ICC World Twenty20 2009 – 3rd Match, Group C

Australia vs West Indies

Played at Kennington Oval, London (neutral venue), 6 June 2009 (20-over match)

Result - West Indies won by 7 wickets (with 25 balls remaining)

Fall of wickets: 1. Shane Watson 1 (0.3), 2. Ricky Ponting 3 (0.4), 3. Michael Clarke 15 (3.3), 4. Brad Haddin 81 (11.3), 5. David Warner 113 (15.3), 6. David Hussey 143 (17.5), 7. Mitchell Johnson 153 (19.1)

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Chris Gayle played a blinder of an innings, a type of innings that  most teams will worry about now, an innings that eluded him in the IPL. His innings of 88 (50b 6×4 6×6) sealed the match for West Indies, leaving Australia in a must win situation against Sri Lanka.

The most special moment of the innings came in Lee’s 3rd over, the 5th over of the West Indies innings. The over read  6,0,6,0,4+nb,4,6. That made it 27 runs from the over, Lee’s figures at this time were not pretty, 3-0-51-0, 17 runs an over is not something you would expect from a premier fast bowler. Is the Ashes dream over for Brett Lee?

Andre Fletcher is one of a crop of young batsmen West Indies have tested recently by throwing them into international cricket without vast first-class experience. A top-order batsman with a solid technique, Fletcher showed promising signs in his initial international appearances but a lack of awareness of what was happening in the field around him was a problem and cost him his wicket more than once.

But boy did he play today against the Aussies in the ICC World Twenty20. True Gayle was going hammer and tongs, especially after Brett Lee, Andre Fletcher played a fine hand. West Indies is known for batting collapses, but Fletcher’s innings ensured that nothing of that sort happened. By the time he departed for 53 (32b 7×4 1×6) the game was pretty much over. Now if Australia loose to Sri Lanka as well they will be out of the tournament.

Both sides playing in the Ashes this year on the verge of 1st round exit from the ICC World Twenty20, a case of focusing too much on the Ashes?

ICC World Twenty20 2009 – 2nd Match, Group B

New Zealand vs Scotland

Played at Kennington Oval, London (neutral venue), 6 June 2009 (7-over match)

Result - New Zealand won by 7 wickets (with 6 balls remaining)

Fall of wickets – 1-30 (Watson, 2.1 ov), 2-89 (Coetzer, 6.4 ov), 3-89 (Poonia, 6.5 ov), 4-89 (Smith, 6.6 ov)

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Scoreline: Group D: New Zealand v Scotland at The Oval – Jun 6, 2009
New Zealand won by 7 wickets (with 6 balls remaining)
Scotland 89/4: Ryan Watson 27 (10), Kyle Coetzer 33 (15), Navdeep Poonia 27 (15).
New Zealand 90/3 in 6 overs: Jesse Ryder 31 (12), Ross Taylor 21 (10), McCullum 18 (7)

Scotland Batting
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The mis-hit scoop from Misbah-ul-Haq continues to serve India even in the second World Twenty20. Being the top seeds by virtue of winning the inaugural edition, India get to be in the group that has two relatively weak teams, Bangladesh and Ireland. Their place in the Super Eights should be a mere formality. But after yesterdays upset victory by Netherlands I am not making any predections.

Bangladesh has a few classy players Shakib Al Hasan, Ashraful, Mortaza. A good show by them can see Bangladesh putting up a good fight.

Teams

Bangladesh (probable) 1 Tamim Iqbal, 2 Junaid Siddique, 3 Mohammad Ashraful (capt.), 4 Shakib Al Hasan, 5 Mahmudullah, 6 Raqibul Hasan, 7 Mushfiqur Rahim, 8 Mashrafe Mortaza, 9 Rubel Hossain, 10 and 11 Shahadat Hossain/Naeem Islam/Syed Rasel/Abdur Razzak

India (probable) 1 Gautam Gambhir, 2 Rohit Sharma, 3 Suresh Raina, 4 Yuvraj Singh, 5 MS Dhoni (capt./wk), 6 Yusuf Pathan, 7 Ravindra Jadeja, 8 Harbhajan Singh, 9 and 10 Irfan Pathan/Praveen Kumar/RP Singh/Zaheer Khan, 11 Ishant Sharma

Australia will be clashing with the West Indies today at The Oval. This will be the first challenging match of the tournament where both teams will be fighting really hard for their win. Aussies got a setback with Symmonds going back due to the recent alcohol issue. Symmonds is the key player for the aussies, he has good experience of T20 games and had recetly played some good innings in the IPL 2009. But Aussies will not loose out their momentum and will give a tough fight to the West Indies.

West Indies have a very dry season in this year. They recetly lost both the ODI and Test series against the England . It’s time where they need to know their potentials and build some match winning strategies. In the warm-up matches, they first thrashed the Ireland but then England thrashed them with a 9 wicket victory. Skipper Chris Gayle doesn’t seems to be getting things in the right way. He holds the key for West Indies, if he fires up today then Aussies can be in trouble.

So a full of excitement and entertaining match coming up your way, Stay tuned for all the latest updates!

Australia vs West Indies, ICC World Twenty20, Group C, The Oval

Teams
Australia squad: (probable) Ricky Ponting (capt), Michael Clarke, Nathan Bracken, Brad Haddin (wk), Nathan Hauritz, Ben Hilfenhaus, James Hopes, David Hussey, Michael Hussey, Mitchell Johnson, Brett Lee, Peter Siddle, David Warner, Shane Watson, Cameron White.

West Indies squad: (probable) Chris Gayle (capt), Denesh Ramdin (wk), Lionel Baker, Sulieman Benn, David Bernard, Dwayne Bravo, Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Fidel Edwards, Andre Fletcher, Xavier Marshall, Kieron Pollard, Darren Sammy, Ramnaresh Sarwan, Lendl Simmons, Jerome Taylor.

Match Timings: 14.00 Local, 13.30 GMT, 19:00 IST

New Zealand are the favourites in the today’s match against the Scotland. According to the recent form of Scotland, its more likely to be one sided game. Scotland have never beaten any of the test playing nations either in ODI or Twenty20 internationals. Scotland recent form is also not much to be talked about, they lost their ODI status in the World Cup earlier in the year and doesnot look too confident in the warm-up matches as well.

New zealand on the other side will be feeling like they gonna play another practice match. Kiwis are really charged up for the T20 and this can be seen in their recent warm-up matches. Brendon McCullum is back in form and he will the player to watch out for in todays match. Ross Taylor is in his best form and exploding at every opposition.

New Zealand vs Scotland, ICC World Twenty20, Group D, The Oval

Teams
New Zealand squad: (probable) Daniel Vettori (capt), Neil Broom, Ian Butler, Brendon Diamanti, James Franklin, Martin Guptill, Brendon McCullum, Nathan McCullum, Peter McGlashan, Kyle Mills, Iain O’Brien, Jacob Oram, Jesse Ryder, Scott Styris, Ross Taylor.

Scotland squad: (probable) Gavin Hamilton (capt), Richie Berrington, Calum MacLeod, Kyle Coetzer, Gordon Drummond, Majid Haq, Neil McCallum, Dewald Nel, Navdeep Poonia, Glenn Rogers, Colin Smith (wk), Jan Stander, Ryan Watson, Fraser Watts, Craig Wright.

Match Timings: 10.00 Local, 09.00 GMT, 14:30 IST