Pakistan World Champions and Ashes Taining Squad Announced

So a week can be a long time in the sporting world and I must first start with my apologies as last week in my blog I stated that it would definitely be either Sri Lanka or South Africa that won the Twenty/20 World Cup and of course as cricket followers will know it was the mighty Pakistan that beat both of the tournament favourites to lift the trophy.

Pakistan, who of course were beaten by England in the Group Stages, beat South Africa in the Semi Finals and then Sri Lanka in the final with both games. Shahid Afridi was the star of both matches for Pakistan scoring over 100 runs and taking 3 key wickets in the two games. A player that definitely peaked at exactly the right time and allowed the Pakistanis to win the trophy and dedicate it to their former coach Bob Woolmer who sadly died during the 2007 World Cup.

Elsewhere there was better news for England in the women's game as they England Ladies team beat New Zealand in the final of the Women's World Twenty20 competition to make them double world champions after capturing the 50 over World Cup earlier this year. They did not have it all their own way though as in the Semi Finals Australia made a formidable 163 from their 20 overs only to see England knock the runs off, whilst losing only 2 wickets, with 3 balls to spare. Following those 2 big cup wins they are surely now a candidate for Sports Personality Team of the Year.

Elsewhere the Ashes Training Squad was announced yesterday and there weren't really any surprises this time, unlike 4 years ago when England called up a young Kevin Pietersen to replace Graham Thorpe. This time both Michael Vaughan and Steve Harmison were left out of the squad, as Michael Vaughan has not scored big runs in the county game so far this year and Steve Harmison has been outclassed by his Durham colleague Graham Onions. There is still a lot of time and cricket to be played and we cannot rule out these two performers from playing some part in the ashes but as of right now they have a lot of work to do with their counties first.

The big talking point of the squad was the fact that Ian Bell was called back in to the reckoning after a solid start to the season with Warwickshire and has scored consistently well averaging 64.50 after 7 matches. Although with the number 3 spot supposedly wrapped up with Ravi Bopara maybe the best way that he can get into the Ashes 11 is by taking Paul Collingwoods place and moving back down the order to bat at number 5.

With the weather gorgeous and the Wimbledon coverage starting on the telly I must bid you goodbye and hope that you enjoyed this weeks blog, so until next week I bid you farewell.

England out of the World 20/20 Tournament

So it's that time again, the day after the night before. Yesterday evening saw England crash out of the World 20/20 championships at the hands of the West Indies, a team which over the last few months England have beaten repeatedly.

It all started in early May where England proceeded to beat the West Indies in 2 test matches, 2 One Day Internationals and even a 20/20 World Cup warm up match. So little then did we know that they would eventually be the team that saw us exit the World 20/20 tournament just one win short of a place in the semi finals.

So in my blog today i'm going to look at and try to explain just why England looked so out of their depth at times during this tournament. The opening partnership of Ravi Bopara and Luke Wright was a breath of fresh air and when it clicked we looked very good, unfortunately (especially in 20/20) this doesn't happen all the time and we are thankful that we have Kevin Pietersen coming in at number 3 to steady the ship when we do lose an early wicket.

However it is after this that the innings falls down and a 4/5/6 of Owais Shah, Paul Collingwood and either Dimitri Mascarenhas or James Foster was clearly not good enough. This was evident in our loss to the West Indies as for almost 9 overs we did not hit a boundary and it was only Stuart Broads 4 and 6 off the last 2 balls of the innings that propelled us to anything like a par score on that pitch. So when you have Eoin Morgan and Graham Napier sitting on the bench it is rather hard to understand just why we couldn't find the boundary.

The wicket keeping position should definately not be in question as anyone that watched James Fosters stumpings of either Yuvraj Singh or Dwayne Bravo can clearly testify that he is the best gloveman in the country and that is what you need when every run is vital. Both of those batsmen thought they were safe until they lifted their feet to help find their balances and by then James Foster had already whipped the bails off in the blink of an eye.

The bowling unit was a good one and after the pace of Stuart Broad, Jimmy Anderson and Ryan Sidebottom (yes even he reached almost 90mph at times!) the spin of both Graeme Swann and Adil Rashid was introduced and this worked well for large periods with both guys getting good turn and showing good variations. The contribution of the part timers as well can not be underestimated here with people like Luke Wright, Dimitri Mascarenhas and Paul collingwood all bowling good effective overs at some point throughout the competition.

So the Twenty/20 cup is over for us English and our attentions now turn to the waiting Australians and the Ashes contest that faces us this summer, but the Twenty/20 Tournament is still rolling and with South Africa and Sri Lanka the 2 hot favourites all eyes in the cricketing world will turn towards Lords on the 21st June for the final of this short but sweet tournament.

Until then readers stay safe and remember you can't get fitter than a switch hit hitter!!

The Group Stages of the 20/20 World Cup

So with the group stages of the Twenty/20 World Cup finishing today and the final 8 teams already decided I bring to you a tale of shocks, sixes, poor fielding and Minnows beating cricketing nations.

One of the biggest shocks came on the opening day when the Netherlands (yes they do play cricket) beat hosts England on the final ball. After a poor batting display and average bowling display Netherlands were left needing 7 off the final over bowled by Stuart Broad, and with Broady missing the stumps with an attempted run out off the final ball, the dutch scraped the 2 that they needed to win and hosts England were left humiliated.

Not long after Chris Gayle blazed 88 from just 50-odd balls to ensure that the West Indies beat Australia and with Sri Lanka also beating Australia fairly comfortably it means that the Australians are out at the first hurdle and Ricky Ponting and his men must now face 2 weeks in Leicester before the summers main event of the ashes can begin, well they do say any holiday is better than no holiday.

So attention turned to The Oval last Sunday and England needing a good win against Pakistan to ensure that they were into the final eight. Well good news straight away with Kevin Pietersen being declared fit and the England management taking the brave step of playing 2 spinners. After a good batting display which saw Luke Wright, Owais Shah and KP all make at least 30 England clawed their way to 185-5 off their 20 overs, and in reply Pakistan never got going with Stuart Broad taking 3-17 and they eventually limped to 137-7, ensuring that England were through to the super eight stage, a big relief to all concerned. Pakistan however did manage to beat The Netherlands convincingly and will join England in the final 8.

Elsewhere there was another shock in the group containg India, Bangladesh and Ireland. Bangladesh and Ireland both lost to India to ensure that the Defending Champions go through but then the sahock occurred as Ireland turned over a dismal Bangladesh side to ensure that they were the only associate side to make it through and with the big hitting O'Brien batsmen seemingly on form could they make any more shocks in the next part of the tournament?

Things ran a lot more smoothly elsewhere though as in the group between South Africa, New Zealand and Scotland the associated side lost both their games despite one of them being reduced to just 7 overs per side (a game which really could go either way). Special mention must be made here of South Africa who have looked a very good side batting, bowling and fielding and are worthy of the favourites tag that they have been given.

With the final 8 teams now decided: England, Ireland, South Africa, New Zealand, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, India and West Indies, there is everything to play for and in just over a week one of these teams will be crowned the World Champions of Twenty/20 Cricket (and for the record my money is on South Africa).

The 20/20 World Cup

So this Friday, England and Netherlands meet at Lords to open the World Twenty/20 and with the loveliest of weather that we have been having lately and the warm up games that have been going on lately the countries cricket fans are turning towards this tournament featuring the World's best and greatest teams.

Between the 5th and 21st June 16 teams will battle it out, firstly to win their group and then to move on to face the other group winners for a place in the final and hopefully the term "World Champions".

Group A: India, Bangladesh, Ireland
Group B: Pakistan, England, Netherlands
Group C: Australia, Sri Lanka, West Indies
Group D: New Zealand, South Africa, Scotland

With the groups looking like they do (above) we can see that India should have the easiest passage out of their groups whereas "New Zealand vs South Africa" and "Australia vs Sri Lanka" are going to be fascinating group stage games with the winners going a step closer to the Super Eights stage and the losers maybe not making them.

After the last World Twenty/20 where India beat Pakistan in the final to become World Champions i'm sure that we can all lookg forward to a brilliant tournament and lets hope that the home team England can progress further than they were able to go last time now they are on their own soil.