Twenty20 World Cup Thread

[sittingduck]

Well it looks like South Africa and New Zealand will make the semis from one group and Pakistan will qualify alongside either Sri Lanka or Aussie in the other.
So who will make the final? It looks like Pakistan will play NZ in one semi so I'll pick NZ there (I'm only slightly biased of course) while the other semi I think Aus will win if they make it to the semi but otherwise SA will qualify.

A NZ SA final then? I guess that makes tonights game a test-run. Go kiwis.

[Seamer]

Originally Posted by ll0OoO0ll

Many happy congrats to Pak for an excellent display of discipline and skills. Its been a while since we beat Australia and revenge tastes sweet !!!

You are never quiet sure whether Pakistan will show up on the day, but they definitely did for this one. I was most impressed by their bowling discipline, but the fielding was not far behind. Direct hits, desperate dives in the field - quiet awesome.

I thought Australia played pretty well too, Pakistan were just a bit better on the day. Ponting's loss can not seriously be considered a factor in the loss either, as the damage was done when Aus were starved for runs in the final overs.

One thing on team balance. Why is Hogg not playing ahead of Hodge? They tried that experiment last summer and only saw sanity in returning Hogg to the team after losing the C&B cup to England and then losing in NZ. Hogg came back and was a key player in Australia winning the world cup. And i rate hit batting in this form of the game at least the equal of Hodge. Hope Australian selectors see sense and bring him back - we could have done with him in the Pak game.

We lost, but at least it was one Aus could afford to lose. All they have to do now is win the next three straight.

[Nostromo]

Pakistan certainly looked a better team removed from Inzamam-ul-Haq's influence. They seem fitter, more eager and ready to concentrate on the job on hand rather than drift along like they seemed to be in the last few years.

[greg]

Glad i am not the only one to spot that problem at the end of the innings Jackson.The trouble is with Ponting now injured (we don't know how bad it is) they may need Symonds at the top to add fire power if they lose an early wicket.

[Jackson]

Confirmed on the news that Ponting will miss the rest of the 20/20 world cup.



Now our chances of winning the tournament are even slimmer.


Will be interesting to see where Symonds ends up batting.



Maybe:

Gilchrist
Hayden
Hodge
Clarke
Symonds
Lee
Hussey
Haddin ??
Johnson

[butchering lee]

- just looked at best aveges in Batting (taylor - zim) and Bowling (chigumbura - zim) in this T20 WC.

[gibbs_fan]

Excellent fightback by SA. NZ got off to a good start but the Morkels and van de Wath pulled it back for SA. I must admit that I was not convinced with SA's 1-d attack but they threw in a lot of yorkers, bouncers and slower balls today. Morkel deserved to get the 1st 5 fer but he bowled Gillespie off a no-ball.

SA should chase the 154 down quite easily unless Bond and Vetorri have something to say. But SA do bat a long way down. It will be interesting to see if SA manage to chase this score down.

[gibbs_fan]

SA struggling here at 1/2 after 4 overs. With Vettori still to come, its going to be a tough ask for SA. Where is Kallis when you need him. I think the difference here will be how well Martin and the 5th bowler bowl. Mind you Martin has a very good record against SA.

Come on Gibbs

[Ninjaman]

SIX sixes in ONE over by Yuvraj!!

He absolutely massacred Stuart Broad.

Got to 50 off just 12 balls!

Just before that over started he and Flintoff were involved in a heated exchange of words. It looked like he took out all his anger on poor Stuart.

[English_Al]

Yeah, terrific hitting from Yuvraj, probably fired up by Flintoff, oh dear, dont do that again!

Gotta say though, bad bowling from broad, he should have mixed up slow/fast short/full rather than trying the same ball each time.