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The dignified madness has started at the world 20/20.

India Vs New Zealand is/was first up and boy.....

India, favourites on their home turf - spinner friendly pitches - Can play spin in their sleep have been thrashed by New Zealand and their spin trio.

From reducing NZ to 126 - 7 ( a below par score) India slump to 79 all out.

Both teams needed a win, and didnt need a loss in what could be a group of death with Australia, Pakistan and Bangladesh to come.

I am amazed at how widespread the sport has become. Teams from the Netherlands, Afghanistan, and even Scotland are there!

Obviously not among the Big Boys of cricket, but it's encouraging to see so many nations take part.

Who knows, maybe even the USA might get into it in the future?

 Kilkrazy wrote:
I am amazed at how widespread the sport has become. Teams from the Netherlands, Afghanistan, and even Scotland are there!

Obviously not among the Big Boys of cricket, but it's encouraging to see so many nations take part.

Who knows, maybe even the USA might get into it in the future?

Oman and Hong Kong were fighting for a place in the finals proper.

The US would be a HUGE market. There is a bit of a following state side. If 20/20 gets IOC recognition you could see more of an interest taken as well.

On the one hand seeing India lose was brilliant. But the other side of that is New Zealand won basically by playing loads of spinners and nothing else. All the talk before the tournament about India producing diverse pitches was bs. Unless everyone else will get diverse pitches while India gets specially prepared turning pitches, which is maybe even worse.

 Kilkrazy wrote:
Who knows, maybe even the USA might get into it in the future?

The USA was getting pretty close a few years ago. And while a lot of the other countries rely on professional players from stronger nations who have shared passports, the USA were getting there with homegrown talent drawn from a growing Indian ex-pat community. But then things turned to hell, US cricket got mired in in-fighting and some really dubious selections. They were suspended by the ICC, and I think might still be suspended.

@Sebster - I didnt know that about the US. Something for me to look up now.
20/20 would be a perfect format for the states.

The pitch was a problem. Wasn't Nagpur sanctioned by the match ref during one of SA vs India matches recently? For turning square from practically the first ball bowled.

Hahaha India lost. I'm so happy. Their refusal to use review systems in real cricket drives me up the wall, I hope they get hammered.

 motyak wrote:
Hahaha India lost. I'm so happy. Their refusal to use review systems in real cricket drives me up the wall, I hope they get hammered.

Indias lack of review system is disturbing, but insignificant compared to the power of slow over rates...and stupid start and finish times of test match days.

Ah. the highs and lows and highs... of being an England supporter.

SAvsENG

South Africa 229 -4 after 20. Chris Jordan, Topley and Wiley being absolutely massacred when bowling.

The death knell was sounded.


But

England are now batting and are currently 78-2 after 5 overs!! Roy Hitting 43 from 17 balls!!!

In other 20/20 news New Zealand beat the Aussies.

England beat SA the other day. it was close (as an England fan I am used to being between the two states of euphoria and depression).

South Africa are now facing Afghanistan. SA scored 209i n their innings and probably looked like favourites against relatively weak opposition........

Afghanistan currently 48-0 after 3 overs!! Their quicks look decidedly shell shocked.

Are South Africa choking earlier than usual in a world cup?

The saddest part about Australia’s loss is that New Zealand batted quite badly. Half their batsmen committed suicide, but they still got to 140 on a tough pitch because our bowling attack was amazingly badly selected.

Australia right now is lucky to have two genuine all-rounders in Watson and Marsh. And then you add to that the bonus that one of our best T20 bowlers in Faulkner can also contribute well with the bat, and another bonus that one of our best T20 batsman in Maxwell is also really handy with the ball. That means we could have batting with Faulkner at 7 and the Neville at 8, and even Coulter-Nile at 9 has won games with the bat. They could do this while still having seven bowling options.

Unfortunately we have some very bad selectors. Instead of picking the specialists to support the depth in all-rounders, we picked Agar. I like Agar, he’s a great player for the future, and a very handy bits and pieces player in the right T20 team. But this is not that team. In a team already loaded with all-rounders they added another. It left us with two specialist bowlers in the 11. It meant Agar had to bowl inside the first six overs, where he got clubbed for 18. People have criticised Agar for that, but it was like picking Glenn McGrath to keep wickets and then getting angry when he dropped a catch.

And it got weirder when the other spinner Zampa came on to bowl and only went for 3, stopping NZ’s momentum cold. But then he never bowled again. The two guys picked as spin bowlers primarily bowled two overs between them. Meanwhile Maxwell’s part time spin was used for three overs.

This gifted NZ at least 15 to 20 runs. 140 was still gettable, but challenging on a slowing pitch. Aust was probably confident because we had 10 guys that could bat (even Zampa at 11 can hit). But if T20 has shown anything it’s that long batting orders mean nothing – you need set batsmen to win games, and if wickets have come and gone so frequently that you’re calling on numbers 9 and 10 to contribute batsmen’s innings then 99% of the time the ship has already sailed.

Frustration with Aust selection aside, the game was fun. It was close throughout, and after some tedious qualifying games and some one sided games with the proper teams, that was good. And then it was followed by the England v SA game, which put the tournament on track. I didn’t see it live but I was following it on cricinfo and watching the highlights. England should take a lot of credit out of how they approached that run chase, that kind of fearless cricket wins tournaments. Not saying they’ll win, or even be at all likely to win (the bowling is weak), but if England keep that culture then tournament success will finally come.

Our bowling is poor. However there is normally a glaring weakness we bring to major tournaments.

Englands selection process:
1, Arm sleeve tattoo - Check
2. Crap at bowling - Check

Australia should have bowled out Zampa. In fact India were guilty of not continuing with Ashwin at their last match. There are still hangovers from the 50 over game where you save bowlers for 'the death' overs. 20/20 is a batsmans game - spectators come to see 6's. Any advantage in pressure the fielding side can apply should be taken.