Sri Lanka ended the relentless run of West Indies in the twenty20 world cup 2009 as they defeated the Caribbean side by 57 runs yesterday in the second semi final of the tournament, and thus, reaching the tournament final. Batting first Sri Lanka amassed 158 runs on the board losing 5 wickets. The Lankan side got off to a good start thanks to their opening pair who put on 73 runs before getting departed. Opener Tillakaratne Dilshan played a fiery innings of 96 not out from just 57 balls.
It was really unfortunate that Dilshan, who is currently the leading scorer of the tournament, had to stop four runs short of his century. Jayasuria got 24 runs, while Chamara Silva and Angelo Mathews scored 11 and 12 runs respectively. There is no doubt that Sri Lankan innings was a one-man show. Bravo picked up 2 wickets, while Jerome Taylor and Kieron Pollard got a wicket each.
West Indies had a disastrous start to their innings as they lost 3 wickets in their first over off Angelo Mathews. In fact, West Indies could not recover from the blow they received in the very first over of their innings. West Indies innings was also a one-man show as Captain Chris Gayle continued his fight in the one end, while wickets kept falling in the other end. Gayle played another excellent innings of 63 runs off 50 balls, while no other West Indies batsman could even reach double figure, except Mr. Extra’s 11 runs.
Mathews was the most successful bowler as he picked up 3 wickets for 16. Muralitharan and Mendis were also very impressive as they picked up 3 and 2 wickets respectively. However, it was Dilshan who was given the man of the match award.
This is the opening match for both India and Bangladesh in twenty20 world cup. This is a rematch of group A and in this group, the other country is Ireland. Bangladesh vs India will start at 17:00 GMT (Local Time 18:00) and TrentBridge, Nottingham is the venue. I know that the supporters of India are expecting a big win by a huge margin but they should not be complacent about playing against Bangladesh. You should remember that In 2007 World Cup cricket, Bangladesh depicted India and then way India got out from the first round. Therefore, if Bangladesh again wins then it will not be the first time.
For India, Bangladesh may look easy meat on paper but Mahendra Singh Dhoni and his men will guard against complacency when they begin their title defence against the minnows in the Twenty20 World Cup here tomorrow.
Considering the ease with which India bulldozed Pakistan in their last warm-up match, Bangladesh would require an extraordinary effort even to stretch them but upsets do happen and that would keep Dhoni's men on their toes in the Group A encounter.
The Bangladeshi supporters have another reason to feel confident. In the practice matches, Bangladesh won against Netherlands and Scotland. Not only that, they put up a very strong fight against Australia and Sri Lanka. In fact, in the match against the Lanka, they could put their opponent in constant pressure until the last moment. Of course, you have to remember that these are practice matches but tomorrow, it is a real match of T20 World cup 2009. India is the current champion of this event and they’re one of the hot favorites even this time.
Bangladesh stunned India in the 2007 World Cup in the Caribbean to plot an early exit of their neighbours from the quadrennial extravaganza and Ashraful said a repeat on Saturday could give them a Super Eights berth in the Twenty20 World Cup.
"Our first goal is the Super Eights but if we have a good start against India, it will give us the confidence of going far in the tournament," Ashraful said.
Indian team has one advantage and that is they have some excellent batsman who can demolish any bowling lineup. Well, the only problem that I can understand about teaming India is that the English condition can be quite tricky. It is more difficult for the batsman to score runs in England than Other countries like India. We saw that in the match against New Zealand the Indian batsmen suffered. However, they were in top form against Pakistan and the supporters want that the Indian batsman can continue their good form in the match against Bangladesh.
Bangladesh and India are expecting that they will advance to the second round from this group. The other countries are land and many people think that Bangladesh and India will easily go to the second round. So, in a sense, tomorrow’s match is like the decider for the top spot of the group. Of course, in English condition, many things can happen as England is a famous country before frequent and unexpected rains out of no where.
India is now the most important market for cricket revenue and naturally, many web sites will provide live score and updates of the match between India and Bangladesh tomorrow. I’m giving the name of some of the web sites:
ICC Twenty20 world cup 2009 starts from 5 June in England. The 17-day competition will see 12 games participating for the title. India is the defending champions as they clinched the inaugural twenty20 world cup two years back in 2007 in South Africa. Naturally, they are favorite for the tournament, but there are some other strong sides including Australia, South Africa and host England.
There will be 27 matches in the tournament. 12 teams will be divided into 4 groups of three each. All the three teams in a group will face each other once in a round robin league system. Two teams from each group in terms of points will progress to the Super Eight round. Four teams from Super Eight round will qualify for the semi final stage based on the points earned.
Today, I got the schedule of twenty20 world cup 2009 which is based on American timing that I think would be useful for many cricket fans in America. I know America is not a big market for Cricket, but still cricket is popular among the South Asian community in the US.
To get the full schedule of t20 world cup 2009 with American timing, click here.
India will get much focus as the inaugural ICC Twenty20 World Cup champion team. They have already reached in England with the hope of retaining the trophy second time. However, I want to remind you one thing is that twenty20 is a game where nothing is impossible. You can not mention any team as favorite with guarantee.
The second edition of ICC T20 World Cup 2009 is going to start on June 5. Indian cricket team will be under depression because of much media coverage. This matter can put some pressure over the players that can harm their natural ability to play cricket. However, skipper MS Dhoni is optimistic about their performance. This time, Indian cricket team is much balanced than its previous T20 world cup.
Some cricket specialists say that non-stop cricket can harm their performance in the up-coming twenty20 cricket tournament. According to former Pakistan skipper Wasim Akram, Indian players may feel fatigue for lengthy IPL 2. But I think that it will help the players as a practice match. You should know that India lost to New Zealand by 9 runs in their first practice match. It is sure that the match between India and New Zealand was closely fought game. Now, today they will face their common enemy Pakistan to play the second practice match to get a consolation victory.
India will start the tournament against Bangladesh on June 6 at TrentBridge. Indian people should not want to devote themselves from watching live sports. In my earlier post, I have mention that where from Indian people watch live cricket. This time, I want to say that India’s national TV channel Doordarshan will show only India’s match live including semi-final and final match in the ICC T20 World Cup 2009. People who do not have dish cable connection can enjoy only India’s game live on this channel. You should know one thing that it is going to be much-viewed sports around the world.
