, yet he he goes with a wicket. the non-spinning mystery half tracker.

Think Zimbabwe should have played Price. Anyway, 182 is a great score and way out of Zimbabwe's range. They had a decent first 5 overs batting but Mendis has weaved his magic.

I look a bit silly now

58/5 now, the other Mendis getting 2 wickets in 1 over. Game over for Zimbabwe.

Zimbabwe have been very poor, so it's hard to really measure this Sri Lankan performance, but they look pretty good. Their batting line-up has 3 quality players in Dilshan, Jayawardene and Sangakara, and you would fancy at least one of those to fire in every match. With Mendis, Matthews and Perera it is a very good batting line-up.

I think the stronger teams will target Kulasekara and perhaps Perera. I'm not sure the Mendises will be as unplayable as Zimbabwe are making them look, so a lot will depend on Malinga.

Zimbabwe were already done for the day after Sri Lanka's innings, and Ajantha and Jeevan just finishing things off in style for the hosts. Can Elton stay around and have a bit of funn?

Mendis now has figures of 4/8 and the score is 80/6.

Ajantha Mendis can be quite a handful in the limited over formats, particularly on helpful tracks. In test matches there is time for the batter to adjust to his variations but T-20 may not always provide that. For those who are not so good at reading a spinner from the hand might struggle against him. Jeevan Mendis shouldn't be that much of a problem though.
With Malinga and Ajantha, with support act from Perera, Kulasekhara, Jeevan and Mathews with an over or 2 from TM Dilshan, Lanka have got a pretty good T-20I bowling lineup.

Not a lot of funn from Elton, a 6, a 4 and then gone, bowled Ajantha for 19.

That's 5 for Ajantha!.

Utseya the last man to go.

6 for Mendis now. The lesson is play straight and don't get stuck on the crease.

I still think SL's bowling is get-afterable, but they've been quite a bit too good for Zimbabwe.

Mendis ends with remarkable figures of 6-8. Zimbabwe seemed to not get the idea that he doesn't turn the ball. It's been a desperately poor performance from Zimbabwe throughout really.

Double wicket maiden there for Mendis. Horror show by Zimbabwe, will they bat out the full 20 overs?

Horror show by Sri Lanka in the field - 7 runs off one ball! Zimbabwe have reached 100.

Sri Lanka win by 82 runs, Zimbabwe 100 all out. Tomorrow should be a good day, Australia v Ireland (chance of an upset) and Afghanistan v India.

mendis the only man to have a 6fer in t20 cricket, now has two of them!

Zimbabwe were awful!

Ireland have won the toss and will bat first,

Australia team
DA Warner, SR Watson, MEK Hussey, GJ Bailey*, CL White, GJ Maxwell, MS Wade†, DT Christian, GB Hogg, PJ Cummins, MA Starc

Ireland team
WTS Porterfield*, PR Stirling, EC Joyce, NJ O'Brien, GC Wilson†, KJ O'Brien, AR Cusack, DT Johnston, NG Jones, GH Dockrell, WB Rankin

Australia look a bit light on bowling to me, Ireland have a chance to post a good score and then, who knows?

Mad for Chelsea wrote:Mendis ends with remarkable figures of 6-8. Zimbabwe seemed to not get the idea that he doesn't turn the ball. It's been a desperately poor performance from Zimbabwe throughout really.

Amazing figures from Mendis. Could be a record that stands for a very long time - 6 wickets in 24 balls is just stupid, and for only 8 runs - ridiculous!

I'm backing the higher ranked team today. Was very impressed with them at the World T20 in 2009 and got quite into supporting them. They beat Bangladesh in that tournament which was a great result. Come on Ireland!

Went for an Ireland win on Linebreaker's predictor so I'd rather Ireland were chasing, but here's hoping.

Ireland lose a wicket to their first ball. Seems quite a hard pitch this one (signs the ICC don't want an upset says the cynic in me). Stirling clobbers the last ball over the covers for four.

Ire should be realitsic in their appraoch.......try to preserve wickets for about 10 overs...even if that means doing 50 odd runs.

an then accelerate a bit in the next 5 and if thy have wkts in hand....go flat out in the last 5.

there is a serious risk they may be bowled out otherwise for a 100 odd if they are too ambitious

Stirling goes and that's a big blow because he's the one player who could take the game away.

O'Brien, Joyce and Wilson are good players, but more 100 SRs than 120+.

Looks exactly the pitch Australia would have wanted. slow and low would have favoured Ireland's array of dibbers more.

Poor start losing the openers but now have probably the 2 best players at the crease. Hoping for 120 from here.

liverbnz wrote:Went for an Ireland win on Linebreaker's predictor so I'd rather Ireland were chasing, but here's hoping.

Brave move but anything is possible, liver.
Someone also went for a super over which I also thought was a bold move.
Just love hearing Nass and Chappelli in the box together. It's like a never ending summer of cricket really, isn't it?

Anyone know if there's any coverage on a my Council TV subcription? Could afford Sky but not allowed it! ITV4 highlights?

Ireland look nervous, Australia look sharp.

O'Brien and Wilson can play though, so not all over yet, but Ireland need these two to stick around and build a partnership.

Maxwell to Joyce, OUT, very soft...tossed up on off stump, Joyce tries to go over the top but can only lob his drive straight to mid-off who was inside the circle

this is precisely what IRE should not be doing........over aggressive to show they are brave.
Instead put thir head down and build.

but with 3 down already.....it's game over for IRE

4 now. Oh dear.

Very nervy from Ireland:

Porterfield caught out by the early bouncer.
Stirling didn't look his positive self, very fidgety he's normally quite still at the crease.
Joyce got out playing a half-hearted shot, mid-off was up so it was legitimate but didn't commit to it.
Wilson prodded uncertainly at 3 of the 5 balls he faced.

Decent recovery from the O'Briens here. 120 still possible and Ireland are capable of keeping it tight with the ball.

Good partnership by the O'Briens, now broken as elder Niall is defeated by a good slower ball.

Ireland will want 130-140 which gives them a slight chance.

IF Kevin can stay for a while longer may they at least give their bowlers something to defend.

Not looking good for an upset though - especially as Kevin is out as I type.

Oh dear, two quick wickets, something every coach tries to guard against.

Two new batsmen at the crease, Johnston and Jones can bat a bit, but hard to see Ireland causing an upset now, unless they bowl incredibly well.

Starc back on and he does exactly what he was doing for Yorkshire this summer - inswinging yorker bowls his man

Ducking under the 2nd last ball of the innings!