World Cup T20: Madcap recap (Part 1)

MS Dhoni

The first phase of T20 overkill, with the Tamasha cricket IPL to follow soon, is done and dusted. The World Cup T20 is probably the only tournament which has a qualifying round for the minnows just days ahead of the tournament even after the teams, having competed in a qualifying round already, are considered qualified for the biennial event. The joke, which had everything ranging from the TRP fixture a.k.a. the India v Pakistan to the mandatory India v Sri Lanka to South Africa being reduced to a joke in multinational tourneys to England crumbling against spin, is over now.

Before the tournament, like everyone, I never imagined India would go this far, more so when they had been clubbed with 3 better teams, among which 2 were tournament favourites.

Even though England had lost a T20 series against West Indies just days before the WT20, the ICC, for some reason, made them play again in a warm-up fixture. So if you try to make sense of ICC, you would not be able to. It would be better to leave them alone.

March 18, 2014

A mandatory game against Sri Lanka to start with. It was all predictable. MS Dhoni won the toss, and India’s subsequent chase was unsuccessful. Bhuvneshwar Kumar continued to wane as his new ball prowess looked lost somewhere in middle. He did increase his reputation of being the worst choice to bowl at death, though, conceding 17 runs – a six and a four to Nuwan Kulasekara – and probably the game with it, as well.

The surprise package, however, was Varun Aaron, who looked sharp making Tillakaratne Dilshan look all at sea against his pace. Our main weapon, spin bowling, was drastic with Amit Mishra doing nothing to change the skipper’s perception on him, while Ravichandran Ashwin continued to appear the most reliable. However, the worrying factor was Yuvraj Singh not getting to bowl on a pitch where even Suresh Raina managed to squeeze in two overs.

March 20, 2014

The second practice game against England was a great example of what could happen if we were pushed to plan B without a choice of batting first, which never happens unless we lose the toss. Virat Kohli continued to pile on the runs, with his consistency being marvellous. Rohit Sharma and Shikhar Dhawan with the bat and Bhuvi with the ball had killed the momemtum, while Mishra’s chances to impress got reduced with a couple of left-handers in the middle.

Yuvraj not getting a chance to bowl again added to the perception that he was in the team as a specialist batsman, seen as a far better choice to Ajinkya Rahane. The other important and predictable thing was Raina in Virat mode proving once again that T20 is the format that suits him the best.

March 21, 2014

I was of the belief that India were going into the tournament knowing Rohit wasn’t not good enough up top and a serious contender for ‘match ka murjim’. With Mishra going for runs, I was pretty sure Dhoni will opt for Aaron. Even though Aaron looked sharper in the first practice game, I have always believed that he would be a bigger liability than Rohit. Anyway, I was not quite sure of having Bhuvi in the team, too.

March 22, 2014

Winning the toss, with a sigh of relief, Dhoni was happy to bowl first. Contrary to what I believed and the rumours doing the rounds, he did prefer Mishra and, surprisingly, the idea of three spinners. Probably the match was won there, with the toss and that decision. Mishra, apart from one over, bowled beautifully with flight using up whatever the track had on offer. Ravindra Jadeja proved why he is the third best performer in Indian team, after Dhoni and Kohli, with a terrific spell.

Ashwin was being Ashwin, struggling for consistency in an over. He did bowl well, though. The surprise package, however, was the Indian death bowling, which was Steyn, Malinga-esque. The chasing had no real trouble apart from the mild heart attack when Yuvraj got bowled to a straighter ball. Perhaps making him bat before Raina was a huge mistake in itself. To be frank, I didn’t expect India to win, and I was still very sure of us not making it to the semi-finals.