Aussie tank misfires

They might have held their nerves tightly in that run chase of 197 against Pakistan when they were reeling at 105-5 at 3 overs prior to the winning shot. But, that match ended in those three hours itself when Australia made it to the finals of the world T20 tournament and Pakistan giving a grand exit. The past can never be the future in some cases like it happened yesterday when Australia surprisingly lost the finals against arch-rivals England by 6 wickets at Bridgeton. That was what a total of just 146 on the board can promise anyone let alone Australia.

The match was the finals barrier for the Aussies to cross which would have not only made them T20 champions but also would have stopped tongues from wagging towards them. Australia no matter what hey have they got to say in the other two formats of the game definitely lacked momentum in T20 game which one fine day forced Ricky Ponting to step down not only as a captain but also as a player. Yesterday was their rare chance to prove a point especially after their sweeping wins in the super eights where they had all three teams bowled out.

That was followed by a record run chase of 197 with the winning shot coming in the form of a six. In yesterday's game, the Aussies lost the plot in the beginning itself with the first three wickets falling when the scoreboard read 8 runs. That was followed by a series of wickets falling at regular intervals eventually ending their innings at a score of 146 on the board. With that initial blow, the batsmen coming in were confused when they had to think whether to go in for the kill or to stay at the crease and keep the scorecard ticking.

Still, all eyes would have been on the Aussies hoping that the pitch was a bowler's paradise and defending a total of 146 would not be tough. But, English batsmen had other plans when if not for Michael Lumb, no other batsmen had any sorts of trouble against seamers like Mitchell Johnson and Shaun Tait. England cruised to victory with as many as three overs to spare needless to be said en route to their first major title. England, until yesterday was the only cricketing nation which had no world titles against their name. Of course, one has to compromise with Bangladesh and Zimbabwe and other non-test playing nations.

England saved!

Finally, England could whitewash Bangladesh who are at present the only team that is showing some sort of improvement compared to all other teams. England has to consider themselves lucky enough so that they have not yet lost to any minnow team like Bangladesh no matter how bad they have been. When England was expected to post a total in excess of 300, they were 16 runs short of the same in the 3^rd and the final one dayer at Chittagong. For the first time in the three match tournament, there were as many as 7 sixes in the England innings.

This may also be partly due to underestimating the Bangladesh team to be the same that it was some four years down the lane. Bangladesh have been found to have improved over the years much to anyone's surprise and more so when it comes to their home record though they have not yet tasted success of any sort. In the recently concluded tri series involving Sri Lanka, India and Bangladesh, they despite losing all the games that they played, put up a tough fight by bringing the opposition close to 50 overs en route to their successful run chase against Bangladesh.

This was the first time in the series that England batted first. Thanks to Bangladesh who won the toss and chose to field first. It was a good planning from the Bangladeshi side no matter what the result of the match had to say. Eight out of the eleven Bangladeshi batsmen who made it to the crease came out scoring double figured scores. And if the number ten and number eleven batsmen in Shafiul Islam and Rubel Hossain respectively are excluded from the list there was just one batsman whose score was less than 10. Added to this was that Bangladesh didn't lose all ten wickets.

It has now days become a fashion for almost all the teams to bring in 7 to 8 bowlers with just one or two bowlers bowling their complete quota of 10 overs. And the fashion also has its aftermath when most of the captains make wrong decisions by tossing the ball to the wrong bowler who in turn makes a mess not only off his own bowling but also of his team. And, this time also there was a bowler from the England side in Ajmal Shahzad who bowled 9 overs giving away 55 runs at the rate of 6.11 an over.