Group E - England, India, South Africa, West Indies

[TT Boy]

Great win for the Windies given that Gayle didn't contribute. Hopefully they are spending the night on the rum 'n coke.

England to knock out India on Sunday.

 

[Smith]

India deserved this loss. Everyone looked damn complacent, And what a **** performance by the captain cool, 11 off 23 balls and then a missed run out of Bravo. Shameful. But I'd give him some leeway because of the pre match accusations by ****ing media.

 

[Furball]

I don't mean SA are on a totally different level to you in general, but yesterday they most certainly were. England quite simply aren't capable of matching that performance in the field. Noone is, in fact.

I actually agree with you.

Mascarenhas from memory got out to a crap shot, but South Africa were utterly immense as a bowling and fielding unit.

My gripe was with England in the field. Collingwood's captaincy was rubbish. Fair enough, not many teams will successfully defend 111 in a T20, but you've got to at least give yourself a chance by asking questions. Rashid from memory bowled one bad half tracker that got hammered by Kallis, aside from that though he was extremely tidy and got AB with a beaut - yet Rashid couldn't have bowled more than 5 or 6 dot balls in his 4 overs. Why? Because Collingwood set negative fields that allowed South Africa to milk singles far too easily. South Africa coasted in 2nd gear throughout their entire run chase - my gripe was that England didn't at any point try to up the ante and make the South African batsmen take risks for their runs.

 

[Stapel]

Has there ever been a better all-round performance than that from Bravo in any T20 game, let alone International T20s?

Well, that's always gonna be subject to debate. It's hard to be too critical on Bravo, but he did leak a few runs. From that point of view, Kallis performace against England was possibly better?

 

[Arjun]

There is a problem on hand for the Indians, and it's not the scavenging media. Rohit Sharma was irresponsible, Raina looked out of depth against hostile pace and the Yuvraj-Dhoni duo played out far too many dot balls. This is T20 cricket, not a Test match! The Indians also bowled tightly in the middle-overs, but the Maroon Men took several singles and converted some to twos, rather than stay root-footed like Dhoni and Yuvraj. Rohit Sharma threw his wicket away and the effect told, and the sooner he is hidden at four or five again, the better. The bowlers actually did well, but when the field settings are so porous and some fielders stumble to give away fours and sixes, there is a problem. The problem of sixes doesn't end there- too many sixes are hit off the Indian bowlers. They need to work around the six-hitting weaknesses and fix what can be fixed, such as the fielding. It's disappointing to see the best fielders goof up badly to lose a match.

That said, the West Indians are a mercurial team who can suddenly snatch a match from out of nowhere and dominate a match in emphatic fashion. The South Africans and more so the English are more of a formula team, so the Indians can take advantage of it and try to trample them all over, rather than try to qualify for the semis.

 

[shivfan]

Great win for the Windies given that Gayle didn't contribute. Hopefully they are spending the night on the rum 'n coke.

England to knock out India on Sunday.

Hopefully not!

They don't have much time to celebrate....

The Windies play South Africa first up this afternoon. Not much time to rest.

I'm not sure about how some of these fixtures are organised....

 

[G.I.Joe]

RP is a useless trundler who is crap when there is no swing Ishant just had an off night will bounce back he's too good to consistently under perform.

off night?? More like an off career. Ishant has always been crap at T20 cricket. An off night for him in T20 is when he manages to unwittingly snare a couple of wickets in a game.

 

[G.I.Joe]

Looks great from here!

Really looking forward to the clash against your guys.


Oh wait...

 

[pasag]

Sehwag's such a big loss. I don't know what's happening to this batting unit, they used to be so cavalier and risk free and now they're bottling it.

SA have to be the clear favourite for this tournament now. They're the only side putting in consistent good performances even though on paper India have a better line up then them, although less well rounded (imo).

In all honesty the standard of Twenty20 cricket throughout the tournament hasn't been great. Looks like most sides have regressed a little.

 

[Noble One]

Big test for the West Indies coming up.

So often after a fantastic win, West Indies fail at the next hurdle.

The side selected at the moment looks a good chance to go all the way. Three pure match winners in Twenty20, Gayle, Bravo and Edwards. Good support cast of Sarwan, Chanderpaul, Ramdin, Taylor and Benn. Then some solid young players who are actually standing up for once, Simmons, Fletcher and Pollard.

Most comforting is that the fielding has improved from game one. Many of us during that Australian first innings claimed that West Indies did not deserve to progress any further based on how shocking the fielding standards where.

 

[BoyBrumby]

Sehwag's such a big loss. I don't know what's happening to this batting unit, they used to be so cavalier and risk free and now they're bottling it.

SA have to be the clear favourite for this tournament now. They're the only side putting in consistent good performances even though on paper India have a better line up then them, although less well rounded (imo).

In all honesty the standard of Twenty20 cricket throughout the tournament hasn't been great. Looks like most sides have regressed a little.

Yeah, agreed. Sri Lanka team most likely to stop them IMHO. Arguably the better bowling attack, especially with the English conditions suiting Mathews's style, but lack depth in batting. Have a tail like the proverbial rat, in fact.

 

[Uppercut]

But remember the last time Indians were in the same position and the southafricans too.... and Indians knocked the stuffing out of the southafricans...

You're quite right, yes. Interestingly, not one South African over in that match was bowled by a spinner. The twenty overs were shared by Pollock, Ntini, van der Wath, Morne Morkel, Philander and Albie Morkel.

The team which has played each game so far this tournament has had Steyn, Parnell, Botha, van der Merwe, Kallis, Duminy and Albie Morkel as its bowlers. Massive turn-around over the space of only a year and a half. The two spinners have so far taken 9/122 in 23 overs this tournament, with an economy rate of 5.3, where beforehand they didn't even have any!

India have the team to beat South Africa on their day, but they should be aware that it'll be a much more difficult task than it was last time.

 

[superkingdave]

Van Der Merwe due to turn out for Werneth in the CLL after the WC, wonder whether that will happen now (was due to play the whole season originally)

 

[R_D]

Sehwag's such a big loss. I don't know what's happening to this batting unit, they used to be so cavalier and risk free and now they're bottling it.

SA have to be the clear favourite for this tournament now. They're the only side putting in consistent good performances even though on paper India have a better line up then them, although less well rounded (imo).

In all honesty the standard of Twenty20 cricket throughout the tournament hasn't been great. Looks like most sides have regressed a little.

Personally i think South African are more balanced and well rounded side than India.
India have very good T20 batting line up but the bowling isn't quite upto the standard.. where's South Africa have very good batting lineup along with a solid bowling unit and not to mention excellent fielding and they are just ahead of India.
Always thought South Africa was the team to beat from start...I also think Sri Lanka can get one over them as well... their bowling lineup is great as well... you hardly see other teams score runs during middler overs with Murali and Mendis tightening the screws and than Malinga comes in at end to finish off the job.
Dark horse for me is NZ...although not sure how bad the injuries are to some of their players.

 

[Athlai]

Taylor and Vettori should be back for tonight. So only Ryder will be out and he's been replaced by an apparently very in form Redmond.

 

[pasag]

They're the only side putting in consistent good performances even though on paper India have a better line up then them, although less well rounded (imo).

Personally i think South African are more balanced and well rounded side than India.

 

[TT Boy]

Would have liked to see South Africa field first. No total is too big with Gayle.

Hopefully they don't dick around with the batting. Get AB in before the first 10 overs and give Albie at least 5 overs.

 

[R_D]

hehe... read that as SA have a less well rounded side than India for some reason.

 

[stumpski]

Is there a case for Napier replacing Rashid tomorrow? I can't help thinking that the Indians will feast on the young leggie - they see plenty better than him at home. I know Napier bats in the top five for his county, and he won't be able to that here - but he could be just the man to have coming in with 4 or 5 overs to go.

 

[Scaly piscine]

Wonder why Kallis doesn't bat like this normally in other limited overs cricket. It's not like he's taking risks or anything, just drilling the ball with proper shots and getting a SR easily over 100.