Latest News – Sanjay's Cricket World

The final between Pakistan and Sri Lanka at Lords turned out to be a great day for Pakistani cricket, but was not the exciting final many wanted.

Pakistan won the toss and elected to bowl first. Their new ball bowlers executed their plans superbly and Sri Lank were in deep trouble at 2-2 in the second over and simply never recovered from their early loss. Jayasuriya started to get going, but fell to an inside edge just when a fightback looked possible. Then Jayawardene also went early and at 32-4, the Pakistanis had effectively limited Sri Lanka’s ability to take any risks.

Sangakkarra rebuilt the innings, firstly with Chamara Silva, and then with Angelo Matthews, but the Pakistanis would have been very happy with their bowling and fielding.

A score of 138-6, gave Sri Lanka a chance if they made some early inroads. However Karman Akmal got the Pakistani innings off to a good start and Sri Lanka had too much to do. Shahid Afridi then came in and finished the job off superbly. He is a great talent, and it was good to see him see the inning through to its conclusion comfortably at 139-2.

The Pakistanis thoroughly deserve their victory, and have shown how difficult they are to stop when they get some valuable momentum. If they could simply get this excited whenever they play, they be unstoppable. All in all it was a good tournament, with 20/20 cricket now here to stay. Hopefully it gives great confidence to some of the poorer performing teams of recent times such as Pakistan, the West Indies, England and New Zealand as all of them had good tournaments. It was refreshing to see Australia knocked out early and the challenge is for these other teams to take their 20/20 confidence into the longer formats of the game.

The South African cricket team have now had a day to reflect on their 20/20 World Cup semi-final loss to Pakistan. I fear they haven’t looked hard enough at themselves, and admitted their short comings.

We lost again in a semi-final, and it was interesting to hear Psychologist, Jeremy Snape’s view. The fact he mentioned something different could have been done when batting during the middle overs is the key point. We had to try something different. The run rate was climbing, and the pressure was growing more and more intense. If it was a one off, one could understand it. However we have seen it time and time again.

The last one dayer v Australia at the Wanderers was a prime example. On that occasion we let the run rate climb and climb until it became unassailable. This was no different.

Many people have criticised the South African team for being too structured, and not being flexible enough. I’d agree, but i’d also add we are too conservative. We try not to lose, and don’t back our ability to really go for the win on important occasions or against strong opposition. Consequently we choke. When we play lower quality teams or less pressured games, we paper over the cracks because we behave in a different manner.

Mickey Arthur has stated he believes South Africa is the best team in the world at the moment. What he is basing that on i’m not sure. We are first in the One day rankings, with a 4 point gap over Australia. However in the Test rankings we are second, 9 points behind Australia and we lost our last test series at home. We are not 20/20 World champions so in my opinion we are not worthy of being called the best side in the world.

I’d rather we didn’t talk about how good we are in the media, instead focusing on ourselves and winning more series, and a few World titles! I believe this may be another mental weakness in the Proteas, letting success go to the head too quickly, instead of stringing together consistent performances over a long period.

Graeme Smith is about to embark on surgery for his troublesome elbow, and the rest of the players have a break. I just hope we can freshen ourselves up, get tougher and put together some more impressive performances, but take it to the next level…

Sri Lanka comfortably disposed of the West Indies in the second 20/20 world cup semi-final.

Sri Lanka batted first and managed a respectable 158 for 5, after Tillekaratne Dilshan’s struck an unbeaten 96 not out off only 57 deliveries. Whilst the rest of the Sri Lankan side batted quite poorly, Dilshan held the innings together and helped Sri Lanka post a competitive total.

The West Indies on the other hand started their innings in the worst possible manner. Gayle got an early single, before Angelo Mathews’s struck 3 times in the first over. At 1/3, Gayle was the West Indies last hope and he managed to bat through. However it was the lack of support and wickets at the other end that sealed the West Indies’ fate.

This sets up a Pakistan – Sri Lanka final at Lords. It makes for an intruiging clash with some great batters, fast bowlers and spinners. In the end I think it’ll come down to 1 player winning the game for their respective teams. I think Shahid Afridi and Umar Gul could win it for the Pakistanis, and they are my favourites to win another world cup..

The First 20/20 World Cup semi-final was played at Trent Bridge between South Africa and Pakistan, and once more we witnessed the Proteas choking in a major tournament.

Pakistan won the toss and elected to bat first. Thanks to Kamran Akmal they got away to a flyer and could have been halted after his departure when the first 2 wickets were down for 28. However in came Shahid Afridi who threw caution to the wind, and elected to back his ability. It was a fantastic innings of 51 off only 34 deliveries that got Pakistan back into the match. However the South Africans once again fought hard and remarkably ensured no boundaries were scored off the last 5 overs. That is an extraordinary achievement and Pakistan would have been happy with a score of 149. South Africa meanwhile would have deemed that a gettable total.

The South African innings got off to a solid start with Kallis and Smith putting on 40 runs during the 6th over. At that stage it was looking comfortable, but Smith got out to a poor shot. In came Gibbs who once again failed on an important occasion. Surely he cannot be persisted with. He simply fails way to often and is not a long term solution. When De Villiers quickly became Afridi’s second wicket, South Africa had started to lose valuable momentum and wickets and were stuttering at 50-3.

Kallis and Duminy rebuilt the innings but were simply way too slow. They used up valuable deliveries and left way too much for the last few overs. When Kallis got out at the start of the 17th over, he left too much for new batters coming to the crease to be able to handle. Gul was simply bowling intelligently, firing the ball in at yorker length, and 20 an over was never a possibility. Check our the highlights below.

So are South Africa chokers? Graeme Smith has been quick to say the team didn’t choke. They simply lost an important game. Again. We have lost so often in semi-finals, we can’t seem to win a world trophy, and yet again we lose when we have looked so good during the tournament. I’d call that choking. Not being able to cope with expectation, and losing games we should win is what choking is. It hurts me to say it, and no doubt the players are hurting, but until we accept we are chokers and try to do something different, nothing is going to change.

I believe Pakistan won the game because once again South Africa played not to lose and eventually succumbed to pressure. The most disappointing aspect of the loss is the fact we haven’t seemed to learn lessons we’ve made in the past. It was a very gettable run chase, and we lacked a positive approach.

We started off with a solid run rate, but we could have taken the game to the Pakistanis and tried to get ahead of the rate. If the wicket was slightly two paced as Smith mentioned, all the more reason to go hard early on. Once we were 3 down, it was important to rebuild the innings and the run rate was now almost 9. Greater urgency was needed and we simply batted too slowly from overs 9-16. Kallis and Duminy have to shoulder that.

Too often in the past when we have tried to chase totals we leave far too much for the end. The fact we still had 5 wickets in tact is the dumb thing. We should have gone harder, earlier. I’d rather see us have a go and get bowled out for 130 than finish 142/5. That’s just stupid. Another chance gone begging, another loss to deal with. It’s a pity because South African cricket has been so consistent over the last 2 years. I just hope we finally learn something, back our ability and go for the win, and finally win a world cup in 2011!

The Super 8′s have come to an end, with some suprising results.
I really thought India and Australia would make the semis, or come close, but in the end there have really only been 2 teams that have stuck their hand up.

South Africa and Sri Lanka have remained the only unbeaten teams, but it’s their consistency that should see them come to a showdown in the final.
They’ve been in every single game, even if they haven’t dominated, and given themselves a chance to win every game. Whereas all the other teams, have had some bad or inconsistent performances along the way. Check out South Africa’s determination and professionalism in beating India below.

The First semi-final sees South Africa taking on Pakistan. The Pakistani strength is in their bowling, with Umar Gul, Sajeed Ajmal and Shahid Afridi. It’s a well balanced attack consisting of pace and spin. If South Africa can negotiate them, which they’ve proven they can do in the past, all they have to do is post a competitive total. It’s then they can exert great pressure with their great bowling attack, and I think Pakistan will come up short. Although the Pakis don’t have anything to lose and could always spring a surprise. Still i’m confident South Africa will get through this one.

The second semi-final is harder to predict. The teams are move even and although on paper Sri Lanka are a better all round team, it only requires a special innings from someone like Gayle or Simmons to turn the match. Conversly if Jayasuria goes quickly, I think the Sri Lankan middle order can be exposed. I’m expecting a tight game and for one of Gayle or Jayasuria to win it for their team. At this stage i’m leading towards a Sri Lankan victory and then a South Africa v Sri Lanka final…

The 20/20 World Championships are about to move into the Super 8 stage.
It will do so without the heavyweights of world cricket, Australia. Australia lost their second match to Sri Lanka, once again falling short in the batting department and failing to post a total competitive enough for the bowlers to defend. They’ve lost that mental edge they once had due to incurring some losses, and losing a lot of experience. It’s certainly helped sparked a bit more interest in the world game.

The South Africans on the other hand have gone from strength to strength mentally. They only managed a small total against New Zealand, but the back themselves to defend whatever they’ve posted. Roelof van der Merwe has an awesome attitude and helped drag them back into the match, when New Zealand were cruising. Check out the highlights.

The Super 8 also sees the inclusion of Ireland. It is just reward for a team that has produced some consistent results in the second tier of cricketing countries, and they fully deserve their chance. It’s be great to see them win a couple of games.
I’m picking South Africa and India to definitely make the semis, but the race is wide open to see who can join them..

The first few games of the world 20/20 championship has certainly been action packed!

It started with the Netherlands producing a stunning upset over hosts England. Not the start England were wanting ahead of the Ashes. They simply don’t seem to have settled squads in any form of the game.

New Zealand then beat Scotland as expected in a rain shortned game, before the West Indies also produced a win against most pundits predictions in beating Australia. Once again the Aussie top order failed, and in the end they got a competitive total thanks to their middle order. However if you don’t get Gayle early, the West Indies are always a chance, and they beat the Aussies quite comfortably.

India and South Africa then had quite convincing victories against Bangladesh and Scotland respectively. The Proteas were extremely impressive with a great team effort in compiling 211, with good efforts from Smith and Kallis, before AB de Villiers continued his rich vein of form in smashing an unbeaten 79 in rapid time. The bowlers then kept their foot on the throat of the scots and bowled them out for 81, ensuring they sent a stong message to the other sides.

England then bounced back against the Pakistanis that should see them now go through to the next stage. However the Aussies face a must win game against Sri Lanka that won’t be easy, and could leave them with one of their worst results in an international tournament in years..

Over the next 2 weeks the 20/20 World Championships take place in England. It promises to be an action packed series, as any team can beat any other on a given day.

As per usual the fancied teams will be the ones who have the star players and who have performed well as a team over recent times. For that reason, South Africa, Australia and India must be the 3 fancied teams. However on their day Sri Lanka, Pakistan, England, the West Indies and New Zealand can all deliver.

I’m picking the South Africans to definitely make the semis, and they have the all round team to win their first world title. The batting lineup is solid, but the strength for me is in the bolwing lineup with pace and spin aplenty. The spinners especially have the knack of taking wickets during the middle overs and slowing the run rate, which limits the damage opposition teams can inflict at the death.

Australia are solid in their batting, but may struggle to deliver consistently with the ball. India and Sri Lanka both look more balanced sides and on paper would be the other 2 teams I would imagine to go through to the semis. However i’m not prepared to put my head on the line as in this form of the game anything can happen. Bring it on!

The IPL season 2 is finally over. It was a great success and a fantastic move to allow the series to take part in South Africa, after India was deemed a security risk. What it has highlighted was that 20/20 cricket is here to stay. It’s what the fans like, generates huge interest and new spectators, and ultimately keeps the game alive from a financial perspective.

Congratulations to the Deccan Chargers who beat Royal Challengeres Bangalore in the final.

I would propose the ICC needs to look at changes for the next installment.
I’d make it a global tournament, as opposed to being ruled by India. There needs to be a window when the tournament can be played with all the superstars in the world. This year it was ruined by Australia playing Pakistan, and England playing the West Indies.
Have less local Indian players who are not up to standard, and make it full of the top players of the world from every available country. Take it to different parts of the world, and non traditional cricket nations such as Japan, USA etc.
The other option is to stage the torunament with teams from all over the globe, such as the Champions league that was proposed.

Either version has the potential to transform the game!