India is the favorite for T20 World Cup

The last time India won the T20 World cup was in 2007 in South Africa. It was the first edition of the T20 world cup. In 2014, India were the T20 World Cup finalists. The recent form of Indian team raises hopes about India's chance in the upcoming T20 World Cup scheduled to be held in India, during the months of March and April.

When India went to play the 5 one day and 3 T20 matches in Australia, no one expected India to do a complete whitewash of Australia in the T20 series. For the first time ever in the history of the game a visiting team in Australia whitewashed Australia in their home.

In the home series against Sri Lanka India won the series 2-1 and has won the first two matches of the of the ongoing Asia cup. All the batsmen are in good form, the bowlers are bowling well and the addition of Hardik Pandya and Jaspreet Bhumrah has changed the balance of the team.

If the Indian T20 plays in the same way it has done in the last eight matches, then India can very well become World T20 champions. This time India will have the home advantage as well. 

Asia Cup- 5th Match - India vs Pakistan

The most keenly fought contest in the world of cricket today is a match between India and Pakistan. India probably have the best batsmen in world cricket today. Pakistan have the best fast bowlers in the world. The match played today at Mirpur, on a green wicket, between the two subcontinent giants, was very exciting, although it was a low scoring match. 

India put Pakistan into bat, the pitch helped Nehra and Bhumrah. Nehra got a wicket in the very first over. Bhumrah came close to getting a lbw in the second over but the umprie ruled otherwise. That over was a maiden though. When it seemed like Pakistani batsmen were settling down and looking to score big, Bhumrah managed to get the edge of Sharjeel Khan, the catch was taken comfortably by Rahane. 

In the next over, Nehra managed to get an edge of Manzoor, however the decision was not given by the umpire in favour of the bowler. The decision did not cost India too much, in the next over, there was some misunderstanding between Malik and Manzoor, while taking a quick single. Malik sent Manzoor back, Manzoor slipped, the bat fell from the hands of Manzoor, Kohli collected the ball and hit the stumps direct. After that wickets fell in quick succession. 

At one stage the Pakistanis were 52/7, Wahab Riaz and Sarfaraz managed to add 18 to the total, but then Riaz was out lbw to Jadeja. In the next over bowled by Ashwin, the first ball was swept square by Mohommad Shami for a one bounce boundary. In the next ball, Ashwin tried to bowl a slider that probably slipped out of his hands and went way down the leg side. This over added some runs to the paltry Pakistani total. Pandya bowled the next over and managed to get wickets in consecutive deliveries, thus stopping the Pakistanis at 83/5 in 17.3 overs.

However the win was not easy for India. India did have some very difficult time facing the fiery Pakistani fast bowling. Mohommad Aamir, who has come back to the side after a 5 year ban bowled a magical spell. In the very first over of the Indian innings he managed to get the wickets of Rohit Sharma and Ajinkya Rahane. Both the balls were real beauties. Both the bowls were bowled at over 145 kph and they swung back like banana. There was very little that Rohit and Ajinkya could have done, they were just new to the crease. 

On the other end Mohommad Shami bowled a very good second over. In the third over Aamir got the wicket of Raina, who ended up lobbing a catch to mid on. Yuvraj came in to bat, the ball was swinging and the Pakistani fast bowlers were bowling with real pace. All of them -- Aamir, Shami, Irfan and Wahab bowled at over 145 kph. Some of the balls clocked 150 kph. However Virat Kohli batted steadily at the other end. He scored freely. Yuvraj struggled but managed to hang on. 

Kohli, the man of the match, played some delightful strokes, he batted well under pressure and reached a score of 49. However the umpire gave a wrong decision adjudging him lbw, replays clearly showed that he had edged the ball to his pads. Pandya followed him without adding to the total. Captain Dhoni got the winning runs and India thus won the match by a margin of 5 wickets. 

It was an incredible bowling performance by the Pakistani bowlers. They made a match out of a paltry total given to them by their batsmen. Had the Pakistani batsmen batted better and made even 120 to 130. India would have found it really difficult to get to the total.

It is wonderful to see India winning this match. One hopes that India performs well against Sri Lanka and UAE as well and win the next two matches to make it to the final. 

Asia Cup T20- 3rd match (Bangladesh vs UAE)

UAE again bowled well but when it came to batting they floundered once again. The batsmen of UAE have no experience of playing quality bowling on green wickets. Coach Aquib Javed has done a wonderful job when it comes to preparing UAE's bowling unit. The emiraties bowled well, tied Bangladeshi batsmen down, at the end of 20 overs, they were able to score a mere 133. The last over went for 18 runs.

However when UAE came to bat, their inexperience was clearly visible. The batting performance was worse than that against Sri Lanka. But UAE cannot be blamed, after all they are just a team of amateur club cricketers pitted against well experienced professional players. However their bowling will get appreciation from every quarter. 

It is commonly observed that every associate team seems to have decent batting line up. Normally it is bowling where they are found wanting. However in case of UAE, the opposite is true. UAE has a decent bowling line up but it has to find better batsmen. 

Their performance in both the matches has been better than expected. They are capable of causing an upset if any team takes them lightly. Bangladesh were lucky to get away with a mediocre batting performance, thanks to some good bowling done by the likes of Taskin, Mustafizur and Mortaza. 

Today's match between India and Pakistan is much eagerly awaited across the subcontinent. It is going to be the match of the tournament. 

Asia Cup 2nd match - Sri Lanka vs UAE

The match was supposed to be simple cakewalk for Sri Lanka, who are the reigning world champions in the T20 format. On a green Dhaka wicket, Sri Lanka were batting first, they started well, however the UAE bowlers bowled well and the fielders backed up their bowlers well by taking all the catches and stopping the runs.  

Sri Lanka huffed and puffed to get a paltry total of 129 runs in the allotted 20 overs. All Sri Lankan batsmen struggled against a bunch of amateur UAE players. However when Sri Lankans came to bowl, the story did turn around. Lasith Malinga, who is one of the best bowlers in the world and a completely unorthodox bowler, whom the UAE batsmen faced for the first time, left them shocked.

In the very first ball of the second innings, Malinga took a wicket by bowling a fast yorker. In the last ball of the over, he bowled another yorker that dipped as it reached the batsman. The batsman missed the ball and it hit the wicket giving him the second wicket in the match. 

However UAE did not surrender meekly, their batsmen fought on, however they kept losing wickets at regular intervals. They kept falling behind the required rate every over. In the end, they ended up scoring 115/9, 14 runs short of Sri Lanka's score. 

If the UAE batsmen were more experienced in terms of playing international cricket and had they played the like of Lasith Malinga earlier, they surely would have batted better and might have comfortably won the match. 

Anyway the performance of UAE was quite commendable, considering a fact that all its players are amateurs, which means that they have a day job and only practice in the evening. Compare that to SL players, who are professional full time cricketers, who are way more experienced as compared to the guys from Emirates. 

Today Emirates are to face Bangladesh in another T20 encounter in Mirpur. One hopes that the experience of facing the Lankans and the confidence of their good performance against them reflects in this match and they are able to give Bangladesh a run for their money. 

Asia Cup - Bangladesh vs India

India comfortably won the first match of Asia Cup T20 beating hosts Bangladesh by a margin of 45 runs. Bangladesh were not even able to score 75% of the runs that India scored. The pitch was a green wicket with lots of help for the quick bowlers. There was dew in the evening and bowlers did struggle to grip the ball at the later part of the innings. 

India were put into bat, in the beginning the ball was swinging a lot and scoring was tough, India lost Shikhar Dhawan early. Virat Kohli was also not able to score fluently he got out caught at mid off scoring just 8 of 8 balls. Raina tried to come down the track to the spin of Memudullah, but the ball did not turn at all and it hit the middle stump. 

Yuvraj came to bat he did score at a run a ball. At the end of the 10th over India had managed only 52 runs, but as the ball got wet and Rohit got set, Rohit started going after the bowling. Rohit increased the scoring rate hitting boundaries and sixes after his catch was dropped at point. The missed catch of Rohit Sharma was probably the turning point of the match. Yuvraj tried to hit Shakib for a six however the ball went straight to the fielder. 

Now Hardik Pandya was sent to bat and he went after the bowling, he hit four boundaries and one six to score a super fast 31 of 18 balls. Between the 15th and 20th overs India scored over 60 runs and Rohit scored a wonderful 83 of 55 balls with 3 sixes and 7 boundaries. Dhoni played the last two balls of the match scoring 2 of the first ball and hit a six of the last ball. India ended up with a total of 166, which no one expected after the 10th over.  

Bangladesh simply had no answer to India's mammoth score on this pitch. The were never really up to the challenge. Nehra and Bhumra bowled well, they got lot of assistance from the wicket and were able to pick up wickets as well inside the power play. Dhoni did not use Ashwin in the beginning of the innings, as he had done in the earlier T20 matches. 

Since the ball was wet Ashwin found it difficult to grip. Most of the balls he bowled were sliders which swung quite a bit in the air. He managed to bowl economically and got the wicket of Imrul Keyes. Pandya bowled well at the other end and managed to pick up a wicket as well. 

The addition of Bhumrah and Pandya to India's T20 side has made Indian team more powerful and one of the reason's why India won 6 of the last 7 T20 Internationals. 

The performance of Team India is very encouraging and as Indian fan one can only wish that the current form and performance continues till T20 World Cup. 

Sri Lanka vs India, 3rd T20

India won the the final and deciding T20 match in the three match series against Sri Lanka convincingly. Thus India, for the first time won a T20 series in India. 

The wicket at Vizag was not a pata wicket, it had good amount of help for bowlers specially spinners. India won the toss and put Sri Lanka in to bat. Today again Ashwin opened the bowling and boy didn't he bowl well. In the first over Ashwin picked up 2 wickets giving only 3 runs.

It seemed like a repeat of first T20 match, only this time Sri Lanka were at the receving end. In the first T20 Indians lost two wickets in the very first over. Ashwin was not done yet he came back to bowl in the next over, Chandimal tried to take the aeriel route by coming down the track, but he was caught by Pandya at long off. 

In his third over, Ashwin got the wicket of Gunaratne. However replays showed that the decision was probably a bit harsh as there seemed no connection between the bat and the ball. The sixth over was bowled by Nehra who got the wicket of Siriwardana who tried to pull a ball that was not very short. The ball hit the wicket travelling under the bat of Siriwardana. 

Ashwin and Jadeja got the ball a lot, they were simply unplayable. Jadeja gave just 11 runs in his four overs and got the wicket of Shanaka. The ball was turning so much in the pitch that even Raina joined the party and the wickets of two lower end batsmen giving just 6 runs in 2 overs. 

The number 11 batsman Dilhara Fernando was clean bowled by fast swinging yorker bowled by Bhumrah. Sri Lanka did not last the entire 20 overs and the team had only scored 82 runs. 

It was expected that the Sri Lankan spinners would make work difficult for Indian batsmen but when they came to bowl, they were not able to extract the amount of bite of the wicket which the Indian spinners were getting. All Sri Lankan quicks except Chameera seemed ineffective. 

India lost the wicket of Rohit when the team's score was 29. The next batsman sent to the crease was Rahane. It made sense because on this track Rahane's technique was needed and not quick runs. However both Rahane and Dhawan scored at almost a run a ball to get the paltry total of 84 in the 13th over. 

The match seemed a repeat of the first T20 only Sri Lankans were at the receiving end this time. Sri Lankan batsmen did play some irresponsible shots when the wickets were tumbling one after another. Had they adjusted the game according to the track and played the entire 20 overs they could have got 30 runs more. 

However Sri Lankan bowling specially spin bowling was not as effective as it should have been on this track. While Indians managed to pick up 5 Sri Lankan wickets in the first T20, Sri Lanka picked up only one Indian wicket today. Sri Lanka was totally outplayed by India and its great to see India win the series 2-1. 

With this India has now won 5 of the last 6 T20 matches they played. India rightly are one of the firm favorites to win the T20 World Cup. 

West Indies won the T20 World Cup

Earlier in this blog I had written about the demise of West Indies cricket. In spite of having some of the best players in the world, West Indies cricket team is not doing well. However today, in the Under 19 World Cup played in Bangladesh, West Indies beat India in the finals and became the champions. 

It is very heartening to see how the West Indies youngsters played. They not only batted well, but bowled and fielded beautifully as well. The West Indian quicks were the fastest in the tournament some of the balls were bowled at 147 kph. 

If the West Indies board can resolve the players payment issue, we may be able to see the great West Indies team of the past again. West Indies team of 70s and 80s were a force to reckon with and cricket looks incomplete without a strong West Indies side. 

As a true cricket fan one just hopes that this achievement of the youth West Indian team is the first step towards West Indies becoming a great cricket side again.

Sri Lanka vs India, 2nd T20

Cricket is indeed a funny game and a great leveller. You can be hero one day and the very next day you may be reduced to dust. A similar thing happened with Sri Lanka in the second T20 international played in Ranchi today. The wicket was absolutely opposite to the Pune pitch.

While the Pune pitch was a green top, the Ranchi wicket was a flat wicket with absolutely no grass on it. It was a batting paradise. However the outfield was not in great condition, it was not a lush green outfield because of the draught in Jharkhand. 

Sri Lanka won the toss and asked India to bat first. Rohit Sharma hit the first ball for a boundary and after that it was all Shikhar Dhawan and Rohit Sharma show. Shikhar Dhawan hit a ball for a six, attempting a similar stroke Dhawan was caught at third man in the previous match. However today this did not happen as the ball did not swing at all. 

In the first 6 overs Indians were able to maintain a run-rate of above 11 runs an over. India did not lose any wicket in the first six overs. The first wicket to fall was the wicket of Dhawan,he scored 51 of 25 balls. The new batsman Rahane scored runs at a decent rate while Rohit hit the ball all around. Rohit was out after making 43 from 36 balls.

He was followed by Raina who joined in the run feast. He scored a brisk 30 of 19 balls. After the fall of Rohit's wicket, Dhoni took a strange decision, instead of bringing himself or Yuvraj to the crease, he sent Pandya. Well, Dhoni's faith in Pandya was not misplaced. The youngster batted beautifully and scored a whirlwind 27 runs of 12 balls he faced. He hit two sixes and a boundary in his innings. 

The Sri Lankan bowlers were looking helpless but in the 18th over Thisara Periera managed to get a hattrick. The wicket taking deliveries were not extraordinary but the batsmen were trying to score fast and in that process they ended up giving their wickets away. By the end of the 20th over India had scored a mammoth 196/6. It was an excellent total. 

When India came in to bowl captain Dhoni took another surprising decision. He gave the new white ball to Ashwin. It was a great decision as Ashwin managed to get danger man Dilshan stumped when he faced his first ball. It was just the second ball of the Sri Lankan innings. Nehra bowled from the other side and managed to get a wicket in his first over. 

Three out of the first six overs during which field restrictions applied were bowled by Ashwin. He bowled economically. In the first 6 overs Sri Lanka managed to amass only 37 runs after losing 3 wickets. The Srilankans were having problems in scoring, after a brief partnership between Kapugedra and Chandimal, Kapugedra got out when the Sri Lankan total was just 68 in the 12th over. The Sri Lankans hardly made any impact with the bat. They scored at a slow rate and kept losing wickets regularly, the match ended with Sri Lanka managing a mere 127/9 of 20 overs.  Ashwin picked up 3 wickets while Bhumrah, Nehra and Jadeja picked up two wickets each.

After the debacle in the first match, it was heartening to see India win by a massive 69 runs. Let's hope that they perform equally well in the next match scheduled on Valentine's day. 

Sri Lanka vs India - first T20

T20 cricket is all about big shots, quick runs, taking risks and scoring the runs very very fast. Well that's true if you have a tailor made wicket for T20. In T20s, the pitches normally are made in such a way that they don't offer any lateral movement to the quicks and give very little turn to the spinners.

However on certain occasions the pitch curators have different ideas. In the match played between Sri Lanka and India in Pune today, we did not get the pitch that's ideal for T20 cricket.The pitch in Pune had lot of grass on it which gave lot of lateral movement to the the quicks.

Sri Lanka won the toss and put India in to bat. The Indian batsmen were in great form and they probably were expecting to maul the inexperienced Sri Lankan bowling today. However the young Srilankan bowlers bowled beautifully. 

The débutante fast medium bowler Kasun Rajitha got the wicket of in form Rohit Sharma of the second ball of the match. Rohit Sharma mistimed a drive that was caught by Chameera at mid off.

In the same over Rahane mistimed a shot that was caught by Chandimal. This two early blows set Indians back. However Dhawan and Raina played well till the 5th over, it was difficult to score on the wicket since it offered a lot of bounce and lateral movement to the quicks. 

Raina's catch was dropped in the 3rd over. When Dhawan tried to hit a ball over the midwicket the ball took the top edge of the bat and ended up in the hands of the fielder at third man. 

Yuvraj came to bat and hit the second ball he faced for a six. Raina was batting in his normal aggressive style regardless of the fact that Indians had lost three wickets. Raina was clean bowled by ball that came back after pitching. 

Now captain Dhoni and Yuvraj were expected to steady the ship in that lively pitch, however Dhoni tried to pull the very second ball he faced and ended up giving a catch to the wicket-keeper. Dhoni could have easily left the ball, he did not need to play that shot so early. 

Yuvraj was out in exactly the same way the tried to pull a ball, did not make a good connection and ended up giving an easy catch to the fielder. Wickets of Pandya and Jadeja fell quickly. However Ashwin and Nehra did form a good partnership for the ninth wicket.

Nehra scored only 6 runs of 19 balls and gave good support to Ashwin. It is this partnership that enabled India to cross the 100 run mark in 18.3 overs. The very next ball after pushing the team total to 100, Nehra hit the ball in the air which was caught by Chameera. 

In the next ball Bhumrah was run out when he slipped when trying to return back to the crease. India ended up with a paltry total of 101 runs, 40 runs short of a good total. Had the middle order played according to the pitch conditions, India could have easily scored 30 or 40 runs more, giving a challenging target to the Lankans.

Even with this paltry total India did compete well. The Lankans did not find scoring very easy. Nehra did pick up a wicket in his first and third over. Bhumrah also bowled well on the other side. However Sri Lanka were able to maintain the required run rate, which was just 5.1 runs an over. 

Since the Lankans knew the required total, they took far lesser risks as compared to the their Indian counterparts. Most of Indians actually gave their wicket away in trying to score freely and quickly. Their ploy would have worked had this pitch been like the ones they had in Australia in the T20 and one day series. 

Indians did manage to pick up 5 wickets but since the burden of scoring runs was not very high, with some sensible batting Lankans were able to get the total. The bowlers of both the teams bowled well but Sri Lanka batted better than India and that's where the match was won by Sri Lanka going 1-0 up in the series. 

In next two matches we will probably see better pitch than this one. In all likely hood the pitches for the next matches would be flatter and more runs will be scored.

Let's hope that Indian batsmen perform better in the next matches. It is wonderful to see an excellent performance by the Sri Lankan team who have very little in terms of experience. 

A bit of cricket

The improvement of cricket bats have played a big role in the evolution of cricket. Earlier bats were thin and light. The weight of the bat was not evenly distributed. Also the batsmen focused more on defence and did not concentrate on hitting the ball hard. The depended more on timing the ball. 

This meant that if there is a miss hit the ball more often than not ended up in the hands of the fielder. So batsmen were weary of hitting the ball in the air. With time bats changed. Bats today are heavier, larger. The willow is unpressed, the bats are thicker as well. Hence if the ball hits the edge, it flies off it. 

Today when the batmen is not able to connect the shot properly even then the ball goes a long distance. Many a times for six. That's why bowling has become very difficult because of the bats. A lot more sixes are hit today than earlier. 

Once upon a time getting 220 runs to 250 runs in a one day match was considered a winning total. Today the team batting second can notch this runs in 40 overs, that too without taking too many risks. The batsmen today hit the ball a lot harder. The work very hard on getting stronger and their strength is apparent in the amount of force they are able to impart to their shots. 

A few batsmen like AB de Villers are able to hit the ball over the head of the wicket keeper for sixes. In modern cricket even a total of 300 is not safe. These days a team has to get 330 runs or more to challenge the opposition. The pitches for one day matches are made flat and they give hardly any assistance to the bowlers. 

There are players who are able to get 200+ runs in one day matches. Also many teams have crossed more than 400 runs total multiple times. People come to see boundaries and sixes being hit. The changes in games have come as per their demands. 

Cricket was always exiting in the last 10 overs of the game and since 1996, the first 15 overs when field restrictions were on, yielded lots of runs. So the T20 format of cricket came into existence. A T20 game finishes within three and half hours. So so little time to play the batsmen go after the bowling from the first over. 

In T20 cricket we consistently get to see a score of 160+ made in 20 overs. On many occasion it touches and crosses 200. The T20 format of the game is extremely exiting and is popular all over the world. One day cricket consumed an entire day. However T20 cricket is a wonderful evening pastime. 

That's why cricket leagues like Indian Premier League(IPL), Big Bash, Carabbien Cricket League etc. have sprung up. This leagues have given players lots of opportunity to show their ability. The players who were never known to public because they never got a chance to play international cricket have shown great performances in this leagues. 

While Test match cricket will always rule. T20 cricket will popularise cricket in more countries across the world.