T20 World Cup: Cricket

[KiloDeltaCharlie]

Just raising a new thread to cover the T20 World Cup in cricket which starts in earnest today.

Todays games are:

11:00 BST Australia vs South Africa (Sheikh Zayed Stadium, Abu Dhabi)

15:00 BST England vs West Indies (International Cricket Stadium, Dubai)

Australia have made a good start against SA and should beat a team not at their best.

West Indies are the holders but a lot has happened since then, England have had a good record recently.

[Jack the Stripper]

Australia kept SA to 118. Very low score in this form of cricket. SA will need quick wickets and will obviously have to bowl Australia out to win the game.

[Jack the Stripper]

Well the Aussies made hard work of that. Pretty underwhelming performance. Good with the ball but much to work on with the batting. Still good to start the competition with a win against a good side though.

[KiloDeltaCharlie]

Yeah, when I saw they had a target that low I presumed they would get there with a handful of overs to spare... that was a little too close! But as you say a win is a win, and one commentator has said the wickets are slow, so big totals may be rare.

[KiloDeltaCharlie]

An easy win for England, it looks like the West Indies are going to have a tough time defending their title... 55 all out and England knocked off the runs with more than 11 overs to spare.

[KiloDeltaCharlie]

A bit late for todays games:

11:00 (BST) Sri Lanka v Bangladesh

15:00 (BST) India v Pakistan


Bangladesh batted first and made 171 (for 4 wickets) in their 20 overs. Given the low scores yesterday I think that could be a challenging total for Sri Lanka, who I would have had as the favourites for this game.

India should beat Pakistan as they are the favourites for the whole tournament. But upsets can happen and Pakistan are a potential dark horse.

[Jack the Stripper]

^Don’t underestimate the rivalry between India & Pakistan. That’s a proper rivalry, but yeah India should account for them. All their players are fresh off the Indian Premier League playing on very similar pitches in that part of the world.

The Bangers put a decent score on the board but there bowling doesn’t offer much which will give Sri Lanka a chance of knocking those runs off.

[KiloDeltaCharlie]

Quite an easy win for Sri Lanka in the end.

[KiloDeltaCharlie]

151 for India, I think they would be looking for a few more than that, but it may be a slow pitch.


As I suspected that 151 was no where near enough as Pakistan won withour losing a wicket with more than 2 overs remaining. Still early days for India but I don't think they can afford to slip up from now.

[KiloDeltaCharlie]

The only game today is:

15:00 (BST) Afghanistan vs Scotland

Both had to qualify, no idea who's better!

[Jack the Stripper]

I’d expect Afghanistan to win that quite comfortably. They have 2 of the best T20 bowlers let alone spin bowlers in the world in Nabi and Rashid Khan. Both are regulars playing the Big Bash league in Australia over summer. They’re pure class.

[KiloDeltaCharlie]

I guess you know a lot more about them than I do! But that is convincing info that suggests the Scots won't get anything from this game.

[Zzzptm]

Wait, what, West Indies only got 55 all out?

[KiloDeltaCharlie]

^^^
Yep, it's been a low scoring tournament so far... well Afghanistan have just scored 190 in their 20 overs, that's nearer to where you would expect teams to get, and 240+ when a good team plays a minnow..

[KiloDeltaCharlie]

Afghanistan beat Scotland by 130 runs... oops!

Today's games are:

11:00 South Africa vs West Indies

15:00 Pakistan vs New Zealand


West Indies did better this time and scored 143 in their innings. It's probably not enough against a good team like SA.

Pakistan had a shock win over India so can't be dismissed as also rans; New Zealand's first match of the tournament so I'm not sure how they're playing at the moment, it could go either way.

EDIT: Comfortable win for SA there, only losing 2 wickets with a bit to spare.