Twenty 20 Blog

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 well, they need to win and they need to progress. A winning England team could really build upon the encouraging crowd numbers that have been seen at the warm-up games.

England should get off to a good start against the Netherlands tomorrow and then play-off with Pakistan to top their group.

Since the ignominious collapse against in Jamaica last February England’s year has got steadily better. Despite being the place where the Twenty20 format originated England have never done that well internationally (now, where have I heard that before?), but there appears to be reasons for optimism.

The core of the team that have thrashed the West Indies this summer are in the side, which will be capably lead by Paul Collingwood. The batting line-up is potentially powerful with the in-form Ravi Bopara opening and Twenty20 specialists Dimitri Mascarenhas, Eoin Morgan and Garham Napier following. If Kevin Pietersen can find his top form they could provide some fireworks.

India VS Pakistan

The other major nation in England’s group, Pakistan, have struggled in their warm-up games going down to South Africa and India, but they remain a mercurial side and you write them off at your peril.

Their progress can only be beneficial to the tournament as not only do they have a number of explosive players in their ranks – Shahid Afridi, Misbah-ul-Haq and Umar Gul to name but three – and as their warm-up with India at The Oval showed the fans of both nations bring unrivalled colour, passion and noise to cricket matches.

India and Pakistan contested the last final and were wonderfully supported the whole way; the English organisers will be hoping that the large Asian communities in England come out in numbers again.
India are of course the holders, they enter the tournament as the bookmakers favourites and as ever bear the weight of expectation of their large population on their shoulders.

A convincing win over Pakistan followed a bad loss to New Zealand in the warm-ups but the core of the winning side from two years ago remains in place. Sehwag, Dhoni and Yuvraj lead a batting line-up that is capable of giving any bowler nightmares while RP Singh, who was leading wicket taker in the IPL, and Ishant Sharma boast experience and express pace.

The contenders

No doubt Australia will be keen to add the trophy to their burgeoning cabinet, but their Twenty20 form has not been great recently having lost a series to Pakistan and South Africa recently.

The Ashes may be their main target this summer and they may have lost some star names over the last couple of years but the Aussies are here and not to be underestimated by anyone.

Whether the surprise dismissal of controversial all-rounder Andrew Symonds this week will have an affect on the team remains to be seen. However there’s no doubt they’ll miss the guy. Andrew Symonds can make it rain sixes and would’ve had a point to prove after being left out of the Ashes squad. Perhaps it’s coming to the end of the line for his career now.

Even so, Australia are not to be overlooked. Ricky Ponting remains one of the best batsmen in the world in any format of the game, and David Warner is the latest sensation from the Australian Academy’s production line.

Nathan Bracken has become a fine death bowler in limited overs matches and will be ably backed up by Mitchell Johnson and Brett Lee.

However, the Aussies still lack a natural spinner to since Shane Warne’s retirement and those who bowled against Adam Gilchrist or Matthew Hayden in the IPL will be only too pleased that the pair have retired from international cricket.

The Aussies have warmed up well and should find their first round opponents Sri Lanka and West Indies provide a decent test without worrying them unduly.

If India want to keep their crown, or Australia want to take it from them it is likely that they will have to fight off the challenge of South Africa.

Currently at the top of the one-day world rankings the Proteas are more than capable of winning this world cup with a team that blends destructive batsmen, superb bowlers and excellent fielders.

Many of the team have excelled in the recent IPL, AB deVilliers, Herschelle Gibbs, JP Duminy and Jacques Kallis were all in the Top 12 run scorers while left-armer Yusuf Abdulla was in the Top 10 bowlers with 14 wickets.

Captain Graeme Smith will lead from the front and can call upon Dale Steyn for pace or Johan Botha for spin if he needs to mix it up.

The outsiders

Of the other teams what can we expect? Twenty20 is a great leveller, shocks are possible here that would not happen in Test match cricket. Even that may be a step too far for Scotland, Ireland or The Netherlands.

However, Bangladesh could cause an upset - I doubt if they can win the tournament and at 50-1 the bookmakers agree with me – but they could trip up one of the big boys if they can get their bowling and fielding together for long enough.

Sakib al Hasan is rated the world’s best all-rounder by the ICC and could be their player to watch. And even if they don’t manage to cause and upset it should be fun watching them try with a free-hitting batting line-up that enjoys playing unorthodox shots.

By Tim Evershed, Twenty20Blog.co.uk