ICC Cricket T20 World Cup-2021: The Big One Tomorrow As Super-12 Rivalries Start!

The ICC Men’s T20 World Cup-2021 started in Oman and UAE with an upset in Group-B qualifiers when Scotland delivered a shock defeat to Bangladesh on 17^th October and the qualifier stage concluded on 22^nd October with another history-making upset as Namibia edged out the test-playing nation Ireland and entered the Super-12 stage for the first time. So, we have now qualifiers: from Group-A—the topper Sri Lanka enters the Group-1 and runners-up Namibia in Group-2 of the Super-12 while the Group-B topper Scotland enters Group-2 and the runners-up Bangladesh in Group-1 of the Super-12 stage. The six teams in each group will play matches between themselves on a round-robin basis and the two top teams of each group will sail into the semi-finals. The highly competitive and tough rivalries of the Super-12 stage starts today with Australia meeting South Africa in the first match in Abu Dhabi and England facing defending champions the West Indies in the second match in Dubai. Notwithstanding the slower pitches of UAE we can expect class cricket and absolute thrillers even though some matches may turn out to be low-scoring with the spinners dominating the proceedings.

 

All attention in the subcontinent is naturally focused of the big encounter tomorrow, Sunday the 24^thOctober, between archrivals India and Pakistan—the kind of encounters that have become rare as the bilateral ties between the two countries have been going through continuous tension since the Mumbai terror attack in 2008 and later the terror attack on the Sri Lanka team in Pakistan in 2009 after which all international cricket matches stopped to be staged in Pakistan and the country was rejected as a co-host with India in the ICC Cricket World Cup-2011. Since then all bilateral cricket is no longer there except for a brief tour when the BCCI invited Pakistan to play three ODIs and two T20Is in India in 2012. Pakistan players were also not allowed to participate in the IPL bonanza.

 

It is natural for most of the Indians to have reservations against Pakistan playing cricket with India due to the former’s endless duplicity and repeated terror attacks on the Indian soldiers in Jammu and Kashmir. However, we must take this in the spirit of inclusive sports in the form of World Cricket tournaments like in other international events like the Olympics. For their consolation the bilateral cricket has been completely suspended since 2012 even as genuine cricket lovers are really missing the classic encounters on the field. Therefore, the World Cricket tournaments offer us rare opportunities to have the privilege of watching the archrivals in full display. For that matter, Afghanistan, a participant, too was taken over by a terrorist group and that cannot lead to the team’s rejection in the same spirit of sports. Personally speaking human beings in all the countries are similar in sentiments and affection while the policies are made by only a few of the strategic rulers. For example, when the Taliban took over Afghanistan my first thought was about the safety of the lovely and sweet-behaved popular players like Rashid Khan in cricket and many others.

 

Coming back to the India-Pakistan encounter tomorrow evening India seem to have the advantage as they have won all of 12 matches in the one-day and T20 ICC World Cups so far, and lost only in the Champions Trophy with 2 wins for India against 3 by Pakistan. In Asia Cup cricket ODIs and T20Ia India won 7 against Pakistan’s 2 while the Asian Test Championship was won by the latter. Besides, India have been in ominous form in terms of both batting and bowling, gaining from the IPL-2021, the warm-up match wins and the recent victories over Australia and England in away-matches. In the last two years Pakistan won cricket series against Zimbabwe and South Africa while losing to New Zealand and England, and they lost the warm-up game against South Africa in this tournament. However, records don’t matter as far as the performances on the field in that particular day and that three and half hours are concerned. Pakistan has a balanced team with Captain Babar Azam as a dominant batsman joined by Shadab Khan and Fakhar Zaman, bowling all-rounder Mohammad Hafeez who can turn matches in his team’s favor anytime and Pakistan’s always-celebrated pacers and class spinners. All these factors only make the coming encounter in Dubai tomorrow a mouth-watering prospect.

 

The T20 is the shortest format of the game of cricket and arguably the most unpredictable as everything happens within the three and half hours like a movie. Therefore, it is indeed a very difficult question about who is going to win the tournament. India is one of the strongest favorites for the title while World Champions in the ODI World Cup-2019 England has also been on top in recent times followed closely by Australia and a very tough team of New Zealand. Defending champions West Indies and Pakistan can pull off anything on a particular day while the poor show of Sri Lanka and Bangladesh in the qualifying stage should not make any team complacent. India will also have to contend with new rivalries from a very able Scotland and a spirited Namibia, apart from Pakistan, New Zealand and Afghanistan—the latter no less tough an opponent against any team on their day. The suspense promises to be nail-biting as well as delightful starting today, with double-headers almost every day till the semi-final stage that’d start from 10^th November 2021.

Highs and Lows of Cricket and a Commercial Break!

After some terrific cricket and some horrific related incidents during the first three months of 2018 it’s time now for a commercial break. Well, not exactly though for millions of avid fans! They have been patiently waiting for this most commercially viable form of cricket since the last season. Come April-May for over a decade now,  and nobody can stop these fans for going gaga over this movie-styled entertainers of the sport.

Right, we are talking about the 11^th Season of the Indian Premiere League-2018 T20 Cricket tournament starting from 7^th April till the end of next month. Many fans would be excited this time for the return of Chennai Super Kings (CSK) and Rajasthan Royals (RR) with the former Indian skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni back as captain of CSK and Ajinkya Rahane replacing the tainted Steve Smith as captain of RR while New Zealand captain Kane Williamson replaced the tainted David Warner as captain of Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH), Shikhar Dhawan was earlier tipped for the position. Pune Rising Supergiants and Gujarat Lions that played for last two years after the two-year suspension of CSK and RR over a cricketing scandal could not qualify this time.

The buying of selling of internationally famed cricketers, euphemistically called auction, saw most of the regular players retained adding some exciting new ones. England cricketer Ben Stokes became the costliest overseas player while Indian pacer Jaydev Unadkat the costliest domestic one—both these players are bought by RR. Some known faces remained unsold including Lasith Malinga, Martin Guptil, Hashim Amla, Ishant Sharma and many others. Destroyer Chris Gayle somehow found a place in Kings XI Punjab in the third and last round of auction. Old warhorse Yuvraj Singh also found a place in this team which is being led this time by a new captain Ravichandran Ashwin. Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) discarded Gautam Gambhir who is being lapped up by Delhi Daredevils (DD) as captain. The sensation of the T20 Tri-Series Final against Bangladesh in Colombo on 18^th March, 2018, Dinesh Karthik whose 8-ball 29 won India the Nidahas Trophy, becomes the captain of KKR which would definitely cheer a lot of Kolkata fans.  India captain Virat Kohli continues to lead Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) while Rohit Sharma is also retained as captain of Mumbai Indians (MI). The inaugural match between MI and CSK will be played in Mumbai on 7^th April and Kolkata will see its first match on 8^th April between KKR and RCB. The other venues will be Delhi, Chennai, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Jaipur, Mohali assigned as hometowns to the different teams.  The Schedule:

This commercial break in terms of the IPL-2018 can be viewed as a much needed relief after the scandalous developments in international cricket recently. While the India Vs South Africa cricket series in South Africa was a high point in competitive spirited cricket the Test duel between the hosts and Australia cricket reached the lowest.

Although India under Virat Kohli lost the 3-Test series against South Africa 2-1 during January, 2018 the cricket was highly competitive with constant ups and downs. India nearly won the series with some superlative bowling performances, and many Indian fans believed that with some more batting application India would have seen the final result in its favour. South Africa won the closely fought first and second Tests while India won the final Test convincingly. And then, the Indians were unstoppable annihilating South Africa both in the one-day and the T20 series. Australia played the Test Series against South Africa during March, 2018 winning the first one and losing the second one. The series was looking up at that point of time despite the ugly off-field confrontation of David Warner with South African keeper Quinton de Kock during the first Test in Durban.

The ball-tampering incident happened on March 24, 2018 on the third day of the third Test being played in Cape Town involving Cameron Bancroft, and then skipper Steve Smith and his deputy David Warner—both being in the know as well as in the leadership. The deliberate and cold blooded tactic shocked the whole world, both cricketing and non-cricketing, with absolute words of condemnation coming from one and all irrespective of the highest or the lowest positions of authority. Cricket Australia was swift in its action, and the implicated players accepted the punishment with lots of public tears, but with no appealing intentions. As per the latest information Cricket Australia wants to put all the lids on this most scandalous happening which is possible because as mentioned the players are not going to appeal against the punishment handed out. Of course, a lot of questions involving this shameful episode would remain unanswered forever.

Meanwhile Afghanistan cricket team qualified for the ICC World Cup-2019 against all odds and beating Ireland in its final outing. The other qualifier is the West Indies, surprisingly.

Cricket: Australia and South Africa At It Again!

Australia and South Africa have the habit of pulling one extraordinary cricket match out of the mundane now ant then. You may well remember the incredible one day international between the two teams played at New Wanderers on 12^th March, 2006 which broke all the records of team innings score and chasing scores. Winning the toss and batting first Australia posted an insane score of 434 for 4. And. South Africa matching the insanity with zeal went on to win it! They did it by putting up 438 for 9 with one ball to spare. The greatest one day cricket match ever played!

Now at Cape Town, they have done it again in the first Test—equally insane unpredictable and topsy-turvy. The first day was normal with Australia batting first and scoring 214 for 8. It continued to be normal till lunch on the second day with Aussies folding up for 284 and South Africa at 49 for 1. Then, the madness descended.

South Africa was shot out for just 96 giving the Aussies a healthy lead of 188 runs and the match was almost a foregone conclusion. But then the climax! Australia was reduced to 21 for 9 and finally all out for 47—the 4^th lowest and the lowest since 1902!

Twenty three wickets fell on a single day. In India we are used to 17-18 wickets falling on a day mostly between 3^rd to 5^th days, but the Cape Town caper was just beyond rational explanations!

South Africa, needing a reasonable 236 to win, put things back to normal losing only one wicket more on that eventful day. And on the third day before lunch they won by 8 wickets! Smith and Amla throwing their might with brilliant centuries.

Just imagine Australia being brutalized in two and half days! The two teams should go on repeating such acts so that we get more cricket treats!