A brief look ahead to the Super Eights stage of the world T20 Cup and a large photo gallery.
This post looks at the next stage of the T20 World Cup. Although some group games remain to be played the eight qualifiers for the next stage are already known and they have been put into two groups of four.
GROUP ONE
This group contains Afghanistan, Australia, Bangladesh and India – all three remaining Asian sides (Pakistan and Sri Lanka having failed to qualify) plus the only side from Oceania to have reached this stage of the competition. The expectation would be that the two titans, Australia and India, would progress to the semi-finals, at which stage the tournament becomes pure knock out. However Afghanistan have a 100% record to date, and will play their final group game against West Indies in the small hours of tomorrow, and I reckon they are certainly capable of springing a surprise. Afghanistan have batted as well as anyone on pitches that have generally been tricky, and they have a varied array of a fine bowlers. Bangladesh I suspect will be bringing up the rear in this group – they were less than convincing in their last group game against Nepal.
GROUP TWO
This group comprises England, South Africa, The USA and West Indies. The USA have been the surprise package of this tournament. I would not be surprised were they to add to their scalp bag, and maybe even making the semis – as will be seen there is reason to doubt two of the four sides in this group. The West Indies have been impressive this tournament, and as hosts they know the conditions better than anyone else. South Africa dominated their group, but they have never yet reached a semi-final of a men’s world cup in either ODIs or T20Is. I will believe in their ability to lay this particular ghost when I see it and not before. That leaves England who were definitely somewhat fortunate to make it through – they destroyed Oman and were impressive against Namibia, but Australia beat them with ease, and in the rain ruined match against Scotland the latter were 90-0 after 10 overs when it was abandoned, and this has been a low scoring tournament. Further, Scotland were a lot more impressive against Australia than their southern neighbours – Australia’s winning hit against them came from the penultimate ball of the match.
A look at the T20 World Cup, in which there have been some interesting developments, a gesture of solidarity to the folk of Wisbech, a massive open letter and photographs.
The T20 World Cup in the UAE is developing very interestingly, and this post looks at some of the developments.
ENGLAND DOMINATING THEIR GROUP
England have won all three games they have had so far, and have a huge positive net run rate (+3.694, the biggest in either group). They are in action today against Sri Lanka, and are batting first, which is tricky in the UAE, but as Afghanistan have shown twice this tournament it can be done that way. On Saturday they inflicted a body blow on Australia, winning by eight wickets with exactly 50 balls to spare. South Africa almost came unstuck against Sri Lanka but David Miller rescued them when they needed 15 off the last over to win, and they are well placed to take second spot behind England and with it a semi-final berth.
A 2+ WAY SCRAP FOR SECOND PLACE IN THE OTHER GROUP
Pakistan, with three wins from three, are almost sure to top this group, and they have been mightily impressive. They nearly came unstuck against Afghanistan, but with 24 needed off two overs Asif Ali struck four sixes in the penultimate over, bowled by Karim Janat, to take Pakistan over the line.
Second place in the group just about has three contenders, but the third of them are hanging on by a thread. New Zealand beat India by eight wickets yesterday, with a lot of time to spare, which leaves India winless from two games (they went down by ten wickets against Pakistan in their first game), but with their three theoretically easiest opponents to come. Their net run rate is a disastrous -1.609. NZ have won one game out of two, and the big hurdle for them will be Afghanistan – if they win their remaining games they qualify for sure, but defeat against Afghanistan probably finishes them, since while their net RR is respectable at +0.752, Afghanistan’s is a whopping +3.097, due to the fact that beat Scotland by 130 runs and Namibia by 62 runs. Afghanistan almost certainly qualify if they beat either India or NZ, and even two defeats won’t definitely doom them because if NZ or India come unstuck against one of the minor nations that net RR will come to their rescue. My reading of this group is that NZ are the most likely second place team, Afghanistan second most likely, and India while not out of it are in the last chance saloon with last orders having been called.
BOWLERS MAKING THEIR PRESENCE FELT
There is a good contest brewing between Anrich Nortje (SA) and Haris Rauf (Pakistan) for who can bowl the quickest ball of the tournament – both have been significantly above 150KPH. At the moment Nortje just leads the way on 153.5 KPH (95.5MPH). The next most notable performer among the pacers has been Pakistan left armer Shaheen Shah Afridi who has caused everyone problems.
Afghanistan have two top quality spinners, Rashid Khan (leg spin) and Mujeeb Ur Rahman (off spin), and they left Qais Ahmed behind. South Africa have Tabraiz Shamsi (left arm wrist spin), Sri Lanka have leg spinning all rounder Wanindu Hasaranga de Silva who has done the hat trick during this tournament and the young off spinner Maheesh Theekshana. New Zealand have Ish Sodhi (leg spin) and Mitchell Santner (left arm orthodox) who were each allowed to go at less than five an over by India yesterday.
A T20XI FROM BEFORE THE T20 ERA
I am allowing myself one “given man” – a single player in the XI who has actually played T20. I have allowed myself four overseas players, treating this as a franchise type selection. Following these rules this is what I came up with:
G St A Sobers – left handed batter, left arm bowler of every type known to cricket.
Gilbert Jessop – right handed batter, right arm fast bowler.
Frank Woolley – left handed batter, left arm orthodox spinner.
+Les Ames – right handed batter, wicket keeper.
Clem Hill – left handed batter.
*Tony Greig – right handed batter, right arm medium fast bowler, off spinner.
Alan Davidson – left arm fast medium bowler, left handed batter.
Rashid Khan – leg spinner, right handed batter.
Joel Garner – right arm fast bowler, right handed lower order batter.
Derek Underwood – left arm slow medium bowler, right handed lower order batter.
Alfred Shaw – right arm slow medium bowler, right handed lower order batter.
This XI features a strong batting line up with a good mix of left and right handers (the top seven, who are expected to almost all the scoring feature four left handers – Sobers, Woolley, Hill and Davidson; and three right handers – Jessop (the quickest scorer in the game’s history), Ames (winner of the Lawrence trophy for fastest FC hundred of the season twice in its first three years, sandwiching his Kent team mate Woolley) and Greig. Ames as keeper is top bracket – the “keepers double” of 1,000 FC runs and 100FC dismissals for the season was achieved four times, once by JT Murray of Middlesex and three times by Ames. The bowling has an awesome range of options, with only Ames and Hill not able to contribute in this department.
LINKS AND PHOTOGRAPHS
A few years back we in King’s Lynn fought off plans to plant an incinerator on us. Now, with COP26 just getting under way, another fenland town, Wisbech, is facing the threat of an incinerator. More about this is available here.
Also COP related, there is a massive open letter to presented to the folk at COP26, which you can read and sign here.
Now it is time for my usual sign off…
Tea towel map of Scotland
This is the part of Scotland I have visited most recently (see here for more details)
aspiblog 