Beware of Australia

Well if anybody thinks otherwise about the declining Australian side without hard hitting Gilchrist and Symonds or the Glenn McGrath who was known for his line and length, one has to think again after looking at yesterday's match between Australia and New Zealand where Australia literally thrashed their Tasmanian rivals first by bowling them all out for 206 from 45 overs and then bundling up the innings in just 34 overs with over six runs an over. Looking at Mitchell Johnson being awarded the man of the match, the pitch can be though as a batsman's paradise restricting whom is indeed praiseworthy.

Australia might not be the team what they were four years ago but, there is still some fuel left in the Aussie tank with the likes of Brad Haddin and Shane Watson who is equally destructible as some Symonds and Mitchell Johnson who can be lest compared with some Damien Fleming or Brett Lee who are decent bowlers though no belonging to the club of Glenn McGrath. This was the third time in succession that Australia beat New Zealand in world cups starting from 2003 when they defended 212 and won by 96 runs from at one stage being at 84/7.

Thanks to some splendid fast bowling from Shane Bond who rattled Australia's top and middle order and Brett Lee & Michael Beaven who did the same to New Zealand and put up a solid 100+ run partnership respectively to see Australia go undefeated yet again. And then in 2007, when the world was fresh from Australia thrashing 0-3 loss in the then recently concluded Chappel-Hadlee series when may be the Aussies were experimenting just couple of weeks before the world cup 2007. However, things were totally different in the world cup when the margin of victory for the Aussies was a whooping 215 runs.

Yesterday as well, it was as though New Zealand was of no match for Australia and seemed like Australia were facing some Bangladesh or West Indies. Scorecard suggests that the only half century in the New Zealand innings came from the number 8 batsman bowler Nathan McCullum who played 76 balls which was the only reason why New Zealand raced past 200. Or else, may be the match would have got over in just 25 overs. No Aussie bowler bowled his full quota of 10 overs and Johnson was about to bowl and unfortunately the Kiwi batsmen were not interested in playing anymore.

Rain fond of Zimbabwe

For the second time in the world T20 2010, Zimbabwe have lost out with the D-L method coming in. This does not mean that Zimbabwe would have won the game in case the D-L method had not been enforced. But, this would instead help the Zimbabwe team when it can take excuse saying that the loss was a result of rains pouring in and with it the D-L method being enforced to its cricket board. With that apart, the sole loser in this case would be New Zealand for having to compromise with a victory margin of only 7 runs.

It is really unfortunate that rain pours in those games involving minnows where in case of abandonment of the game and dividing of points that follows might just turn out to be a misfortune for the stronger like it happened to the West Indies in the 2003 world cup where their league stage match against Bangladesh got washed away due to rain and points were divided. This forced Kenya to move ahead of West Indies in the points table and with it to the super sixes of that world cup. Yesterday, had the match went on smoothly, New Zealand would have won the game by more than 7 runs.

It is just ridiculous that the shortest version of the game gets reduced to one fourth of its size due to rain. In the earlier encounter between sri Lanka and Zimbabwe, Zimbabwe were supposed to reach a certain target in only five overs foiling the Sri Lankan effort which took them to bat for nearly 20 overs. Zimbabwe, with ten wickets in hand could have easily reached the target luckily which did not happen. Yesterday, looking at the batting of the Zimbabwe team, the highest individual score happened to be a mere 21 runs from Tatenda Taibu at the top.

There were no sixes in the entire Zimbabwean innings and the last boundary came from the blades of Andy Blignaut who scored 8 runs. This was absolutely not expected from a team that has a history of playing test cricket for decades altogether. The Zimbabwean innings got over in just 15.1 overs which made New Zealand bat for 8 overs. Had the Kiwis batted first, they would have obviously played for 20 overs and the second innings would have lasted for only 3.1 overs. Whatsoever, rain has been found to play as a thirteenth player with extras being the twelfth man.

Unbelievable from New Zealand

Well it was unbelievable for New Zealand to beat Sri Lanka first of all for being the underdogs prior to going into the match and secondly for losing quick wickets with time and overs following suit and thirdly with spinners like Muralitharan and Jayasuriya haunting their team like devils. But, in the end New Zealand had a last gasp for victory when they eventually won the game by 2 wickets with one ball to spare. New Zealand have always been losing to Sri Lanka in all three formats of the game. Since 2007, New Zealand have lost to Sri Lanka in T20 world cups.

This time, it was not Jayasuriya who did the damage either with the bat or with the ball. For a change, one can see Jayasuriya taking to the crease in the 7^th position after the sixth wicket fell. May be that was the reason why Sri Lanka had to end their innings with such a small total on the board. With someone like Jayasuriya on the top, either there would be a wicket fallen or else there would be a steady rise in the scoreboard with Jayasuriya smashing every bowlers at will. Yesterday, Jayasuriya never got to face the ball with the 6^th wicket falling in the 120^th legal delivery.

Main batsmen like Sangakkara, Chandimal and Dilshan failed with the bat leaving Jayawardene with the tough task which he accomplished well. Jayawardene was at the crease with the top three wickets of top batsmen falling at a wrong time. Whatever, the batting of Sri Lankan team was a complete failure. One can see the devastating spell of Shane Bond who scalped two important wickets of Kapugedra and Mathews in back to back deliveries failing which the Sri Lankan score would have well passed 150. On the other hand, Shane Bond was the most successful bowler in terms of runs given.

Likewise, New Zealand's run chase didn't start on a high when they lost their first wicket of Brendon McCullum even before the scoreboard had something on it. Similar to Jayawardene, Jesse Ryder held his nerve in staying on the crease despite wickets falling from the other end. Ryder was the second one to go and there followed a series of wickets falling with hardly any individual scores making news. It was Nathan McCullum's quickfire 16 which sealed the game for the Kiwis. But, the man of the match should have been either Jayawardene or Jesse Ryder. McCullum's efforts can hardly be seen.