Friday, June 12, 2009

West Indies Show Pakistan How to do IT!

The West Indies players, from the Lord's balcony, witnessed the Pakistanis make a mess out of chasing 150 against Sri Lanka.

Once Fidel Edwards and Dwayne Bravo restricted the powerful Indian batting line up to only 153, Chris Gayle must have told his batsmen only one thing.

"Don't do what Pakistan did!"

Gayle's troops did just that; what Pakistan did not, and raced to victory with 7 wickets and 8 deliveries to spare.

At the forefront of that victory was one Dwayne Bravo, who I reckon displayed one of the best allround performances in a T20 international.

4-38 with the ball followed by a 36-ball, match winning, unbeaten 66!

Some innings that was, and he had great support from Lendl Simmons.

The West Indies' chances may not rely solely on Gayle after all.

This is a HUGE victory for the West Indies in the context of the potential dynamics of Group E in the Super 8s.

If you thought that India and South Africa would have a cake-walk to the semi finals, you need to think again.

This is quite an upset and can turn this Group E upside down.

West Indies take on South Africa tomorrow and will surely turn out in Buoyant mood.

While India will take on England in a couple of days, in a game that England would not want to lose.

Another few upsets in the offing?

Who knows, but this World Twenty20 continues to throw suprises.

Make your pitch on this post...



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22 Pitched:

  1. Rayden said...
     

    India - Pak : Bhai - Bhai

    Either we go to the finals together or lose in Super 8s together or lose to minnows in the first round together :-)

  2. SledgeHammer said...
     

    Upset? Hmmm...not sure about that. India are an amazing team. But so are the Windies in T20.

    True that India would be ranked higher than the Windies, but I think the reality is that you had two equal teams going at it.

    And Windies prevailed.

    And how! Bravo Windies!

  3. Krish said...
     

    If India loses to South Africa and England loses their remaining matches, India are out. Good luck beating South Africa!

    Pakistan should have won today's match if it weren't for the extras and some careless batting and running.

  4. Gaurav Sethi said...
     

    Good call Sledge, we're talking about some extraordinary skill there, all round the wicket shots, deft touches, you name it.

    He might not have the gift of the gab, but does he have the cricket gift.

  5. Tifosi Guy said...
     

    More likely (nice hopes I know !), the rest of the matches would pan this way :

    India - beat England, lost to S Af
    WI - lose to S Af and Eng

    Under this scenario, S Af tops with three wins, and the rest all are on two.Comes down to NRR - India would sneak in :-)

    Other than that - India would need to play out of their skins and beat S Af.

    Well last T20 WC - they did do it. Similar scenario. Last game against S Af in Super 8, was a must win. Not only did they win, they knocked S Af out of the tournament !

  6. Stani Army said...
     

    I feel for the real Indian fans. As for the ones in the crowd that were celebrating Pakistani wickets; how sad.

    Congrats to the Windies. Bravo is a top all rounder.

  7. Q said...
     

    Well said Rayden! That is exactly how we do it.

  8. Q said...
     

    Sledge,

    The reason I call it an upset is:

    1) Windies came into the tournament seeded 11th. They didn't win a single game in the last T20 WC.

    2) No one expected Windies to qualify to the Super 8s from the Group of death.

    3) Their T20 record is not all that great. 4 wins in 11 games before this tournament.

    4) India, defending champs, favorites, strong team.

    Windies on the other hand have always relied on Gayle.. today was one of those rarities when they showed they can do it without Gayle firing.

    But now, after this win, and the one against the Aussies, u could call Windies a dangerous side and SA will be taking them seriously tomorrow.

    I mean, no one expected the Windies to beat Aus and Ind now, did they?

  9. Q said...
     

    Krish,

    That is spot on. The extras did Pakistan in. they gave 20 and lost by 19 runs! SL gave only 3!

    We wasted a start.. that ball was swinging around and Tanvir looked like had just come out of bed!

  10. Q said...
     

    NC,

    Who was Sachin supporting? India or his Mumbai Indian?

  11. Q said...
     

    TG,

    As far as I recall, ur doing just as bad as I am in calling these games.. so the results will prob be opposite of wat u said :-)

    If WI beat SA tomorrow, that'll be something!

  12. Gaurav Sethi said...
     

    He's in for Fedex, the cricket is a distraction.

  13. Q said...
     

    Stani,

    It was like watching people get sadistic pleasure - the Indians were cheering the Pakistanis lose, and the Pakistanis were cheering the Indians lose.

    Though both the teams lost, the fans in London enjoyed it!!

  14. Q said...
     

    NC,

    U mean that "meet a Sachin" competition?

  15. SledgeHammer said...
      This comment has been removed by the author.
  16. SledgeHammer said...
     

    @Stani: I don't see the big deal in Indians celebrating Pakistani wickets fall. It's like a tradition of sorts, and not a real desire to see Pakistanis suffer or anything.

    It applies in the reverse as well. I actually like the Indian team and enjoy seeing them play. But at times, I enjoy not doing so well too. I was cheering against Australia big time in the WC2007 final. So were so many others.

    Wouldn't call that sad by any means. I've watched so many Pak/India/other matches with Indian friends. It's so intense during the game (outsiders would think there's some personal enmity!). But as soon as the game is over, we couldn't care less.

    The off-field stuff is all fun and games. Well, according to Younis, so is the onfield stuff! :)

  17. SledgeHammer said...
     

    @Q: I know this is going to be a hard sell since I have no documented evidence, but I was fairly confident of a Windies win over the Auzzies.

    I did think today's match would be an even encounter, and it pretty much was.

    SL vs WI final is what I considered after the first games each team played. I'm sticking with it. It's my fantasy final. Love both teams, but I love the Windies a bit more!

  18. Tifosi Guy said...
     

    Q

    Yep mate, since the fag end of the IPL my luck in ' calling' games is just AWOL :-)

    Actually I think it's best I don't make a call. I just end up jinxing the team I want to do well.

    So Aye S Affers on you go all the way ! (Damn that was hard to type as an Aussie supporter).

    Let's hope the reverse psychology works on the Proteas :-)

    I quite would like the WI's to go all the way. But I fear that they would go bust soon !

    My sinking feeling already is that an SL - S Af final is on the cards. Ouch that's one final I simply can't stand.

  19. raj said...
     

    Well, while you all predict SA, SL, WI and India int he final, NZ might sneak away with the cup.
    I mean, the punditry has been that NZ always reach semis but progress no further. As I mentioned earlier in Q's blog, such assumptions are what are being broken every single day - just look at the laundry list:
    * Windies = Gayle
    * Dhoni=One down player
    * Dhoni = Cool captain
    * Pakistan=will not qualify
    * Sri Lanka=nobody gave them a chance before the tournament. Most predicted them to crash out in 1st round
    * Netherlands beating England - to be fair, I did predict this in jrod's blog way back when Nannes was announced as dutch player

    It's gonna be England vs New Zealand final, folks. Atleast one of them will be in the finals.

  20. Q said...
     

    @Sledge,

    I don't see how anyone could have predicted a Windies win over the Aussies :-) .. but good on you man for making that call.. The Windies have largely been all Gayle for a while now.. their performances in this tournament have been unexpected to say the least..

    Not that I'm not enjoying them!

  21. Q said...
     

    TG,

    I tried applying the reverse too.. nothing worked for me. HA!

    Like Sledge, I'd like to see a Lanka-Windies final.. would be something.

  22. Q said...
     

    Raj,

    One of England and New Zealand? U did not just say that!

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