This is World T20: Expect the unexpected

The first three matches of this World T20 have produced results which not many of us predicted. And the surprise is not only about winners and losers, but the strengths and weaknesses of the teams involved in these games, which didn’t really go with the general opinion before the commencement of these matches.

Starting with the India New Zealand clash, the toss was a good one to lose for India as the behaviour of the pitch was unpredictable. New Zealand made the hard choice of batting first and as expected, faced difficulties while batting. Indian bowlers bowled decently and the Kiwis could only manage to post a total which prima facie looked easily achievable considering the form of Indian batsmen. The commentators and the experts started saying that defending this total would take some doing. But the Indian batsmen came in to bat with an aggressive mindset and looked in a bit of hurry. They got out playing shots irresponsibly, using hard hands, without paying due respect to the nature of the surface. As a result, their batting collapsed. In sometime, the scorecard started reflecting the disaster. The fans and the team started paling as the end was round the corner. Finally, New Zealand, because of their disciplined bowling effort, ended up winning the match. Kiwi spinners coming out on top and the Indian batting collapsing was totally unexpected. However, the turf had its part to play but India had to face this defeat mainly because of their irresponsible batting.

The second match of this WT20 between Bangladesh and Pakistan didn’t give an unexpected result but the reason for Pakistan’s victory was a surprise; their batting. The Pakistani batters were on the top of their game yesterday and had their roles cut out. Hafeez and Shehzad provided the stability and this gave Afridi a license to come in and start his ‘Boom Boom’, which he successfully did. They posted a gigantic total on the board and Bangladesh lost half of the match there itself. Abysmal, undirected bowling left Bangladesh with their shoulders down. They came out to bat with minuscule hope and even that diminished soon as the required run rate climbed up with fall of wickets at regular intervals. The Pakistani bowlers successfully contained the Bangladeshi batsmen and as a result, Bangladesh fell short by 55 runs. The result was an expected one but there were some hopes before the match that Bangladesh would produce another upset like the one in Asia Cup.

The match between England and West Indies was a high scoring one and therefore true to the anticipation. The English batted decently to post a 180+ total on board. The wicket needs some mention here as it should be acknowledged that it was a batting friendly one. After that, the West Indian batsmen came out to bat and from thereon, it was a pure Chris Gayle show. The G-force came on hard to hurt the English bowlers badly. Chris Gayle, with the help of 5 boundaries and 11 sixes scored a blistering century, killing all the English hopes singlehandedly. The dew played a big part in this match but that shouldn’t be allowed to downplay Gayle’s exquisite knock. It was an easy win for the Windies, something which no one really predicted.

The tournament has just started and there’s already so much excitement. With many more high-voltage clashes to come, we should be prepared for some nail-biting action coming our way.

Written by Rishi Khemani