T20 Cricket World Cup

[Smithydog]

Group results went as expected. Ireland beat Netherlands by 7 wickets and Sri Lanka beat Namibia by the same margin. Curtis Campher from Ireland was the star of the day taking 4 wickets in 4 balls! (A rare double hat-trick)

In the warm up matches, Australia beat New Zealand by 3 wickets, going down to the second last ball. David Warner again failed which is an issue for the Australians. Great catch by Martin Guptill to remove him off the very first ball. Australia steadied but the loss of 3 wickets for 1 run tightened the run chase. The Kiwis got off to a great start, were slowed by Adam Zampa's bowling and aided by some late hitting by James Neesham.

India chased down a competitive 188 scored by England to win by 7 wickets with an over to spare. KL Rahul's brilliant 50 off 24 balls looks like has sealed his place in the opening pair for India. Bumrah bowled his usual yorker to show all is well. For England, most took little time to thrash the ball around but it was again Moeen Ali with a late quickfire 43 off 20 balls who showed he hasn't lost any IPL form.

Pakistan beat the West Indies by 7 wickets with their captain Babar Azam leading the way with 50 off 41 balls. The West Indies decision to bat at the toss, didn't help their cause with the team struggling to reach 130/7 off their allotted 20 overs. Especially when considering Pollard hit 20 of those runs off the last over!

In the final group match, the South Africans posted a modest total of 146 on a relatively smaller ground. This looked like two teams who have had little recent playing time as a group. But their spin trio came to the fore and restricted Afghanistan's batting for them to fall short by 41 runs. As was expected, South Africa was strong in its bowling but only steady in its batting which may see it have issues when faced with far stronger attacks. Considering all the upheaval in recent times for their country, and now back to practicing and playing cricket, it is hoped the Afghanistan team will benefit from the team experience and see their performance progressively improve.

These warm up matches are as much testing combinations as having real practice for the later actual competition games. As such, we shouldn't read too much into it as most of the larger sides seemed to rest some player that would be probable picks.

Source: https://www.t20worldcup.com/

[Rookiescot]

India's win over England by such a margin is pretty ominous. I thought the game would be far tighter. 

[Smithydog]

Especially as Ishan Kishan retired not out on 70 off 46 balls to give another Indian player a bat!

Jordan had a bad last over. But there were signs the Poms were a bit underdone practice wise. Think they will get better. David Willey bowled well with 16/3 off 3 overs, so that is a good sign

[gummy]

1 hour ago, Rookiescot said:

India's win over England by such a margin is pretty ominous. I thought the game would be far tighter. 

It was only a practice game to lull them into a false sense of security 

[BigHewer]

Scotland have beaten PNG by 17 runs. Valiant effort in the chase by the PNG tail but in the end too many to chase.

Next up, Oman vs Bangladesh.

How exotic international cricket has become!

[Smithydog]

 

Bangladesh bounced back from a disappointing first up loss to show why they are favoured to be one of the teams to advance to the Super 12 round. After some early breakthroughs by Oman, Mohammad Naim and Shakib Al Hasan compiled an 80 run partnership to settle things down and set the team up for a competitive score of 153 all out. Best of the bowlers by far was Bilal Khan for Oman with 18/3 off his 4 overs.

Responding, Oman could only manage 127/9 off their 20 overs. Jatinder Singh was the lone hand with 40 off 33 balls. Late wickets sped the demise of Oman with Mustafizur Rahman picking up 4 wickets but not at a good economy rate. Mohammad Saifuddin made up for his golden duck whilst batting by restricting the batters from Oman to just 16/1 off his 4 overs.

In the second game, Scotland maintained their winning form by downing Papua New Guinea (PNG). The Scottish boys set a target of 165/9 off their 20 overs and succeeded in bowling PNG out for 148. Richie Berrington was the star with 70 off just 49 bowls.

Once again PNG showed promise in the latter half of both innings with both bat and ball. But losing 35/5 in the Powerplay did not give them the set up they needed to chase what was likely an over par score for the slow wicket. The experience gained against Scotland was invaluable as they seek to improve their game play and overall techniques, however, simply need more consistent playing time for them to advance.

Scotland now leads Group B with one group match against the second placed Oman remaining. Bangladesh is tied with Oman but in third on net run rate. They have the chance to boost that against PNG if they play to their expected standard. However, no place is yet guaranteed and avoiding the second place which would put you into the formidable Group 1 of the Super 12s is added incentive for all.

Tonight, in Group A, Namibia plays Netherlands whilst Sri Lanka plays Ireland. Warm Up matches are also scheduled for New Zealand vs England, Australia vs India, South Africa vs Pakistan and the West Indies vs Afghanistan.

 

[BigHewer]

Tonight, in Group A, Namibia plays Netherlands whilst Sri Lanka plays Ireland. Warm Up matches are also scheduled for New Zealand vs England, Australia vs India, South Africa vs Pakistan and the West Indies vs Afghanistan.

Teams I’m going for in bold. Hopefully, I can get a live stream…

[mickkotlarski]

On 10/17/2021 at 2:39 PM, BigHewer said:

I like the 20/20 World Cup because I don’t really mind who wins. And it’s a true “world” cup with all the extra teams. 

Neither Australia nor NZ have ever won it, so would be good to see one of them get up. Hopefully Bangladesh and Afghanistan can stick it to a couple of the big boys too.

Now, how can we watch it online?

Totally agreed. Any of the sides can lift the trophy and its not a staggering surprise. Windies, India, south Africa and England are foavourites but i would love to see my Oz or the Kiwis take it.

Regret losing my sky sports online account from when I worked in Africa. Be good to see some of these games live.  

[mickkotlarski]

On 10/19/2021 at 12:06 PM, gummy said:

It was only a practice game to lull them into a false sense of security 

Following Oz v India and Rohit Sharma's fellas are 0/60 after 7 overs. But then its just a practice match.

[Smithydog]

4 minutes ago, mickkotlarski said:

Following Oz v India and Rohit Sharma's fellas are 0/60 after 7 overs. But then its just a practice match.

When Sharma gets going any side is in danger from the flying ball!

Great batsman to watch.

[BigHewer]

14 minutes ago, mickkotlarski said:

Totally agreed. Any of the sides can lift the trophy and its not a staggering surprise. Windies, India, south Africa and England are foavourites but i would love to see my Oz or the Kiwis take it.

Regret losing my sky sports online account from when I worked in Africa. Be good to see some of these games live.  

I managed to get a good livestream here for PNG vs Scotland -not Bangladesh! (last night). But it took a bit of trial and error with the links:

http://1st.freestreams-live1.com/?s=Cricket

[BigHewer]

9 minutes ago, Smithydog said:

When Sharma gets going any side is in danger from the flying ball!

Great batsman to watch.

I can’t see a live stream for that match anywhere…Where are you seeing it?

I’m just getting Namibia vs Netherlands..

[mickkotlarski]

9 minutes ago, BigHewer said:

I managed to get a good livestream here for PNG vs Scotland -not Bangladesh! (last night). But it took a bit of trial and error with the links:

http://1st.freestreams-live1.com/?s=Cricket

Cracking stuff. You're a star BigHewer. Big heart also. Thank you.

[mickkotlarski]

11 minutes ago, Smithydog said:

When Sharma gets going any side is in danger from the flying ball!

Great batsman to watch.

 

Just now, mickkotlarski said:

Cracking stuff. You're a star BigHewer. Big heart also. Thank you.

Agreed. He's on 32 off 30 deliveries. S/R 106. Looks to be in good form.

[Smithydog]

2 minutes ago, BigHewer said:

I can’t see a live stream for that match anywhere…Where are you seeing it?

I’m just getting Namibia vs Netherlands..

Just a general comment about him. I can only seem to get the score commentary on You Tube. Takes a while to find one not in Indian though!

[BigHewer]

2 minutes ago, Smithydog said:

Just a general comment about him. I can only seem to get the score commentary on You Tube. Takes a while to find one not in Indian though!

I’m guessing in that case freestreams-live1 are only showing the games in the tournament proper.

[mickkotlarski]

2 minutes ago, BigHewer said:

I’m guessing in that case freestreams-live1 are only showing the games in the tournament proper.

We'll find out soon enough. After all the practice games don't actually accrue any points on the tables/rankings.

[BigHewer]

2 minutes ago, mickkotlarski said:

We'll find out soon enough. After all the practice games don't actually accrue any points on the tables/rankings.

Yep, practice is practice. Hoping to see one of the minnows cause an upset or two when we really get started.

[Rookiescot]

Its a shame Scotland will go into the same group as India and get beaten by them.

Would have made a cracking final 

[mickkotlarski]

3 minutes ago, BigHewer said:

Yep, practice is practice. Hoping to see one of the minnows cause an upset or two when we really get started.

Highly possible. I feel the same.

[BigHewer]

Just a question, but where is Zimbabwe? Are they banned or did they pull out? I always rated Brendan Taylor as a player.

[Smithydog]

37 minutes ago, BigHewer said:

Just a question, but where is Zimbabwe? Are they banned or did they pull out? I always rated Brendan Taylor as a player.

Don't think they qualified.

[BigHewer]

37 minutes ago, Smithydog said:

Don't think they qualified.

Just checked Wikipedia. Apparently banned from qualifying. 

Interesting that PNG topped their qualifying group, ahead of Scotland in 4th.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/2019_ICC_Men's_T20_World_Cup_Qualifier

[Smithydog]

India beat Australia by 8 wickets with 2.1 overs remaining.

[Smithydog]

Group A is now much clearer due to the decisive win by Sri Lanka over Ireland last night. Sri Lanka, batting first, set a challenging target of 171/7. Wanindu Hasaranga blasted 71 off 47 and then took 1-12 from four overs as Ireland were bowled out for 101 in 18.3 overs. Josh Little’s 23/4 off his 4 overs was about the only shining light in Ireland’s performance.

In the second game, Namibia’s scored their first-ever men’s World Cup win, creating a magical moment for the side, by overcoming Netherland’s 164/4 to win by 6 wickets with one over to spare. Building on a slow, but solid base, David Weise and the middle order again showed their value as the “bomb squad” by punishing wayward bowling by the Netherlands. Too many balls landed in his prime batting arc and were dispatched, lifting the run rate and enabling the win by the team. Max O’Dowd again showed his form in a beaten team with a 70 off 56 balls.

Sri Lanka is now top of the Group B table and likely to qualify in that place with only a game against the Netherlands remaining. It will need a massive upset win for the Netherlands over Sri Lanka for them to qualify considering their run rate differential. Ireland will face off against Namibia for the expected second spot on the ladder, which is game either could win.

The table in Group B will be the focus tonight as the teams fight off for places. Bangladesh faces off against Papua New Guinea and Scotland has to contend with the hosts Oman. Papua New Guinea are out of the running for a top 2 spot but the other Group B positions are still relatively wide open

In last night’s warm up games, Afghanistan showed their world rating is justified with a stunning 56 run victory over the West Indies built on the back of a team batting effort. A brilliant 101 of only 56 balls by Rassie van der Dussen set the benchmark for other batsmen as he led South Africa to a thrilling last ball win over Pakistan. He and David Miller combined to thrash 22 off the last over to bring them back from the brink.

India easily accounted for Australia and left many wondering just who will be in the Australian side as it now seems even more confusing than prior to the warm-up matches. The Indian team is building well and with their recent IPL experience in the conditions, they are well placed for their first tournament game. England rounded off their preparations with a solid win over New Zealand with Jos Buttler showing he is in good Knick with 70 off 51 balls.

Sources: https://www.t20worldcup.com/home-page and https://www.espncricinfo.com/series/icc-men-s-t20-world-cup-2021-22-1267897