The four semi-finalists have been decided in the World T20 tournament currently underway in India. England will play New Zealand on Wednesday and India takes on West Indies on Thursday, with the final being held on Sunday. I will be cheering for New Zealand and West Indies and if they both win I will be neutral in the final. The 20-over form seems to be the one area where West Indies is still playing well and they have a good shot at the title.
I predicted that Sri Lanka would do poorly and may not win even a single game and was sadly proved almost right. Their one victory was against Afghanistan and even that they could have lost since Afghanistan gave them a good fight and it was some fielding lapses that let them down. Afghanistan later beat the West Indies and Bangladesh too played well and came tantalizingly close to beating India so this was a good tournament for those two teams that had to qualify to get in.
Sri Lankan cricket needs to go through a period of serious soul-searching. They have a couple of good prospects in leg spinner Jeffrey Vandersay and fast bowler Dushmantha Chameera but their batting is really brittle, depending far too much on veterans Tillakaratne Dilshan (who is 39 and on the cusp of retirement) and Angelo Mathews.
South Africa failed to make the semi-finals, making it the best team never to win, or even reach the finals, of any of the World Cup or World T20 championships. Despite often coming into these tournaments favored to win because of having balanced teams full of talented players, they just do not seem to be able to put together the kind of consistent performances over a short time period that these tournaments require.
Mano -- did you see the reports on the England vs. S. Africa match?
http://www.bbc.com/sport/cricket/35843905
By all accounts, an outstanding, nail-biting match which looked like it would go to S. Africa after they posted 229 for 6 off their 20 overs -- a rate of 11.45 per over!
Yes, it was an incredible performance of run scoring. It must have been a heartbreaker for South Africa.
I will be cheering for my nation (New Zealand). Honestly I am impressed at how good we have been in both the 1 day and T20 versions of the game in recent years.
In the past we were a side which tended to have a genuine superstar or two (see Richard Hadlee and Martin Crowe) but never a strong line-up beyond that. It allowed us to be competitive with other nations but never world beaters. Currently we seem to have a lot more depth that, coupled with some relatively young players, could see us being a strong side for a while. Hopefully anyway.
@Mano: I was reading the final over on the BBC text commentary. Scored level, 1 run needed off the final over, 4 wickets in hand: W W . 1
When those first 2 wickets fell, I thought England were going to throw it away…
“The 20-over form seems to be the one area where West Indies is still playing well and they have a good shot at the title.”
Vigorous, flamboyant hitting has been their playstyle for a long time. I’m still a little surprised they weren’t the team to invent T20 cricket, it’s right up their alley.
The India -- Australia game the other night was excellent too -- shame about the result though.
I stayed up (till about 2AM here in Tokyo) rivited by Sri Lanka’s run chase vs England… Angelo Matthews very nearly undid England, despite the rest of the batting lineup that folded like an origami crane, and picking up a hamstring injury that put him out of the South Africa game. Great to watch!
Still, I most enjoyed seeing the Afghans shaking up the established order. Great to see something positive for them, even if their only win came in a “dead rubber”. They never seemed completely outcalssed and were fun to watch 🙂 Hope to see more of them.
I’d like NZ to win and if not WI or IN.
I wonder why so few people like Eng.
@StevoR
Bwah ha ha ha.
Playing cricket with no arms