ICC T-20 World Cup – Day 2

Kiwis win the cricketing sevens, Calypsos slaughter Kangaroos, and India kicks away the Bangla banana skin


The second day of the capsule cricket world cup witnessed more sixes and more brutal hitting than in the first day, but no upset of seismic proportions. Scotland failed to emulate the Dutch, though they did manage to give a scare to the Kiwis. West Indies, absurdly ranked 11 in this tournament, produced what one can call an upset, by pulverizing Australia. Finally, an efficient performance from the "rock stars of cricket" ensured that Bangladesh did not repeat their 2007 World Cup performance against India.

Scores in brief

Match 1: New Zealand (90 for 3 in 6 overs) beat Scotland (89 for 4 in seven overs) by 7 wickets
Match 2: West Indies (172 for 3 in 15.5 overs) beat Australia (169 for 7 in 20 overs) by 7 wickets
Match 4: India (180 for 5 in 20 overs) beat Bangladesh (155 for 8 in 20 overs) by 25 runs

Match 1: Kiwis wins the cricketing sevens

The first match of the second day, between Scotland and New Zealand, was reduced to a sevens match – that is, seven overs per side, and not seven players per side as in the football version of the sevens. Scotland were nursing hopes of an upset win similar to the Dutch victory over England on the first day. They raced to a backyard-cricket- or school-ground-cricket-like score of 89 for 4 in 7 overs to raise hopes for yet another upset. Gavin Hamilton is the most familiar face in the Scotland team. But he did not have to bat, as obscure cricketers like Ryan Watson (27 in 10 balls), Navdeep Poonia (27 in 15 balls), and Kyle Coetzer (33 in 15 balls) produced a slog-fest.

In reply, New Zealand were not as generous as England had been. They reached 50 in 2.4 overs, and then went on to score the required 90 runs with one over to spare. Jesse Ryder (31 from 13 balls), Ross Taylor (21 from 10 balls), and Brendon McCullum (18 from 8 balls) were the main destroyers. Despite the heavy hitting all around, the man of the match award went to Ian Butler who took 3 wickets in 2 overs by giving away "only" 19 runs. He gave away just 8 runs in the last over. In fact, the last three balls of the innings resulted in wickets. But the second wicket was a run out, so I think it will not be considered as a hat trick.

Match 2: Calypsos slaughter Kangaroos

The second match of the day, between Australia and West Indies, turned out to be a total mismatch – but not the way one would imagine. It is Australia who looked like the West Indies in recent times. West Indies in fact looked like the fearsome Windies squads of 1970s and 1980s. Jerome Taylor is no Michael Holding or Malcolm Marshal. But yesterday he was good enough to send back Shane Watson and Ricky Ponting in the first over of the match. The score of 3 for 2 soon became 15 for 3, when Fidel Edwards got rid of Michael Clarke. But Australia recovered and scored what appeared then a challenging total of 169 for 7, thanks mainly to a subdued innings from David Warner (61 of 51 balls). He was supported well by Brad Haddin (24 of 19 balls) and the Hussey brothers, David (26 of 16 balls) and Michael (28 of 15 balls).

West Indies started the innings as if they were playing against the newly formed team from Afghanistan. Before Australia knew what hit them, West Indies had reached their 50 (in 4.1 overs). At first, the runs came from an unexpected source – from Andre Fletcher (53 in 32 balls). But soon Chris Gayle (88 in 50 balls) took over. He was in a murderous mood in the fifth over of the innings bowled by Brett Lee – 27 runs including 3 sixes and 2 fours. More than the number of sixes, the manner in which they were hit must have hurt the bowler. Two of the sixes went out of the ground. In fact, Brett Lee's bowling figures resembled that of Ajit Agarkar in the recently concluded IPL: 3 overs no maiden 51 for none. Ricky Ponting tried many things and made several bowling changes. The Windies never lost their momentum and surpassed the "challenging" total with 25 balls to spare. Chris Gayle obviously was the man of the match.

Match 3: India kicks away the Bangla banana skin

The match against Bangladesh was a potential banana skin match for India, similar to the 2007 World Cup match in Port of Spain against the same side. India had lost that match, and eventually made a tragic first round exit from the tournament. Yesterday too, it appeared that they had sighted a banana skin somewhere and were cautious to avoid it. After a streaky knock from Rohit Sharma (36 of 23 balls), who partnered Gautam Gambhir in Sehwag's absence, Gambhir (50 of 46 balls) and MS Dhoni (26 of 21 balls) were too cautious and relied on singles and twos to get the scoreboard moving. Dhoni got out when he tried to accelerate the scoring. In came Yuvraj Singh and he kicked the banana skin, if there was any, emphatically out of the ground with a typically belligerent 41 of 18 balls. Irfan Pathan chipped in with 11 runs in 3 balls and India reached a respectable total of 180.

Bangladesh started the innings with their typical giant-killing ambitions. They took only 32 balls to reach the 50 and looked good for a fight. However, the introduction of Pragyan Ojha changed the course of the match. He took 4 wickets 21 runs in a man-of-the-match-winning performance. Bangladesh eventually managed 155 for 8 in 20 overs. Junaid Siddique (41 from 22 balls) was the top-scorer.

Tail Piece: Seeing the way Gayle and McCullum blazing away yesterday, one finally gets answer for this oft-repeated question: who was responsible for the debacle of Kolkata Knight Riders? Pluto, dear Pluto.