The T20 WC cricket final – live from Lords

I was at the final at Lords yesterday and also reported for cricinfo from the game. Here’s the full version of that article without any edits (the cricinfo team took out some inappropriate comments :-) and also made me adhere to the word limit). Plus the headline makes me look like a Pakistan fan in the cricinfo article.

Why i went for this game?

The Englishmen in their coats & ties in the Members stands and the South East Asians with flags and war paint all over - of course I wanted to watch tradition battle modernism at the Mecca of cricket. I had grudgingly accepted that Pakistan would win as the law of averages had to catch up with the Lankans after 6 straight wins.

Key performer at the finals – the unsung hero

Yet another outstanding big game innings (54 in 40 balls and a tight spell) meant that Afridi was rightly the man of the match. However the unsung impact was Razzaq’s whose 3 key early wickets of Jaysuriya, Jaywardene and Mubarak left Lanka reeling at 4-32 and sealed the game.

One thing I’d have changed about the match

Of course I’d have had India in the finals :-) More seriously I believe that Sangakarra made a tactical error in not giving Malinga the 18^th over with 26 run still needed. A wicket or a tight over then would have changed the game. Instead he bowled Udana who gave away 19 runs and the game was all but over.

Face-off that never was

Afridi won the battle with Murali when he smashed a 6 and a 4 off the first two balls to pillage 14 runs of the 14^th over and change the trajectory of the game.

Who’s the batsman here ? Shot of the day

A striking straight drive from Angelo Matthews off Saeed Ajmal that rocketed to the boundary. It was as crisp a straight drive as Tendulkar has ever hit but more important coming from a number 8 under pressure. It inspired confidence that Sri Lanka could make a game of it (and they scored 29 runs in the two overs after that to reach a competitive total)

The Crowds – why i saw green.

The sea of green meant that we might well have been at the Gaddafi stadium in Lahore and not a packed Lords crowd. Constant chanting of “Pakistan Zindabad’, “Jor se bolo Pakistan, Dil se Bolo Pakistan” with “Boom Boom Afridi” reverbrated across the ground. Rajdeep Sardesai (who congratulated the Pakistan supporters on his way out) and Mohammed Azharuddin and Sangeeta Bijlani (who tried to rush away after the game but no one recognized them anyway :-)) added some star power to my stands.

We don’t need no cheerleaders – the entertainment

The PA system was pumping up the volume – the Rolling Stones seemed to be a favorite. This was coupled with the ‘Heat is on’, the Yahooooooo sponsor anthem (have to plug yahoo as they gave me tickets) and “Dil Dil Pakistan” – an upbeat song by a group called Vital Signs. This even had the non Asians rocking but surprising that the PA system played an obviously pro Pakistan song. The fireworks were no comparison to the IPL extravaganza but thankfully the focus was on cricket and not long speeches by Lalit Modi equivalents.

War of words - Banners of the day

Very few catchy banners in the stadium (some folks wishing their Dad a happy father’s day). However many banners among the celebrating Pakistanis on the streets of St James Wood asking what a billion Indians are asking – “Where are you now India? Did you watch us win?”. There was also a huge protest just outside the Lords with 100’s of people demanding “ICC Ban Sri Lanka for Tamil genocide” adding a political aspect to the final.

Overall – the final verdict

The wild celebration on the streets with thousands of Pakistani’s chanting and creating a traffic jam reinforced the importance of this win for a country where the game has been devastated (the bombings and the refusal of International teams to visit). Hence this result was worth far more to Pakistan and perhaps an apt outcome. Pakistan did after all beat the top two teams in the tournament (SA and SL) to win the cup. And of course they are the only team to be in both of the two T20 world cups held so far.

In summary , a beautiful day, great atmosphere, raucous crowds & for the most part the match was worthy of a final. However if the Lankan’s had managed to get even 10-15 runs more (the player of the tournament Dilshan’s duck was a shame) it would have made it a real close game and a 10/10 irrespective of the outcome instead of a current rating of 8.

Dhoni whatever but Daddy knows best

So that's that - India is out. A billion dreams have been dashed and there will be much media bashing. The usual hero to zero screams of 'inconsistency, fickle team, jadeja at no 4, dhoni doing too much advtg etc etc'. That's probably unfair and the subject of a later post.

For someone like me though (who predicted India would lose to the Windies but beat England. My prediction was England scores 147/7 so marginally off) it was a bitter pill to swallow when my Dad got it way more spot on. In the 20th over Harbhajan bowled the penultimate ball as a wide. A billion eyes (and then the 20,000 in the 'partisan' crowd at Lords) watched in horror as one of our best fielders allowed the ball to (almost) slip through his feet towards the boundary for 5 byes instead of 2. Yuvraj stood dazed as Dhoni ran back to the pavilion thinking that he'd take 153.

My Dad said "mark my words - that my friend was a costly mistake and will cost us the semi final spot". Cut to the end of the match and India lost by 3 runs!!!!!!

ps: so whats my prediction. For the last few days its been SA, Pak, SL and Windies as the semi-finalists. Two solid teams in SA and SL and two unpredictable teams in Pak and Windies. The best teams may or may not be in the semi's but certainly the teams that played the best so far look like they will make it. But then again, i havent heard what my Dad has to say ....

T20 cricket world cup opening day drama: Netherlands ends English dreams?

Prediction: Too early to call but Misbah and Younus might just pack off the English team to play football instead (and the Dutch may not mind playing them there either)

For readers who missed the exciting final moments; here's the last over...

2009 T20 World Cup: Indian team odds?

The IPL is history and here comes the T-20 world cup. As fans get over their withdrawal symptoms , its time to brush off the bollywood times of cricket and don the national colours. Team India are defending champions but are they ready to win?

Let’s take a look at the Indian Team for the T20 World Cup 2009:

Mahendra Singh Dhoni (captain), Virender Sehwag (vice-captain), Gautam Gambhir, Suresh Raina, Yuvraj Singh, Yusuf Pathan, Rohit Sharma, Harbhajan Singh, Zaheer Khan, Ishant Sharma, Praveen Kumar, R P Singh, Ravindra Jadeja, Pragyan Ojha and Irfan Pathan.

Here's what might matter -

1. IPL performance based form:

a. Young talent: super performances from Rohit Sharma, Suresh Raina, Pragyan Ojha , RP Singh, Ravindra Jadeja are good signs.

b. Good News, Bad News: None of the stars really fired with match winning performances. at the IPL Sehwag and Gambhir out of form, Dhoni, Yuvraj & Y Pathan very inconsistent , Zaheer injured and Harbhajan not really at full potential. If they dont get into form or adjust to English conditions, it will be hard. But perhaps they will peak now and IPL lacklustre was a good thing – well , only if the glass is half full.

2. Conditions: The conditions will be critical and seam should play a big role. With Zaheer struggling for fitness, Ishant tormented by KKR results, its only RP (who is having the time of his life) - and he may find it a huge burden to bear.

3. Home (dis) advantage? : Nasir Hussain once commented that he was disappointed with the crowds as the stands were full of British (Indians) fans who supported India. So the diaspora will be out in full force and maybe there’s no home advantage lost.

4. Bench?: They will probably start with Ishant, Bhajji instead of Ojha, I Pathan (& even Ravindra Jadeja) . That might be a mistake & there's no time for mistakes . (this is a 2 week tournament unlike the IPL)

So net, i think the big names need to strike form (Sehwag, Gambhir and Yuvraj in particular) and Dhoni needs to get the balance of the side right for India to make the finals.

The IPL format – is there a change needed? Article by Gautam Thakar

So Deccan have won a thoroughly close contest – and in general a tournament that was edge of seat for most of the last few weeks. (of course there will be the usual match fixing claims doing the rounds)

I already said in my last post that we shouldn’t be too surprised that last years bottom of the table team is this years winner. They did have the player of the tournament, the purple cap winner, the under 23 player of the tournament and X factor winners in Symonds and Gibbs.

In fact in an ironic twist the Deccan chargers today displayed total team work with everyone trying to do their bit whereas the Bangalore Royal challengers tried to go for the X factor individualism (Van de Merwe, Dravid, Taylor all attempting to close it out when just staying around would have seen them home). But there’ll be a million what if’s - i wanted to ask a different question.

Does the IPL format need a change – does the best team really win? Take a look at the pre semi – final points table.

As you can see – even if you adjust it for the semi – finals ; Deccan Chargers would end with 18 points. Two points shy of Delhi with an extra game and a worse net run rate. And their IPL lscoreccard against Delhi would be 2-1 to Delhi. (Actually 2-0 for Delhi vs Deccan and 0-1 for Delhi vs Adam Gilchrist). Doesn’t sound totally fair. You’d argue that this is true for all major competitions including cricket itself. Yes , that’s right however those games aren’t as elaborate – ie 8 teams playing 14 games each. It’s one thing to have groups with fewer games and a knock out and quite another to play so many games and then hinge on one bad day.

The English Premier league which by the way has 20 teams and each play 38 games DOES NOT have a semi-final and final. The team with the highest points wins. Well, the downside of that is less excitement and perhaps interest if one team is too strong but still a fairer result.

How about an alternative option?

Each IPL team plays each other just once (so 7 games instead of 14). I don’t think the home and away argument holds – after all we played a whole tournament very far away from home :-) The top 4 teams are then in a “semi-final league” where they play each other once (or twice even if needed). Then the top two from this play a best of 3 final.

Practically speaking as well – as the number of franchises increase it will be hard to have the teams play each other twice; unless of course T-20 becomes the only form of cricket!!!

I do think this will maximize the chances of the best team winning while keeping the total number of games played in the same range.

What think?