The T20 world cup in Sri Lanka is now just over a week in, but there has already been massive scores, massive shots, and above all. Massive fielding blunders. But what's impressed me the most? And what's left me shaking my head in disappointment?
The Afghanistan - India game was one of the first I could manage to watch from start to finish.
The first thing that struck me when I was watching was the skill of the Afghan bowlers, they were good, damn good.
This wasn't the amateur bunch of bowlers that starred at the start of that cricket documentary of the story of Afghan cricket a few months ago. These guys, had really skill.
Zadran cleared up Sehwag, and Sehwag was gone soon after. Kohli saved India from humiliation at the hands of these so called minnows in one of the first games of the tournament.
But it could have all been so different, the Afghan bowling was one of the things that has impressed me so much in the tournament so far. But the fielding, oh the fielding. It was utterly, utterly, dreadful. I can't stress the extent of how awfully astronomically terrible the fielding display was. I would have backed a bunch of 9 year olds who had never seen a cricket ball before to take some of the catches they dropped.
And this is the reason they lost the game. Some of the batting was a bit shabby but if they done the basic fielding correctly, they could knocked down India from their perch. And who knows, if Afghanistan would have beaten India they might have put in a poor display v England and Afghanistan could have been in the Super 8's...
Now that, would have been a bloody brilliant story. But unfortunately, fielding 1 Afghanistan 0
But then a couple of days late I saw Zimbabwe be completely taken apart at ease by a very impressive South Africa side. And they really were poor. Afghanistan's fielding was bad but nearly everything about Zimbabwe was diabolical. And I really do hope Afghanistan get a crack at test cricket in the future. But first, please sack your fielding coach.
Next, I have to talk about England. Against the Afghans, we put in a solid performance, picked up a win. This was what people expected of us and we delivered.
But then the real test came against the Indians. And.... oh dear...
The bowling performance was average, I've seen Broad bowl a lot better than how he did, same goes for Bresnan. I think Dernbach uses his slower too much and can be inaccurate. Swann was the only one who impressed me.
Rohit Sharma hit a quickfire 50 and Kohli hit another decent score of 40. This, in addition with Gambir's very good start to the innings left India with a over-par score of 170 off their allocated 20 overs. (I'd like to add that England bowled 8 wides in this innings, which is absolutely appalling at this level. Dernbach was a big culprit of this and it purely angered me, if your reading this Jade, bowl bloody straight, and don't get any more tattoos)
But then came the batting. Alex Hales was gone for two. Not the start we needed.
Luke Wright (who's never really impressed me at international level) was gone for 6. The rest fell like domino's.
Only three batsmen reached double figures, and of them was Jade Dernbach. Morgan, who's been in pretty dreadful form, got 2. Bairstow 1. It was torture watching us playing spin. We gave Harbhajan Singh the easiest four wickets he'll ever take, Chawla got 2, as did Pathan.
This batting display was without doubt, the thing that left me shaking my head in dissapointment.
But then today, I saw something maybe even more spectacular, I saw a Indian side be completely taken apart by the Aussies.
India batted first, and the first man to fall was Gambhir, who was run out by Cummins. It was pretty poor running, it was practicly a race between Gambhir and Cummins, plus Cummins had to kick the ball at the stumps, and the bowler still won. And Gambhir was gone, perhaps a little more time on the running track Gautam?
Virat Kohli, who's been in fantastic form, went pretty softly. Yuvaraj Singh mistimed a hook shot and was gone. Then Rohit Sharma went, I can only assume he misjudged the angle of the ball coming in from the left armed Starc coming round the wicket. The rest scored at more or less a run a ball and they finished on 140.
The Austrailian openers battered them. Shane Watson became the white Chris Gayle and was smashing the ball around for fun. Seven sixes were hit in his very impressive 72 from 42 balls. David Warner hit a 63 to go with it and they won easily.
Watching the Aussies win this easily is definitely what has made my eyebrows be raised the most this T20 tournament so far. They impressed me.
Watch out rest of world.
The Aussies could be coming...
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