T20 World Cup: Live Matches Discussion

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Please feel free to discuss every ball of the 2012 T20 World Cup here.

Who do you think will win?

Kohli had a rare bad shot seletion.

India needs to get to 160........pitch is slow and spinning

The Australian bowlers are doing a fine job so far. India 70-2 at the half way stage of their innings. And Yuvraj gone to a short ball, to make it 70-3.

yuvraj....not at the top of his game.......arguably he could have been left out too

Rohit Sharma the new man. Huge challenge to find any sort of consistency!.

watson short stuff is banged across the seam.....or like a cutter....holding on to the batsman.
ball is not coming on the the bat

Good catch from White. India 74-4
Bowling looking effective at this format all of a sudden.
and now Starc clean bowls Rohit.

Perhaps Dhoni should have come in ahead of Rohit? Dhoni takes a bit of time to get going, would have given him a bit of that time coming in now. And now Pathan gone, 74-4, India really slipping here.

India missing the 7th batsman today

Scoring 60 in the last 5 overs is going to be a stiff challenge. But they need 160 at least here.

Dhoni again not able to really get going.
Somehow he hasn't really transformed his ODI stature into T-20I performances. Gone after a bit of a struggle, 104-6. Think it has to be Harbhajan coming in.

Dificult to see India winning this after this batting performance.

140 looks dificult from here on.

Its Ashwin and not Harbhajan.

11 of the 17th. 115-6.
Starc with the 18th. his last. Cummins has 1 left, Watson has 1, Christian has 2.

9 of the 18th. 124-6.

India's chances were already down with this indifferent batting performance, and now nature adding to their worries, there is a little bit of rain in the air.

Superb 19th over there from Cummins, just the 5 of it. 129-6 India.

They really need a big last over.

Raina with 2 4s to start the last over but he goes of the 3rd. 140 looks touch and go.

Harbhajan has 2 balls to inflict some damage with the bat.

140-7. Not enough in my book, the Australians should chase it with ease.

A lot of spin in this India attack though. What's the pitch like? Australia will want to get off to a good start, the middle-order is a bit dodgy...

Good effort from the Australian seamers.

With a strong opening partnership between Watson and Warner, India's whatever little remaining chances are being snuffed out.

India and Dhoni making the mistake of bowling too many consecutive overs in the PP. Ashwin's and Zaheer both expensive, as Australia reach 47/0 after 6 and are well on top.

Can spin drag India back? Ashwin, arguably their premium spinner has already bowled 3, now Harbajhan will need to perform.

So a nail-biting game earlier on and now Australia look set to cruise to victory especially with rain forecast.

Game fast getting away from India now. Desperately need to break this partnership, preferably Watson who looks more comfortable against the spinners.

Of course having typed that Warner was always going to smash a few 6s... There's consecutive ones off Harbajhan.

81 off 9. Who does Dhoni turn to next?

50 to Watson, just 28 balls. He had 5 off 12 at one point.

This game has had it.

For India to go through now they'll need to beat Pakistan and South Africa, a tough task that I can't see them doing.

Australia beating India every bit as comfortably as they beat Ireland... England of course couldn't even get to 100 against India. Who are the "minnows" anyway?

Yuvraj decides a waist high full toss is the way to get Warner... or not.

Damage to Indian NRR as well.

Watson gone! yuvraj gets him caught at cover. the sub fielder celebrates in somewhat ridiculously exhuberant style given the match situation, but at least it won't be a 10 wicket defeat for India.

Tiwary's celebrations explained as replays show he almost dropped it. Now that would almost have rivalled Sohail Tanvir's effort against Bangladesh.

Australia win with more than 5 overs to spare. Watson will probably earn his 3rd MotM award in as many games.

One of the surprise results so far, based on form and conditions you would have backed India. Their bowling is a real concern, Harbajhan after being hit a couple of times reverted to his flat stuff, Chawla isn't IMO a good bowler, and so a lot rests on Ashwin. and bowling him 3 overs in the PP is a gamble.

Australia's batting remains top heavy, but as long as they're batting like that who cares? South Africa will test them with more power up front though...

India-Pakistan should be a cracking game on Sunday, Pakistan will relish the chance to put India out of the tournament!

This was more of a complete performance than the Ireland game, first with the bowling and then the batting. Probably the best WC T20 game Australia has ever played! We also now lead 4-3 versus India overall. We'll soon be on top in Tests, ODIs and now T20 too.

It just wasn't India's day. Everything they touched turned to mud. Commiserations msp, KP_F. Best of luck in the remaining matches.

Surely Australia are now the dark horse favourites? Who shall keepeth the flame burning during these testing times, duty?
Those bloody Antipodeans... that's who!

Australia in my rankings ( that I wrote a thread on) was always a top seed..along with SA and Pak ( unfortunately.....all 3 of them are in the same group)

India made the right gambles.....to bring what they thoought were their strengths.......but were blown away by a much superior side that simply pummelled them.
There were some excuses for spinners not getting a grip for it rained.......but there were no excuses for putting together only 140...and not 170.

and no excuses for inpsite of the rain....lettting Watson and Warner blow them away...except that they just batted brilliantly and India bolwed horribly.

India based their entire plan on a perception that pitch will turn...like it did in the morning SA-Pak game...and that India's 3+2 spinners will spin a web around the Aussies like they did against Eng.
and when their preceptions fell apart...they had no Plan-B or fight or second recourse left.

The NRR has taken such a big beating that it's hard to recover from here..in a group remaining opponents are SA and Pak....who will not allow a 5 over or 40+ run win....even if Ind do win that is

AB de Villiers had a shocker as skip by my reckoning... bringing himself in at 6 and then leaving two of Botha's overs unbowled even though Albie Morkel, Kallis and Duminy all bowled at some point. AB is more than a finisher and, by my reckoning, should be batting at 4 (if not 3). Somewhat reasurring to see SA have similar issues to us against quality spin, although our performance vs India was against average spin rather than good spin.

India were abject in all departments. Seemed to be treating it like a practice game (I know that worked v England but still...). To get the extra bowler in I'd have left every other batsman apart from Kohli out before Sehwag. You need your best batsmen to bat in T20 and Pathan certainly isn't one of their best. The performance with the ball rather put into context how well (badly) England batted. And I thought it was a bit pathetic of Dhoni to blame the rain - it may well have had some impact but if I was the captain after I'd been thrashed I'd feel a bit weak saying that the rain was to blame.

Australia look better than I thought, particularly with the ball. Difficult to judge them with the bat given how little batting the rest of the order has done other than the openers, and that they are yet to face one of the better bowling sides (SA, Pakistan, England).

In other news the tournament has finally had its first upset - Sri Lanka Women beat WI in a match which was reduced to a 5 over hit-around in the end.

Meanwhile, NZ beat SA.

One win for all four teams in the group then, but both NZ and WI play the lesser teams in their final games. If the rain doesn't intervene they will surely still go through.

Shelsey93 wrote:AB de Villiers had a shocker as skip by my reckoning... bringing himself in at 6 and then leaving two of Botha's overs unbowled even though Albie Morkel, Kallis and Duminy all bowled at some point. AB is more than a finisher and, by my reckoning, should be batting at 4 (if not 3). Somewhat reasurring to see SA have similar issues to us against quality spin, although our performance vs India was against average spin rather than good spin.

India were abject in all departments. Seemed to be treating it like a practice game (I know that worked v England but still...). To get the extra bowler in I'd have left every other batsman apart from Kohli out before Sehwag. You need your best batsmen to bat in T20 and Pathan certainly isn't one of their best. The performance with the ball rather put into context how well (badly) England batted. And I thought it was a bit pathetic of Dhoni to blame the rain - it may well have had some impact but if I was the captain after I'd been thrashed I'd feel a bit weak saying that the rain was to blame.

Australia look better than I thought, particularly with the ball. Difficult to judge them with the bat given how little batting the rest of the order has done other than the openers, and that they are yet to face one of the better bowling sides (SA, Pakistan, England).

Is this the same Sehwag who has an atrocious T20I record and an worse limited overs record against Australia, eh? I'd have picked him personally but lets not pretend he'd have made a difference, in his current form.

I think that T20I record, particularly for Indian players who seem to play less T20Is than some other teams, aren't overly relevant. Record v Australia maybe, but would you really rather bowl at Irfan Pathan, Rohit Sharma, Suresh Raina or Yuvraj than Sehwag. I wouldn't.

Shelsey93 wrote:I think that T20I record, particularly for Indian players who seem to play less T20Is than some other teams, aren't overly relevant. Record v Australia maybe, but would you really rather bowl at Irfan Pathan, Rohit Sharma, Suresh Raina or Yuvraj than Sehwag. I wouldn't.

As I said, I would have picked him but thats not the reason why we lost the match. He wouldn't have made a huge difference in his current form.

Expect England to be too strong for NZ today.

Bresnan and Briggs in for Patel and Dernbach for England.

NZ batting first. Good, positive changes with Briggs and Bresnan coming in. Come on England!

Hope we start with Briggs bowling.

EDIT: And he does, 6 off the opening over, decent start.

Morning all.

Lucky start from England. Butler let Guptil out of jail with a huge mistake but they get him soon after anyway.

England get a early wicket! Finn gets Guptill LBW, 7/1.

So pleased to see Dernbache out. Not even nearly good enough.

Bresnan for Dernbach, I have to say is a good move. Dernbach has been average throughout his career, and he has travelled a lot more than offer any control during the end overs. He was just above average in T-20Is at times, but not in this tournament.
Bresnan has had his issues with form and fitness, one can only hope he's got some of that sharpness back for today. He didn't do anything great in the India match, but he has to be right on target from ball 1 today.

Good early strike from Finn. I think Broad should manage him better today. I feel he should bowl 2 of the last 4 overs in usual circumstances.

Briggs continuing.

McCullum is the key man for NZ, England have to get him early.