On the eve of T20 World Cup 2009
How bigger can it get? Well I believe its gonn to be another successful T20 event. Even though the cricket fans have witnessed IPL-2 just a couple of weeks ago. This one is surely going to be right up there. England always had been good venue for playing cricket. In fact as Peter Roebuck mentioned, England should have hosted the inaugural edition of T20 world cup. But never the less the game has returned to its land of invention.
As in every T20 tournament, its very difficult to predict a winner. This format gives less chance of recovery in a game. Very rarely we have seen match has been decided in first 6 overs or so. It normally goes down to wire & goes towards the team who hold their nerves in tight moments & blinks lesser times than the opposition. Hopefully the trend will continue in this world class event. Good thing about the T20 world cup is its duration. Quick, fast and absolutely result oriented. ICC has definately learnt their lessons from 2007 world cup & has surely implemented the lessons. Amongst all the participants India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, England, New Zealand, West Indies, South Africa and Austrlia every team is capable of winning this tournament. It will all boil down to consistency. Very easy to say but equally difficult to put that in practise & even more difficult to do that day in & day out. Never been there are many tournaments where there is no clear favourites but thats the beauty of this format.
Although Pakistan were next best side in 2007 edition not because they were runner up but because they put the consistent show right through the tournament. This time around no other side wants to win the trophy more badly than Pakistan, to give something to cheer about to their fans back home.
South africa should have at least been there in semis but their drop of guard relegatd them out of the tournament & with that it strengthen the doubts of them being chokers on big occasion matches. This time they are prime candidate with the all round side they have got. Hope they do not allow to fold themselves.
Australia were as usual fighting till the end but never looked like a champion side in 20007. Probably they were battling in their minds about embracing the super short format of cricket. But they were bit late in grabbing the key moments, very unlike aussies. This time with symonds episode, its not a good build up to the tournament. But they are aussies & have done remarkably over last few years.
New zealand with their bits n pieces cricketer manged to put a decent show & progressed to the semi final in 2007. But just like every tournament they enter as dark horse and will hope to win the trophy. Barring one champions trophy in Nairobi, they dont have any thing to show for their efforts.
England were the punching bags of tournament in 2007. They were a far better side than where they finished the tournament. Hope they will set the record straight this time around & will make maximum use of home crowd support, a big big factor in T20 matches.
WI are too much of unpredictable side with consistently putting up some inconsistent performance after some brilliant patches of cricket. They have to be aware of the preliminary stage as they are in group of death with danger of being elminated in the first round itself. Seniors will have to take it on themselves to see the side through the tumultuous period
Bangladesh are a team which should not be taken lightly. They are highly dangerous side especially in this version. Its high time they do justice to the rest of cricketing world & their fans by putting efforts & channelling their youth energy towards winning more matches than putting individual fight.
Sri lanka were also in the same class as that of england. They could not rise to the occasion in 2007 edition. But this time around they are wiser, clearer in approach & with new man at the helm. I hope it would be good for the competition if they finish in top 4.
India obviously has huge burden of expectation from fans back home & will be under tremendous pressure to deliver this time. This time it is totally different ball game as compared to last T20 world cup when Team India were no hopers & went on to make the history. There is no doubt that they are very talented side with almost all areas of game as good as any other side in the world. But the key word will be momentum. It will be vey hard to stop side like india when they have momentum on their side. They are simply unbeatable when they play with momentum. England will vouch for the fact.
This time around competition is very tight & very close. Lets hope we get to see some real good encounters with some special cricket matches. Off course as any big tournament, there will be some match winning knocks or some match winning spells or there would be some real match saving efforts in the field by a catch or a run out. I am just hoping the team that produces brilliant moments like this consistently goes on to become eventual champions & as any of Indian fan, even I would love to see Dhoni lifting the trophy once again.
But this is a game of glorious uncertainties!!!!! We love the game for being just that.
As in every T20 tournament, its very difficult to predict a winner. This format gives less chance of recovery in a game. Very rarely we have seen match has been decided in first 6 overs or so. It normally goes down to wire & goes towards the team who hold their nerves in tight moments & blinks lesser times than the opposition. Hopefully the trend will continue in this world class event. Good thing about the T20 world cup is its duration. Quick, fast and absolutely result oriented. ICC has definately learnt their lessons from 2007 world cup & has surely implemented the lessons. Amongst all the participants India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, England, New Zealand, West Indies, South Africa and Austrlia every team is capable of winning this tournament. It will all boil down to consistency. Very easy to say but equally difficult to put that in practise & even more difficult to do that day in & day out. Never been there are many tournaments where there is no clear favourites but thats the beauty of this format.
Although Pakistan were next best side in 2007 edition not because they were runner up but because they put the consistent show right through the tournament. This time around no other side wants to win the trophy more badly than Pakistan, to give something to cheer about to their fans back home.
South africa should have at least been there in semis but their drop of guard relegatd them out of the tournament & with that it strengthen the doubts of them being chokers on big occasion matches. This time they are prime candidate with the all round side they have got. Hope they do not allow to fold themselves.
Australia were as usual fighting till the end but never looked like a champion side in 20007. Probably they were battling in their minds about embracing the super short format of cricket. But they were bit late in grabbing the key moments, very unlike aussies. This time with symonds episode, its not a good build up to the tournament. But they are aussies & have done remarkably over last few years.
New zealand with their bits n pieces cricketer manged to put a decent show & progressed to the semi final in 2007. But just like every tournament they enter as dark horse and will hope to win the trophy. Barring one champions trophy in Nairobi, they dont have any thing to show for their efforts.
England were the punching bags of tournament in 2007. They were a far better side than where they finished the tournament. Hope they will set the record straight this time around & will make maximum use of home crowd support, a big big factor in T20 matches.
WI are too much of unpredictable side with consistently putting up some inconsistent performance after some brilliant patches of cricket. They have to be aware of the preliminary stage as they are in group of death with danger of being elminated in the first round itself. Seniors will have to take it on themselves to see the side through the tumultuous period
Bangladesh are a team which should not be taken lightly. They are highly dangerous side especially in this version. Its high time they do justice to the rest of cricketing world & their fans by putting efforts & channelling their youth energy towards winning more matches than putting individual fight.
Sri lanka were also in the same class as that of england. They could not rise to the occasion in 2007 edition. But this time around they are wiser, clearer in approach & with new man at the helm. I hope it would be good for the competition if they finish in top 4.
India obviously has huge burden of expectation from fans back home & will be under tremendous pressure to deliver this time. This time it is totally different ball game as compared to last T20 world cup when Team India were no hopers & went on to make the history. There is no doubt that they are very talented side with almost all areas of game as good as any other side in the world. But the key word will be momentum. It will be vey hard to stop side like india when they have momentum on their side. They are simply unbeatable when they play with momentum. England will vouch for the fact.
This time around competition is very tight & very close. Lets hope we get to see some real good encounters with some special cricket matches. Off course as any big tournament, there will be some match winning knocks or some match winning spells or there would be some real match saving efforts in the field by a catch or a run out. I am just hoping the team that produces brilliant moments like this consistently goes on to become eventual champions & as any of Indian fan, even I would love to see Dhoni lifting the trophy once again.
But this is a game of glorious uncertainties!!!!! We love the game for being just that.
posted by Yogesh Mahajan's Blog | 11:16 AM
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