World Cup T-20

Most awaited T-20 World Cup game for the Afghans were against the Indians as India won the toss and the skipper chose to field first. The opener Karim Sadiq was not able to score even a single run but the skipper of the Afghan team was able to make a half century. Ashish Nehra took 3 wickets to shake the good batting line-up of the Afghans. Only Asghar Stanikzai was able to help Afgan team to have a pretty good total of 115/8 at the end of the 1st Innings. Gautham Gambhir was not able to build up a great partnership with Murali Vijay as he scored only 4 runs off 6 balls. But Murali Vijay score 48 off 46 balls which made the Indians very easily reach the target. Moreover, the middle order batsmen Yuvaraj and Raina with the skipper contributed for the Indian Victory. As Ashish Nehra was able to take 3 strong wickets to elope the Afghans, he was made the Man of the Match. The Umpires were Aleem Dar of Pakistan and M Erasmus of South Africa. SJA Taufel of Australia was the third umpire. RS Madugalle of Sri Lanka was the Referee and EAR de Silva of Sri Lanka as reserve umpire.

The second match was played between West Indies and Ireland. As Chris Gayle set back due to minor injury, Dwayne Bravo had to head the team. Bravo won the toss and decided to bat first. The Caribbean’s had a pretty good start scoring 19 off the first 3 overs. Though the opening batsman were rattled, there came Bravo who swung the ball outside the boundary but that did not last long for many overs as he was not able to build a great partnership with Andre Fletcher. The Carribean’s did not have a great run rate as they were able to score only 93/6 with 4 more overs left. This built up a great confidence level among the Irish players. But the all-rounder Darren Sammy pulled up his socks to bring in a decent total of 138/9 in the 1st Innings. Then came the Irish players with great hopes, but then the West Indies bowlers including the skipper did a magnificent job of scattering the Irish players down the squad. They were able to score only 68 in the 2nd Innings which is the lowest total in International T-20 Cricket. Darren Sammy for his superb all-rounding skills he was named as the man of the match.

To have a head start for the T-20 World Cup in West Indies the Sri Lankan’s played against the Kiwis at the Province stadium in Guyana. Sri Lanka won the toss and elected to bat first as they have a very strong batting lineup. But they were able to put up only 135 on the board and the highest scorer was Jayawardane with 81 from just 51 balls. Then came the Kiwis, but the opener Berdon McCullum was not able to score a single run but Jessy Ryder had a good innings as he scored 42 runs off 27 balls. Muralidaran took two major wickets of Jessy Ryder and Ross Taylor to rattle the easy win for the kiwis. But Nathan McCullum took 16 runs off just 6 balls as they reached the target scoring more runs with one more ball to spare. Nathan McCullum was the Man of the Match as he took one wicket and for giving a winning strike for their team. The umpires of the match were Steve Davis of Australia and Rudi Koertzen of South Africa. Billy Doctrove of West Indies was the third umpire. The match referee was Alan Hurst of Australia and the reserve umpire was Ian Gould of England.

This world cup T-20 2010 was scheduled to be held at West Indies in April-May 2010 between the 12 International teams. Pakistan, Bangladesh, Australia under Group A, Sri Lanka, New Zealand and Zimbabwe under Group B, South Africa, India & Afghanistan under Group C, West Indies, England and Ireland under Group D. Everyone are looking forward for the most Ideal & Efficient team to win the Wrold cup 2010. This 20 over match is the shortest version of cricket which will bring out young talents of all aggressive cricketers. T-20 tournaments are famous for its twist and turns as we cannot decide who is going to win the match.The true cricketing spirit will be of a great evident throughout the match by the experienced to the debut who are in the T-20 squad. Last year it was the men in green who stole the tournament i.e., the Pakistan team who were awesome on the field . As a result of their hard work and great commitment the men in green were able to thrash Sri Lankan’s in the final match to become the champions. Well this year we hope we would get to see superb performance by all the teams and players as well. Let’s get started to watch the spectacular cricketing fun.