West Indies knock off South Africa

That was the match which kept on swinging both ways with at one stage being as though the Trinidad&Tobago would just thrash the Cape Cobras and at another stage, it was as though Cape Cobras might pull off a thriller. In the end, as only one team can emerge victorious, it happened to be Trinidad & Tobago who beat the South African team by 2 wickets. One has to once again see a South African team choking in the crucial stage of a tournament. They have no one else to blame but themselves for their debacle who ended their innings with 137.

It is just confusing to see Cape Cobras neither losing wickets nor being able to cash up on the wickets in hand by going in for a kill towards the end of their innings. The main idea behind having wickets in hand is to go for it when the innings approach an end when there would be no idea in having wickets in hand. Looking at the way the Cape Cobras played, it was as though they had come in for a one day match rather than a T20 one. With this being a decisive match Cape Cobras' effort was simply not enough.

The Cape Cobras maintained a run-rate of 6.85 runs per over at the end of their innings which would have fetched a score of 343 had it been a 50 over match. But, that run-rate could get in just 137 on board in a T20 game chasing which is not at all an issue. However, chasing the same total demanded a lot from T&T who took it to the last over with just two balls left for the game to conclude. Trinidad & Tobago lost 8 wickets en route to their successful run chase of 138. One can imagine the fate had the score been slightly more.

One can hardly understand why Sherwin Ganga was made to bowl 3 overs when he gave away runs at a rate of 12.66 runs an over with his third over fetching 16 runs. The pitch was a tough one to bat on and Sherwin Ganga giving away so much runs cannot be let away. The Cape Cobras have themselves to blame when only two of the four batsmen stood to the occasion and neither did they play up to expectations nor did they allow other batsmen to do the scoring. Concluding the post, hats-off to T&T for snatching victory from the jaws of defeat.

All down the drains

There is no guarantee that a team scoring 176 will definitely end up as winners because, regarding the very same Mumbai Indians, chasing down a mere total of 99 took their breath away in that game against Trinidad& Tobago and a couple of days back Kolkata Knight Riders with little effort chased down a target of 170 against Royal Challengers Bangalore by 9 wickets. But, in majority of the cases, a target of 177 has been tough to reach batting second. Also, setting up a target of 177 requires effort and pain and a lot of team work and planning at the same time.

In yesterday's match between Mumbai Indians and Cape Cobras, the Mumbai Indians did everything right to see a stiff target on the board which would make every team raise its eyebrows. But, eventually what happened was something which Mumbai Indians never expected. The result of the huge target was not a one man show but a series of performances from the blades of Sarul Kanwar, Andrew symonds, Kieron Pollard which was assisted by James Franklin along with 11 wides that were bowled by Cape Cobras. All these happened with just 5 batsmen stepping out of their dressing rooms to take to the crease.

May be to a greater extent the pitch assisted the batsmen which becomes evident with all batsmen showing confidence with the bat. But, at the same time it is to be accepted that players like Andrew Symonds, Kieron Pollard, Ambati Rayudu are exceptional hitters of the cricket ball. Of course, Ambati Rayudu didn't put up a promising knock but instead there was Sarul Kanwar who replaced him by scoring a 21 ball 45 at a strike rate of 214.28. Something that happens very rarely in a limited overs cricket match is that a fielder is responsible in majority of dismissals.

Yes, Owais Shah was instrumental in taking four catches out of the five dismissals which took place in yesterday's match against Mumbai Indians. Owais Shah should consider himself lucky enough to be that fielder when it was the bowler's effort and thinking which forced the batsmen to land the ball safely in the hands of Owais Shah. One can see Justin Kemp bowling just one over when he gave away runs at 2.00 an over and taking the wicket of Franklin. But, Langeveldt and Philander bowled their full quota despite giving away runs at 11.25 and 9.00 respectively. This questions Kemp's caliber as a captain.

NSW together not enough

Well if one can take pains to go through the scorecard of the New South Wales batting, you can see similar scores from the 5 batsmen with a little variation. One would no doubt call that as a team effort. But, one has to satisfy himself only with that. A team work can be considered to be effective only when the effort imposes a challenge on its opposition and not otherwise. There were contributions from the blades of David Warner, Shane Watson, Daniel Smith, Steven Smith and Moises Henriques out of which Shane Watson top scored with 34 for NSW.

One does not require the services of five batsmen to put up a score of 135 on the board in 20 overs. The run rate at which the New South Wales team scored was just above run a ball that included six wide deliveries. As usual, the Cape Cobras stuck with the four bowler formula with four of them bowling their complete quota and Justin Kemp bowling three to fall one over short. Likewise, it would have been wise for Justin Kemp to have gone ahead with 5 bowlers instead of trying Justin Ontong who went for 12 runs from his lone over.

Scoring or rather chasing 136 for victory should not be tough for any team in T20 cricket. Though there have been many instances where such small totals are defended, in majority of the cases, that total happens to be chased down. The openers - Richard Levi and Herschelle Gibbs laid a strong foundation for the Cape Cobras' win at Chennai scoring 43 and 55 respectively. The latter part of the innings was not a tough task for Ontong and Duminy to give it finishing touches. One can see from the scorecard that the Cape Cobras reached the target effortlessly with 16 balls to spare which is quite obvious.

One has to wonder what can a captain of a team do with the scoreboard not having enough runs for the bowlers to take some support from and try doing new things to surprise the batsman. Top bowlers like Nathan Hauritz and Keefe get belted which makes the captain to opt for other bowlers. The only bowlers from New South Wales who could have something to say was Henriques who had the wicket of Levi and was the most economical bowler of the lot giving away runs at just 6.00 runs an over. But, unfortunately, he was the bowler who conceded the winning runs for the Cape Cobras.