Twenty 20 Blog

Rejuvinated by his recent limited-overs form, Shahid Afridi has set his sights on helping Pakistan retain their World Twenty20 title in the third edition of the tournament, to be held in the Caribbean next April. Afridi was named Twenty20 captain after Younis Khan retired from the format after leading Pakistan to the World Twenty20 title in June and has continued to excel as a match-winning allrounder.

Afridi was instrumental in this summer’s triumph, turning in Man-of-the-Match performances in both the semi final and the final. “I am becoming more and more responsible with my batting,” Afridi told AFP. “I want to help my team win the World Twenty20 again next year and then the bigger prize in the World Cup in two years time. and

“Being the captain I have to do planning for the World Twenty20 because I want to win it once again, for my team, for my country and for my people who get inspired with our wins. There is no cricket back home so it is important that we keep winning and motivate the youth to take up the game which will keep the interest alive in our country.”

The last five years have been the most productive of Afridi’s career, where despite brief patches of indifference, he has established himself as a fixture in Pakistan’s limited-overs set-up. His form has been particularly good this year, with impressive performances in the ODI series and Twenty20 against Australia in Dubai in May, his critical role in leading Pakistan to the World Twenty20 title, and now in the first ODI against New Zealand in Abu Dhabi.

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The Deccan Chargers were dumped out of the Champions League in the group stages after losing by 3 runs against Trinidad and Tobago in a tense game at the Rajiv Gandhi Stadium.

IPL reigning Champions Deccan Chargers crashed out of Champions League after losing to Trinidad & Tobago in a dramatic fashion in front of packed home crowd at Hyderabad.

Chasing 150 runs for victory, Deccan started on a miserable note after their star batsmen VVS Laxman found himself plumb in front of the wicket on a Bravo delivery which swung back in after pitching way outside the off stump.

The wicket immediately meant that adrenaline were running high in the T &T camp who sensed a out side chance to restrict the home crowd knowing their opponents vulnerability at the venue.

Bravo was in action again as he then got rid off Abhinav Kumar for 1.

But, skipper Gilchrist kept one end intact and ensured that all was not lost for Hyderabad and tormented T & T bowlers with piercing strokes all across the park and kept the home side in hunt.

Gilchrist however got no support from his fellow countryman Andrew Symonds, who got himself run out while attempting a needless run.

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The Diamond Eagles defeated the Sussex Sharks in a pulsating Super Over contest and joined New South Wales from Group B in the Super Eight stage of the Champions League Twenty20 cricket tournament.

Riding on a six from Rilee Rossouw, Eagles scored nine runs in their Super Over and then Cornelius de Villiers bagged back-to-back wickets to seal the nail-bitting victory for the South African side.

de Villers went through the defence of both Dwayne Smith and Rory Hamilton-Brown in the first two deliveries of the Super Over to ensure the win and also reserved for his side a berth in the next league stage of the USD six million event.

Earlier, pace duo of de Villiers and Dillion du Preez scalped two wickets each as Diamond Eagles restricted Sussex Sharks to a modest 119 for seven wickets.

Luke Wright (19 off 12 balls) played a cameo upfront, while Edmund Joyce (21) and Joe Gatting (25) contributed in the middle to set the run-a-ball target on a tricky Ferozeshah Kotla wicket.

de Villiers and du Preez were the early destroyers for Eagles, picking two wickets each giving away 20 and 23 runs respectively.

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Jacques Kallis smashed a breezy unbeaten 73 and took three wickets to steer Royal Challengers Bangalore to Super Eight stage of the Champions League as the Indian side trounced Otago Volts by 80 runs on Monday night.

The hosts joined Cape Cobras from group C in the quarter-final league after winning their do-or-die match convincingly at M Chinnaswamy stadium.

Bangalore top order put a superb show after opting to bat as all the four batsmen who came to bat made contribution in rattling up a massive 188 for two.

The hosts then skittled out the Kiwi side for a scrimpy 108 with 2.1 overs to spare.

Kallis, who batted through the innings, put on a quick- fire 75 for the first wicket with Robin Uthappa (42) to give Bangalore a brilliant start.

Ross Taylor (32) played an incredible cameo as he scored 24 runs in the last over of the Bangalore innings by creaming three sixes and a boundary and Virat Kohli (32) also showed his potential after Uthappa’s dismissal.

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Dwayne Bravo took four wickets as Trinidad & Tobago beat Somerset by 44 runs in the Champions League in Bangalore.

Denesh Ramdin was the calming influence in a trigger-happy batting show, the wicketkeeper batsman top-scoring with a run-a-ball 39 in a total of 150 for nine. Bravo and his team’s three spinners then proved a handful in the middle overs and Somerset were bowled out for 106, leaving their chances of going through to the second round in jeopardy. The English county’s hopes rest on the West Indians beating the Deccan Chargers in the final group game. Should the Indian Premier League team win, Somerset’s poor net run-rate could well ruin their chances.

The Trinidad & Tobago openers, Lendl Simmons and William Perkins, went for broke from the start. Ben Phillips took some punishment in his first over, though he soon got rid of Simmons. Charl Willoughby leaked 17 runs in two overs but returned to remove Perkins, Darren Bravo and Kieron Pollard, to finish with three for 35. That left the West Indians at 60 for four at the end of the powerplay.

The wrist spinner Max Waller, who dismissed Daren Ganga, and the left-arm orthodox Arul Suppiah slipped in good spells but Ramdin, who was dropped on 11 by Peter Trego in the deep, held the lower-order together.

Defending what looked a vulnerable total, Dwayne Bravo quickly dismissed Marcus Trescothick and Craig Kieswetter. The off-spinner Sherwin Ganga then disposed of Justin Langer off the last ball of the powerplay. Somerset managed a

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Powerful half-centuries from Virender Sehwag and Dinesh Karthik led the Delhi Daredevils to a 50-run victory in their crucial Champions League Twenty20 Group D clash with Wayamba.

Having lost their opening fixture of the tournament to the Victoria Bushrangers, the Daredevils had to beat the Sri Lankans to stand a chance of progressing and will only be guaranteed a place in the Super Eights if the Bushrangers beat Wayamba here on Tuesday.

Given the strength of the Australian side it seems likely that Delhi will go through to the next round without any points and will therefore need to win both of their Super Eight games to qualify for the semi-finals, but they will be encouraged by the return to form and fitness of Sehwag.

The opener displayed some of his trademark swagger in smashing 66 from 42 balls on a pitch where both New South Wales and Sussex struggled to get going earlier in the day. He was somewhat fortunate to de dropped on 16 after drilling a full, wide to delivery to cover where Jehan Mubarak put down a tough chance diving to his left, but otherwise looked his old self as he quickly took the game away from the inexperienced Wayambans.

With the platform set, Dinesh Karthik made sure Delhi had the perfect opportunity to repair their net run rate by backing Sehwag up with 61 from 41 balls. Ajantha Mendis eventually had the wicketkeeper-batsman stumped, but not before Karthik had sent three successive sixes, each one bigger than the last, into the stands between long-on and midwicket to bring up his fifty in 39 balls.

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New South Wales stormed into the Super Eights of the Champions League after dishing out a 35-run beating to Sussex Sharks in Delhi.

Blues’ opener Phil Hughes made a deliberate 62 while Moises Henriques blasted 51 from just 33 balls as the Aussies made a useful 130 for two on a slow surface.

And it proved a task beyond Ed Joyce’s side, who mustered only 95 for eight in reply after the stand-in captain fell first ball, fellow opener Chris Nash top-scoring with 24.

Hughes and David Warner struggled to come to terms with the difficult conditions but they managed to eke out 35 runs in the first seven overs before Warner was superbly run out by Dwayne Smith at gully.

Wicket-keeper Daniel Smith was promoted in the order in an attempt to accelerate the pace but lasted just five balls before Piyush Chawla had him caught by Robin Martin-Jenkins.

But Henriques was the key batsman on this occasion, surviving a difficult chance to Rory Hamilton-Brown at short extra-cover, and was soon on the attack against Chawla, lifting him for six in an over that cost 17 runs.

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Somerset Sabres have snatched a thrilling one-wicket victory over Deccan Chargers on the final ball of their Champions League Twenty20 match in Hyderabad.

An eighth-wicket partnership of 50 runs between Alfonso Thomas (30 from 17 balls) and James Hildreth (25 from 24 balls) was the match-winner with Thomas nailing two boundaries from the final three deliveries to seal victory.

Deccan bowler Scott Styris managed two wickets in the action-packed final over but it wasn’t enough as the English side were able to eclipse the Chargers’ total of 153.

VVS Laxman was the stand-out performer in the first innings with 46 runs from 35 balls but it was former England international Marcus Trescothick who starred in the field for Somerset, picking up two catches before adding 14 runs at the top of the Sabres’ order.

Meanwhile Cape Cobras have claimed their second victory of the tournament with a 54-run victory over Otago, also in Hyderabad.

The result leaves Otago and fellow group C team Royal Challengers Bangalore facing a sudden-death match-up to decide who will accompany the Cobras into the final eight.

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Victoria completed a fabulous first day for Australian teams in the Champions League Twenty20 cricket tournament in India with a crushing seven wicket win over Delhi Daredevils.

In the early part of the Delhi double-header, NSW (6-144) scored a convincing 53-run win over South Africa’s Diamond Eagles (9-91) in a group B clash.

With the top two teams advancing from each group of three into the secondary league stage, both Australian sides are well placed.

The impressive Bushrangers attack restricted Delhi to 8-98 in their group D encounter and reached their modest target with 3.2 overs to spare.

After winning the toss and advancing to 1-31 in the sixth over, Delhi struggled to get the ball away against a disciplined Bushrangers attack on a slow pitch.

Five batsmen were bowled as the Victorians were rewarded for straight deliveries.

Paceman Clint McKay (3-17) was particularly impressive, dismissing three quality batsmen from different countries.

Indian dasher Virender Sehwag (21 off 15) struck four boundaries becoming McKay’s first victim courtesy of a smart return catch.

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NSW 6-144 (Katich 52, Henriques 27, van Schalkwyk 2-22) d Diamond Eagles 9-91 (R McLaren 40, Clark 3-12, Henriques 2-13)

A devastating bowling and fielding performance propelled NSW to a 53-run thrashing of South Africa’s Diamond Eagles in its opening match of the Champions League Twenty20 yesterday.

After posting a seemingly skinny 6-144 at the Feroz Shah Kotla stadium, the Blues reduced the Cobras to a humilating 5-25, before tailender Ryan McLaren (40) showed some belated grit to drag his side’s total to 9-91. Stuart Clark was the pick of the NSW bowlers with 3-12 off his four overs.

Simon Katich’s 52 was the stand-out innings of the match but the NSW captain was equally inspirational in the field, taking a catch and running out two Cobras batsmen with direct hits.

The Blues’ senior Australian pacemen, Brett Lee and Clark, got them off to a flyer, by snaring a wicket each within the first four overs of the Eagles’ innings, with Lee trapping opener Rilee Roussow leg-before for one and Clark, off his first ball, having No.3 Morne Van Wyk caught low at mid-wicket by Phillip Hughes.

But the biggest inspiration came from Katich, whose superb pick up and throw from mid-off not noly denied remaining opener Adrian McLaren a single but also cost him his wicket.

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