Twenty 20 Blog

When cricket historians look back in years to come they may well decide that 2009 was the year that the Twenty20 format came of age. They will say this was the year when the unruly offspring joined the accepted family of cricket’s formats.

Perhaps not regarded as the ultimate test of a team’s ability, that will surely always be the five-match five-day Test series, but still a valid and recognised method of sorting out the cricketing men from the boys.

Why 2009? You may ask. Well two reasons. First the IPL was moved from its natural home in India due to security reasons for its second season prompting a multitude of questions.

Could the organisers and the South Africans hosts put on the event at such short notice? Yes, they could. Would it be as exciting as the inaugural season? Yes. Would the passion of the crowds transfer to South Africa? Would the playing standards reach the same levels? Would the best in the world still be queuing up to appear? Yes, yes and yes.

But there was one important question that was answered no. Would it surpass and replace international cricket?

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Tim Evershed of Twenty20Blog.co.uk shares his ultimate World Twenty20 2009 team, in batting order:

1) Tillakaratne Dilshan

Dilshan was the worthy winner of the ICC’s Player of the Tournament award and despite his failure in the final we had no hesitation in putting him first on our team of the World Cup.
His stats are compelling enough, most runs in the tournament (317), highest score (96), and average of 56 and a strike rate of 144.75.
But Dilshan’s story was about more than just numbers, he was the rock of Sri Lanka’s batting – scoring well over half the team total in the semi against West Indies – and he did it in style. To cap it all he invented a new shot and had it named after him, the gravity-defying ‘Dilscoop’ and was agonisingly short of the only century of the tournament.

2) Chris Gayle

If the tournament needed setting alight, which is arguable after The Netherlands win over England in the opener, it was Gayle that lit the blue touch paper with his innings at The Oval on the second day. Six sixes and six fours, the 88 he scored off the Australian bowlers was a thing of savage beauty.

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The cricket pitches are ready, the teams have arrived, the television cameras are in place, the warm-up is over and if the marketing campaign is to be believed we are about to witness one of the best cricket competitions ever staged.

The second ICC Twenty20 World Cup starts at Lord’s tomorrow with the organisers desperately hoping it can live up to the hype – as the first tournament did in South Africa in 2007.

In South Africa two years ago the sun shone, the cricket was good, producing a number of close finishes, there were sixes galore (six of them in a single over from Yuvraj Singh) and the crowds were fantastic.

English weather

Whether or not this World Twenty20 matches up to the last one will depend on a few factors. It being England, the weather holding up will be one key aspect of a successful tournament.

More importantly will be how certain teams fare. England as host nation need to put on a good show, they need to play

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The excitement of the IPL begins not when the first ball is bowled, but before that when the pre-season auction of cricketing talent takes place.

The rich and famous owners descend on Goa for a televised, financial fist fight that may determine the fate of their team for the season. Conjecture over which franchises will bid for which stars and speculation on how high the price of the best players will go is rife.

But it is only now that the dust has settled on the second season of the IPL that we can properly assess the winners and losers from this year’s auction.

The English are coming

The England team had of course been excluded from the first season of the IPL and their arrival was one of the main talking points of the second auction, particularly the team’s two superstars Andrew Flintoff and Kevin Pietersen.

The pair promptly became the joint most expensive IPL players ever, signing for Chennai and Bangalore for $1,550,000 each.

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The second season of the IPL promised more interest for English cricket fans than the first for the simple reason that some of the many stars shining in the competition might be from their shores.

England’s finest had been kept out of the IPL last year by the ECB, although Dimitri Mascarenhas had played for the Rajasthan Royals during the inaugural season.

This year a window of opportunity was opened for them to play in the early part of the competition and a number of players put themselves forward for the second IPL auction.

IPL Auction

In the end five England players were bought at the auction, Owais Shah, Paul Collingwood, Ravi Bopara, Andrew Flintoff and Kevin Pietersen (the last two for the record sums of $1,550,000 each).

The message boards soon filled up, how would the five perform? Could Freddie and KP justify their price tags? Would they pick up new skills? Would England benefit? How about their counties?

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A superb batting performance from the Banglalore Royal Challengers fired them past the Chennai Super Kings and into the 2009 IPL final.

The second semi largely followed the script of the first with the lower ranked team restricting the favourites batting to a manageable target then cruising past it with plenty to spare.

After losing the toss and being put in first Chennai wickets fell at regular intervals and they could only manage a steady rather than spectacular scoring rate.

The target of 146 always looked achievable and so it proved for a Challengers team who will return to the New Wanderers tomorrow to face the Deccan Chargers in the final.

Although Bangalore lost the early wickets of South Africans Jacques Kallis and Roleof van der Merwe the match looked in little doubt once Rahul Dravid had joined Manish Pandey in the middle. The pair shared a stand of 72 that swung the game decisively in the Challengers favour.

At first Dravid played the anchor role he has become synonymous with while Pandey blazed away at Albie Morkel, Shadab Jakati and Manpreet Goly – the latter being clubbed for almost 12 an over.

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