Rain, No Play

   

It's all set now. India will meet Pakistan in the first ever Twenty20 World Cup final. Today, Pakistan dumped New Zealand while India crashed Australia's party, sending them to their third loss of the tournament and back home. There are subplots to these two results namely New Zealand's failure again, following their semi final loss in the ODI World Cup, to make the big game, as well as Australia's stunning failures in a championship. The real story however is the big matchup between these two subcontinent foes, who earlier in the tournament played to a stunning tie that was decided in a bowl off which India won.

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This video of Yuvraj Singh's six sixes off England's Stuart Broad says it all. Yuvraj blasted his way to the fastest ever fifty in international cricket off only 12 balls, including the aforementioned 36 off Broad's 4th over. Yuvraj joined South Africa's Herschelle Gibbs as the only players to hit 6 sixes in an over in international cricket. Yuvraj's late innings heroics led to India's 18 run victory over England and set up a must win match Thursday against South Africa.


A win by India would leave a three way tie atop Group E along with New Zealand and the net run rate will determine which two of the tree qualify for the semi finals. In Group F, Pakistan seem a lock for the semis with the other qualifier being the winner of Thursday's Sri Lanka-Australia World Cup finals rematch.

Chris Gayle launched a massive onslaught against South Africa's bowlers today, making the first ever century in Twenty20 Internationals. His hundred came off 51 balls with 9 massive sixes and 5 fours. At 168/2 off 15 overs, the West Indies are threatening the highest ever score for a Twenty20 International (221/5). A word of caution though, the ground that this match is being played on is the same in which South Africa chased down 434 in a 50 over match in 2006.

UPDATE: Gayle was out for 117 off only 57 balls as the Windies made 205/6.

*from the Jamaica Observer.

"West Indies would like to get hold of that trophy first." - Chris Gayle

"in Twenty20, you have to be attacking and flamboyant, and that's the way we like to play our cricket." - Ramnaresh Sarwan

With the opening match of the ICC Twenty20 World Cup just days away in South Africa, the West Indies' captain and vice captain have been talking up the team's chances. But should we really believe them? Didn't we hear this kind of talk before the 50 over World Cup this year in March, only to see the team flop when it mattered most at the Super 8s stage? Let's examine the possibility of a West Indies win.  read more »

The West Indies' selectors today named the 15 man squad for the Twenty20 World Cup which begins on September 11 in South Africa with the hosts taking on the West Indies. The squad reads:

Ramnaresh Sarwan (captain)
Chris Gayle
Shivnarine Chanderpaul
Devon Smith
Marlon Samuels
Runako Morton
Denesh Ramdin (wkt)
Dwayne Bravo
Darren Sammy
Dwayne Smith
Ravi Rampaul
Daren Powell
Fidel Edwards
Narsingh Deonarine
Pedro Collins  read more »

It's been slow news in the world of West Indies cricket the last few weeks, with the Windies not playing any international cricket. But here's a run down of some of the happenings in case you missed them:

- Congratulations to Guyana, who have won the TCL West Indies Under 19 Challenge, their 13th victory in regional youth competitions. The limited overs competition follows in the coming week. One wonders though how a Trinidad team with the likes of Adrian Barath and Darren Bravo who have represented the all-conquering Trinis at the first class level, could only mange third place?

-South Africa, Sri Lanka, New Zealand, Bangladesh, Pakistan, England, India and Australia have all named their final 15 man squads for the inaugural Twenty20 World Cup which begins in one month on September 11. Many big names, such as Tendulkar, Ganguly, Dravid, Kallis, Fleming, Yousuf and Razzaq have been left out of their respective squads for varying reasons. The West Indies, who play in the first match of the tournament, joins Scotland, Kenya and Zimbabwe as teams who have not yet named their final 15. I wonder if the Windies will have a training camp prior to the tournament? Information on the Twenty20 World Cup schedule can be found here.

- The WICB have finally advertised for a new head coach, 3 months after Bennett King stepped down. The closing date for applications is Aug 31, so rush in those applications! Incidentally, why does http://windiescricket.com lead to a page with "ws5"? Maybe a redirect to http://www.windiescricket.com/ would be in order?  read more »

The ICC has suspended the 5 match officials who officiated in the April 28 World Cup final that ended as a farce. These five officials, namely West Indian Steve Bucknor, Aleem Dar; the reserve umpires Rudi Koertzen and Billy Bowden, and the match referee, Jeff Crowe, have all been suspended for the upcoming Twenty20 World Cup final in September.

Their actions led to the most farcical finish ever witnessed at a World Cup final. With Sri Lanka needing 63 runs from the final 18 deliveries of the match and with the light fading badly, these 5 officials concluded incorrectly that the Sri Lankans needed to come back the next day to finish the match. Now, this was when all of 33 overs had already been bowled (20 are enough to constitute a match) and the Sri Lankan captain had already conceded defeat. The correct decision by the officials would have been to declare the match finished, and award the championship to Australia. Instead, after discussion, the officials then allowed the Sri Lankans to face the supposedly remaining 3 overs against Australia's spinners in near pitch black conditions. The incredulous Kensington Oval crowd rightly booed the farce that unfolded before them.  read more »

The ICC has released the schedule for the inaugural Twenty20 World Cup to be held in September of this year. The format will be similar to just concluded World Cup, just that the tournament will be concluded within 2 weeks, unlike the 7 weeks for which CWC 2007 dragged on. There will be 12 teams this time with only 2 minnows: Kenya and Scotland. The round robin first stage has the 12 teams divided into four groups of three with the top 2 in each group moving on to the Super 8s. The top four in the Super 8s will qualify for the semifinals. After playing in the opening matches in the 2003 and 2007 World Cups, the Windies will again feature in the initial game. Here is the Windies' first round schedule:

Tuesday, September 11th 2007
South Africa v West Indies (12noon Eastern Caribbean 11am Jamaica) Johannesburg

Thursday, September 13th 2007
West Indies v Bangladesh (4am Eastern Caribbean 3am Jamaica) Johannesburg