Cricket Tournaments

Lasith Malinga

Circa World Cup 2007… the game — Sri Lanka vs South Africa. The Proteas were cruising to victory, when a freak incident suddenly brought the game back to life.

Lasith Malinga, with his toe-crushing yorkers picked up four wickets in four balls, including the well-set Jacques Kallis, who looked set to take his team home but fell just short of a well-deserved ton. In the end, the South Africans still managed to pull off a win thanks to an edged boundary under extreme pressure and Sri Lanka were denied a miraculous victory.

Fast forward to 2011… it is World Cup time again. And that freak named Malinga returns after a two-game break due to injury. And what does he do… repeats history. Well, the opposition wasn’t quite as deadly. Still, Malinga’s same toe-crushing yorkers were once again a treat to watch and the Kenyans were totally hapless again the slinging genius.

Sri Lanka has always been rated as one of the top favourites to clinch this tournament. And now, with Malinga back in Sri Lanka’s scheme of things it only makes them doubly dangerous. The pacer was the missing link in the Lankan attack so far. With his return, Sri Lanka have been strengthened no end. The Lankans will now be extremely confident when they next take on Australia. That game will be a battle of pacers now. If the Aussies have Brett Lee and Shaun Tait then the Lankans too have their own Malinga. The game might well be decided by which side performs better in the pace aspect.

Returning to the game against Kenya, it was an extremely crucial one for the Lankans following their close loss to rivals Pakistan. Also, the Kenyans had defeated their much-fancied opponents in the 2003 edition of the World Cup. So the Lankans would have been somewhat cautious in their approach. Unfortunately for the cricket-loving public, Kenya are not the same force they used to be four years ago. Back then, Collins Obuya spun a web around the Lankans with a wonderful performance of leg-spin bowling. However, his bowling has fell completely by the wayside, so much so that he hardly bowls these days. The experienced Steve Tikolo and Thomas Odoyo too are on the last legs of their careers and struggling to keep pace with stronger teams. And so, it wasn’t surprising that another game fell by the wayside in the one-sided World Cup.

The only time the Kenyans put up a semblance of a fight was when the Obuya brothers – Collins and David – were at the crease rebuilding the innings after the expected early loss of the openers. However, they were so slow during their stint that by the time they registered their respective half-centuries more than half the overs were gone. Still, it was a credible fighting effort, which gave the Kenyans hope of putting up a respectable total and then putting up a fight with the ball in hand. Unfortunately for Kenya, that wasn’t to be the case. As soon as the partnership was broken, the innings crumbled. All the hard work done by Collins and David came to naught as the innings completely lost momentum in the midst of Malinga’s destroying act. Such was the extent of the damage done by Malinga that the services of Ajantha Mendis and Muttiah Muralitharan were hardly needed towards the end. And, from a decent 102 for 2, the Kenyan side crumbled to 142 all out. Malinga ended the innings with majestic figures of 6 for 38.

Even though this deadly effort came against a poor side, stronger teams need to be wary of the slinger as, on his day, he could destroy the best of batting line-ups. Australia are up next, and Malinga would be all pumped up to do a repeat act. It would be a tough one but not incomprehensible against a somewhat suspect Aussie batting line-up. That match would clearly be one to watch out for more reasons than one.

Meanwhile, the Sri Lankan top order batsmen too had a good opportunity to get some batting practice. And, they did not waste the opportunity. Upul Tharanga, Tillakaratne Dilshan and Kumar Sangakkara all got among the runs and ensured that there was no hiccup as the Lankans chased down the meagre Kenyan total with a lot of ease. A Sri Lankan win against Kenya was not an unimaginable result by any stretch of the imagination, the 2007 aberration notwithstanding. Even so, it was important for Sri Lanka to march to victory against the African nation in a comprehensive manner. They have done exactly that. Time to prepare for bigger battles ahead.

Umar Akmal, Man of the match, scored 71 in 52 balls

It was one more stamp to ICC’s decision to have only one extra nation apart from nine test playing, as Pakistan beat Kenya with a massive 205 run margin. Pakistan mustered a huge 317 for the loss of 7 wickets and bundled Kenya at a meagre 112 all out. Umar Akmal was awarded man of the match for his quick fire 71 of just 52 deliveries.

It was clear skies in Hambantota and the crowd expected a full bloodied performance from 2003 world cup semi-finalist Kenya and World Cup 92 winners Pakistan. However, contrary to the expectation, it was a one sided affair with Pakistan throttling the opposition in the 34^th over of the second innings.

Pakistan’s start to Cricket World Cup 2011 against Kenya must have reminded them of jinx of 2007 world cup. Openers, Mohd Hafeez and Shehzad were show the pavilion in the 7^th over of the first power play with just 12 on the scoreboard. Kenyans bowled 3 maiden overs which was a thing of the earlier era. Thomas Odoyo and Otieno didn’t give anything away and kept a tight line and length. Pakistan, however, was rescued by the middle order with 4 of them scoring half centuries. The elder of the Akmal brothers with Younis Khan stood there for a stand of 98 runs before Kamran Akmal got out on 55. Younis Khan departed as soon as he reached his fifty, wrapped in front of the bowling of S Tikolo. Umar Akmal and Misbah gathered some quick runs for their team and gave a winning partnership of 118 of just 79 balls. Misbah scored a useful 65 while Umar Akmal was caught at a score of 71. Pakistan took full toll in third power play scoring a massive 70 runs between 44^th to 48^th overs with some scintillating boundaries.

Kenya started their reply to the mammoth 318 to chase with less heard of Maurice Ouma and Seren Waters. While Pakistan spearhead Shoaib Akhtar had a point to prove after the recent controversy. Akhtar was right on the money from the first over beating Ouma’s bat on more than a couple of occasions. Shoiab was all pace in his 5 over spell while giving away just 10 away.  Kenya had got to a decent start with 37 on the board at the end of 9^th over. On the first ball of the 10^th over, Waters was run out with a brilliant fielding effort from Umar Akmal spelled doom for Kenya and their wickets kept bundling over at regular intervals.  The lone battle observed only Collins Obuya scoring a respectable 47 while 5 batsmen didn’t even trouble the scorers.  Umar Gul was impressive with his 2 wickets but the bowler of the day was Pakistani captain Shahid Afridi who didn’t do much boom boom with the bat but certainly made Kenya batsmen dance on their feet. He mixed it well with the off cutters, leg breaks and faster ones and ended up with 5 wickets for just 16 runs of 8 overs, which are the best figures for any Pakistan bowler in a world cup match beating the earlier record of Wasim Akram of 5 for 28 against Namibia.

Pakistan had a great practice before their tough matches coming up in the days to come with their fire power firing in all departments of the game.

The T20 Cricket has it roots in England where it was introduced for the first time in professional county cricket tournament. The shortened version of oneday cricket played for only 20 over each side has drawn audiences worldwide and is extremely popular as compared to other versions of cricket. This form of cricket was to provide a short version of the game to worldwide audiences. It was never meant to replace or degrade other forms like oneday and test match cricket. However, to ICC’s surprise, the governing body found that this form of cricket can help introduce the game to many more nations across the world.

The first International T20 match featured the likes of Australia and New Zealand played at the scenic Eden Park stadium in Auckland. The game has made rapid strides since then with the inaugural T20 World Cup Men’s competition being held in South Africa during September 2007. The competition played over duration of two weeks show very entertaining cricket from all the teams. It was the first time that T20 had made it this big and all the teams were uncertain about their performance in the tournament. The first bowl out in the history of T20 cricket was played between India and Pakistan in Durban after the teams were tied in the mandatory 20 over’s period.

Bangladesh proved once again that they are no longer the minnows in World Cricket with their shock defeat of the West Indies; Zimbabwe had also contributed their bit to make the tournament exciting by defeating the Australians in Cape Town. The group stages itself had laid the foundation for the tournament ahead. A young Indian team led by their inspirational captain MS Dhoni, steam rolled over England, South Africa, and title favorites Australia to set up the summit clash against arch rivals Pakistan. The final was an exciting affair with Misbah Ul Haq almost ensuring victory for Pakistan with a big six in the last over of the tournament. However, his miscalculated shot helped India achieve a dramatic 5-run victory over Pakistan and be crowned the T20 champions of the World.

The highlight of the tournament was an over in which Yuvraj Singh of India hammered Englishman Stuart Broad for six sixes of consecutive balls in that over. The most number of runs in the tournament was scored by Gautam Gambhir of India, while Umer Gul of Pakistan snapped up the maximum number of wickets. The Highest strike rate of 183.68 was achieved by Yuvraj Singh and the highest score in a T20 match was 117 scored by Chris Gayle of West Indies against South Africa. Daniel Vettori of New Zealand had the best economy rate amongst the bowlers conceding only 5.28 runs per over in a competition that favored the batsman. The highest score in a T20 match of the tournament was achieved by Sri Lanka when they amassed 260 against the minnows Kenya.

The second edition of the T20 World Cup is currently underway in England with 12 teams making it to the Men’s competition. The tournament is scheduled to be conducted after every two years except for West Indies hosting the tournament in 2010. The matches are being played in locations such as Lord’s, Trent Bridge, The Oval, and Taunton. The group stages have recently finished with Ireland and Netherlands being the surprise package of the tournament. The Dutch had raised their hopes of qualification into the Super 8 round of the tournament with an emphatic victory over England in one of the group games. However, Pakistan steam rolled them and ended all their dreams in the competition.

Ireland has been constantly improving since they first entered the big stage, a memorable win against Pakistan in the Oneday International World Cup held in West Indies, they also went on to beat Bangladesh to qualify for the Super 8 round of the competition. The in form teams of this tournament South Africa and Sri Lanka are playing solid cricket to keep their hopes alive of a summit clash, but West Indies, Pakistan, and New Zealand along with the Defending champions India will not make things easy for them. The last half of the tournament promises to be as exciting as the first half, which will throw many surprises and entertain the audiences with display of exciting cricket.