T20 World Cup: Live Matches Discussion

First topic message reminder :

Hi all,

I've set up our very own 606v2 T20 World Cup SuperBru tipping competition for anyone who is interested.

http://www.superbru.com/worldt20/player_home.asp

First game is Sri Lanka v Zimbabwe on Tuesday, September 18 at 19:30 (local time) in Hambantota.

The full list of fixtures is here:

http://www.espncricinfo.com/world-twenty20-2012/content/series/531597.html?template=fixtures

The pool code for 606v2: playsacs

Everyone is welcome.
Enjoy the matches and best of luck to your team.

Who do you think will win?

Hard to measure this performance by South Africa (as it was Sri Lanka's) as Zimbabwe have been very poor.

I suspect their spin options may let them down on slower pitches: Steyn can go for a few and Albie Morkel won't cause too many problems either.

Bad to worse. Ervine gone for a decent 37 - he's been the one Zimbabwean batsman who's looked like he has a clue against this kind of quality of bowling.

Kallis gets his 4th!

so thanks to a half decent bit of biffing around by Price and and Jarvis Zimbabwe reach the grand total of 93-8 off their 20 overs.

Inept.

The tournament hasn't really started yet and Zimbabwe are on their way home. 2 desperately poor batting performances by them and I can see SA chasing this in style.

Zimbabwe's bowling scattergun after 2 overs... makes Johnson's performance at Lords look almost half-decent.

31/0 after 3 overs. SA running away.

Well Zimbabwe have been utter garbage in this tournament. An embarassment to cricket - you'd think another associate would have done ten times better

SA finish 94/0 with 7.2 overs left. Zimbabwe are out already, a big lack of fight and hunger from them in the 2 games.

So that's that. Disappointing from Zimbabwe to say the least.

South Africa-Sri Lanka should be a good game and a good test of both sides's ability.

SA off to their usual big stage performance......start with a bang.....will steam roll everone enroute to semis.......and then choke

Yep, we'll live up to expectation.

Biltong wrote:Yep, we'll live up to expectation.

well Gary might make a difference.......the Indians speak very highly of his calm approach yet

So South Africa and Sri Lanka have absolutely booked their 2nd round places, the group match between the 2 should be an interesting one.
Dredful performance from Zimbabwe. Their performances against Bangladesh, Pakistan and New Zealand had given some hope of some kind of a revival, but this just has been absolutely woeful

Zimbabwe very confusing... good progress in 2010 and 2011 (and a good result in the unofficial series with Bangladesh and a South Africa XI) replaced by this dreadful effort.

They had become quite adept at strangling sides with spin from the start and then pretty much throughout the innings. The pitch in Hambantota didn't really suit that but I still think its the way Zimbabwe can be most effective is by overloading on the spin.

Really I'd like to see an overhaul of the system which currently guarantees all Full Members a place at World T20s.

Perhaps in future the top 8 sides in the rankings at a set date (say, 6-8 months before the tournament) could qualify (regardless of whether they are Full Members or not). Then the qualifying Associates play their tournament, with the two finalists qualifying and 3rd and 4th places playing off against the two Full Members that weren't ranked high enough. Would create some potentially interesting matches and would provide a real incentive to teams to perform well between tournaments.

Of course, in the long term I'd simply like to see more sides becoming Full Members - not necessarily playing Test cricket (though the better 'new' sides could against the weaker current Test nations), but building FC structures, and competing at the highest level regularly in T20s and ODIs.

The Bangladesh New Zealand match is going to be a big game with lots at stake. I feel this is the most challenging of all groups. Any of the 3 sides can qualify.
Cricinfo reports that the weather might be a problem though.

msp83 wrote:The Bangladesh New Zealand match is going to be a big game with lots at stake. I feel this is the most challenging of all groups. Any of the 3 sides can qualify.
Cricinfo reports that the weather might be a problem though.

Indeed. I make Bangladesh slight favourites although NZ have had the better immediate warm-up period.

I'm quite scared for the Afghan game... England are rubbish against Associates lately (at the 2011 World Cup the games against lower ranked teams brought 3 of our worst 4 performances), and Afghanistan are a pretty good team, particularly in the bowling department.

My head tells me that the English bowlers are too good for their batsmen, but who knows?

Bangladesh to beat NZ, England to hammer Afghanistan.

I predicted a close win for NZ and a comfortable one for england.

NZ has a nack of getting their tails up in these types of tournaments.

Biltong wrote:

NZ has a nack of getting their tails up in these types of tournaments.

Apart from 2011 (where they scraped through to the QFs, and then SA chocked) they've always had a well organised team though. This time they just aren't very good - too reliant on McCullum and Taylor, who for me both fail too often considering how important they are to their team. Vettori, Oram and Mills have all looked extremely out of sorts lately.

A lot depends on the pitch? If it's a bit slow and low and Bangladesh can get some runs on the board, New Zealand keep showing how bad they are at playing spin, and then they desperately need one or both of Taylor/McCullum to get a substantial score. If it's got a bit more pace, the guys like Guptil and Franklin will be more at ease.

England have struggled with the associates in recent times (maybe because of England's general attitude to associate cricket the associates are more up for those matches? ). I still think they'll have too much quality bowling for Afghanistan, unless it's a game shortened by the weather.

Shelsey93 wrote:

Biltong wrote:

NZ has a nack of getting their tails up in these types of tournaments.

Apart from 2011 (where they scraped through to the QFs, and then SA chocked) they've always had a well organised team though. This time they just aren't very good - too reliant on McCullum and Taylor, who for me both fail too often considering how important they are to their team. Vettori, Oram and Mills have all looked extremely out of sorts lately.

It is true they are not in great form as a team at the moment, but that kiwi mindset is a strong one.

I have always though of the black caps as a team that plays for one another and collectively they make up for a lot of weaknesses, be it bowling or batting, but that said, it was when Fleming was still the captain.

Bangladesh bowling first, if D/L comes into play then they'll be massive favourites to win.

If rain is a near certainty then that's understandable. We did the same with our U19s against Norway in 2011 (although we may have bowled anyway).

I always feel it's dangerous playing on weather though. Bangladesh's best chance was surely to bat at then try and stiffle New-Zealand with their spin options.

First strike for Bangladesh, Abdur Razzak bowls Guptill with a straight one that the batsman missed. New Zealand 19-1.

NZ has sedate start and BD with honors in the first 25 minutes

Brendon McCullum, New Zealand's most important batsman is out in the middle, Bangladesh would dearly love to see his back at the earliest.

Bit surprised to see Franklin opening particularly as they have Nicol who has regularly opened in the past and he's a good striker of the ball.

msp83 wrote:Bit surprised to see Franklin opening particularly as they have Nicol who has regularly opened in the past and he's a good striker of the ball.

didn't he open with reasonable success for MI?
IPL has had a great role in exposing the T20 potential of players

James Franklin opening the batting - what?!

Looks like one of those overthought selectorial decisions to me, surely there are 2 or 3 better options.

Unbelievably sloppy from Bangladesh: two misfields, overthrows and at least 3 singles given away because the fielders have been on their heels. Very poor, New Zealand have 10-12 more runs than they should do.

I would have thought we'd have seen more spin by now also.

McCullum looking in decent touch.

45/1 after 7 overs, good start by Bangladesh but they need the vital wicket of McCullum.

last half hour all NZ.....as BD's discipline and early spirit falls apart

McCullum has produced the goods so far. Franklin has done a decent supporting act. If Taylor can smash it around New Zealand could score 180+. Tough to see that being chased, although it's a good pitch.

Bangladesh haven't shackled McCullum and they've paid the price.

First century of the tournament coming up!

Brilliant from McCullum. If only England had a similar player Or maybe Luke Wright is better than we thought.

Morgan can do and has done what McCullum is doing here.

McCullum's been dropped on 93!

They've dropped BMac in the 90's! Idiotic fielding is what really sets these minnow teams apart.

I'm looking forward to the first non-training match in this tournament, it has been an absolute shocker thus far.

Morgan isn't as dangerous as McCullum, Mike. Not as clean a hitter in my book. Well, he can hit clean, but not as consistently as McCullum anyway.

Only 9 dot balls... it's not all been about the big hitting (although that has certainly helped).

Century for McCullum, top innings that has secured NZ's victory today.

There's the ton. Well played, but horrific bowling and fielding from the pitiful Bangladesh.

Mccullum shows why he is such a high paid commodity in the IPL market.

BD bolwing is club class...but still it requires a lot of skill to keep hitting them and keep connecting and finding the gaps.

well done

Bangladesh are shocking aren't they? Always seem to come into the tournaments with expectations that they will do better this time then it all falls apart. They were arguably favourites today given their spin options but have been horrendous as usual.

They're utter garbage and have been for some time. Waste of space.

New highest T20I score for McCullum now, he's finished on 123 and been caught on the final ball. 192 for Bangladesh to chase.

sadly I didn't see that innings, but McCullum take a bow.

Bangaldesh won't chase that down easily.

BD going the way of IRE and Zim....pathetic...club level pie chuckers on an flat patta pitch.

I doubt if their batting can get them even competitive.

so far afganstan can be the only minnow to hold their head high....but they will be shattered by the orgnized Eng today I suspect

Easy to criticise. I thought Bangaldesh's fielding between overs 5 and 15 was ok actually. The only real error they made after my original rant was the McCullum drop (which proved very costly) and a misfield when they should have run out Franklin. They made a couple of good stops, and stopped 3 possible 2s. Not brilliant but ok.

The bowling was a bit predictable by the spinners at the end, thought they should have varried their lengths and flight more but when someone's in that kind of form any bowler can be made to look poor.

I don't think Bangladesh were that poor - certainly nothing like Zimbabwe or even Ireland's nervousness.

Pretty much all of Bangladesh's hope rely on a good innings by Iqbal.