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

[TT Boy]

Coney is a tall fellow, towering over captain Smith.

 

[kingkallis]

Colly was probably trying to protect the run rate figuring the game was gone anyway. If he had been more aggressive with his field placing SA could easily have won in under 15 overs. I am a bit baffled that they took their sweet time to reach the target actually.

Exactly! An aggressive approach was needed. South Africa did it against the Kiwis just couple of nights ago...

 

[Furball]

Giving away singles when South Africa were happy to tick the runs off.

Run rate doesn't matter a jot if you can't win games. England just let the game drift away from them.

IMO they would have benefitted from having at least one more man in the circle when the spinners were on, and asked South Africa to take risks to score their runs. Rashid from memory bowled one rank bad ball, but the fact that he only bowled 6 dot balls or so in his 4 overs shows just how easy it was for the South Africans to milk singles.

 

[TT Boy]

Think Hersh has to float in this order. If South Africa start well, AB bats 3 but if an early wicket falls get him in. Too much batting (better than Gibbs) is being wasted.

 

[TT Boy]

Wanna a laugh, listen to Talk****e. Goughy in the cricket call-in (with Irani) is suggesting Corky should be in the 20/20 side.

Couple of ****.

 

[aussie]

Was afraid this would happen to ENG. But i cant complain since unfortunately with Flintoff out, this was the best balance they could have played with.

 

[rivera213]

I can't complain about either Bopara or Wright. Pietersen's dismissal was a great catch by "Roll-On". Shah batted well towards the latter part of his innings. Collingwood and Mascarenhas batted poorly. Foster normally bats like that for Essex so you can't slam him either.

Overall I think it was a mixture of great opening ball bowling, great fielding and some poor shot selection. The first 2 are what South Africa have been known for all the time I've been watching Cricket. I hope we don't repeat the poor shot choices againt India.

I think we'll beat India and West Indies to go through 2nd.

 

[Scaly piscine]

Yeah, I know what you mean....

Shah scored 38 from 33 balls. If only other England batsmen could've done the same.

Shah was lucky he got a few balls to hit, he could easily have been dismissed earlier - he did everything but run himself out and the other batsmen miss out on extra runs because he's slow. His utter inability to tick singles over in the early stages of his innings makes him a liability, you won't be saying how great he is if he ends up dismissed for 9 off 20 balls.

Shah is not the answer, regardless of the odd occasion the rest of the batsmen are so useless that they make him look half-decent.

 

[aussie]

My goodness, some of the comments againts Shah in the past few months on CW, have been disgraceful.

 

[Sirhail]

such a horrible performance by england today, especially their batting. on the last over of the powerplay, they fail to get ne runs.

they wait and wait tryna keep their wickets, but when they need run fast, they just panick and start losiing the wickets.

i dont mind england losing, but at least lose fighting. their own ground on t20, if they cant perform here where are they gnna perform??!!

 

[Uppercut]

Jeez, you guys are a negative bunch. South Africa just turned out the best bowling/fielding performance I've ever seen in a T20 match and i don't think one person so much as mentioned it. I also love how when England lose to the tournament favourites all I hear is:

England is such a massive joke.

Absolute clowns.

What a complete ****ing shower of ****.

England are pathetic.. Atleast the Aussies got out of the tournament early.. England are embarassing themselves, this after qualifying..

It won't happen when any other team gets their arse handed to them by the best side around.

 

[Furball]

Jeez, you guys are a negative bunch. South Africa just turned out the best bowling/fielding performance I've ever seen in a T20 match and i don't think one person so much as mentioned it.

Taking nothing away from the Saffers in the field. One or two of the English batsmen might want to look at their shot selection which got them out, but aside from that, absolutely faultless from the Saffers in the field.

My gripe has been with Collingwood's captaincy in the field, and to a lesser extent his post match comments. In the field Collingwood didn't look like he believed England could pull off a shock, which he reflected in his post match comments.

It's hard to judge South Africa's batting performance as they spent the entire chase in 2nd gear, however, England at no point forced them to try and find a higher gear.

 

[shivfan]

My goodness, some of the comments againts Shah in the past few months on CW, have been disgraceful.

I agree....

If three other England batsmen had done what Shah did - 38 from 33 balls - England would be nearer to 150 than 110!

 

[Smith]

Shah > Collingwood

 

[Arjun]

Looking ahead to today's match, from an Indian point of view, the Indians have to bowl properly today. They are facing a team that can suddenly mount an attack on the bowling and hit a surge of sixes and fours, and Indian bowlers, unfortunately, concede too many of them. That will mean cutting off the part-timers totally. They need five regular bowlers in the XI, to keep the pressure on and snare any opportunity to take a wicket.

They can, however, take advantage of the West Indians' dependence on Gayle, Sarwan and Chanders. These three can take the match away from any team on their day. They have to keep them quiet, keep away the half-trackers that end up at knee height, though it's difficult to keep Gayle quiet- he's invincible on his day. It is, however, a lot easier to attack the other batsman, and they should block all singles and keep fielders in catching positions.

When the Indians come out to bat, they have a much easier task on hand. However, as is often the case, they have a very thin, top-heavy batting lineup and if Irfan Pathan misses out, they will end up with a very long, brittle tail. The West Indian bowlers have a lot of pace and can unsettle the batsmen (Fidel in particular knows what Rohit Sharma may be weak in) but they are also prone to leaking runs in extras, and boundary-balls are also a possibility. It's a case of sensible batting against the top bowlers and Gayle, and then smashing the part-timers around.

A likely XI would have two seamers and three spinners, Yusuf included. The West Indians don't play spinners particularly well, as could be seen in the last match. Yusuf, in particular, will be useful as a sticky slow bowler with little or no pace, keeping it straight, while the others can try to turn and flight the ball. They will have to rest Irfan and RP Singh, as these two can't stand up to attacking batsmen in full flow, and get them back against the other two teams, though Irfan is a far better new-ball bowler than in the final overs, where he gets caned. That's anyway dicey, since both have come off a good IPL, and have hardly played T20 since. Praveen Kumar may be a good interim replacement for Irfan, or else they can stretch the batting with Karthik.

 

[honestbharani]

Our problem is our best bowlers can't really bat to respectable levels.


I am worried about our batting, tbh... IT lacks a lot and esp. with Dhoni almost obsessed with being the #3, I think there is a great chance India will be knocked out in this stage itself. If not here, then definitely in the semis..


The batting lacks a lot of class and now it lacks depth as well, with Yousuf and Irfan batting 6 and 7... Both are batting one position high IMO...

 

[pasag]

Our problem is our best bowlers can't really bat to respectable levels.


I am worried about our batting, tbh... IT lacks a lot and esp. with Dhoni almost obsessed with being the #3, I think there is a great chance India will be knocked out in this stage itself. If not here, then definitely in the semis..


The batting lacks a lot of class and now it lacks depth as well, with Yousuf and Irfan batting 6 and 7... Both are batting one position high IMO...

It would be nice if Sachin came back, would add a lot of balance to the side.

 

[shivfan]

Looking ahead to today's match, from an Indian point of view, the Indians have to bowl properly today. They are facing a team that can suddenly mount an attack on the bowling and hit a surge of sixes and fours, and Indian bowlers, unfortunately, concede too many of them. That will mean cutting off the part-timers totally. They need five regular bowlers in the XI, to keep the pressure on and snare any opportunity to take a wicket.

They can, however, take advantage of the West Indians' dependence on Gayle, Sarwan and Chanders. These three can take the match away from any team on their day. They have to keep them quiet, keep away the half-trackers that end up at knee height, though it's difficult to keep Gayle quiet- he's invincible on his day. It is, however, a lot easier to attack the other batsman, and they should block all singles and keep fielders in catching positions.

When the Indians come out to bat, they have a much easier task on hand. However, as is often the case, they have a very thin, top-heavy batting lineup and if Irfan Pathan misses out, they will end up with a very long, brittle tail. The West Indian bowlers have a lot of pace and can unsettle the batsmen (Fidel in particular knows what Rohit Sharma may be weak in) but they are also prone to leaking runs in extras, and boundary-balls are also a possibility. It's a case of sensible batting against the top bowlers and Gayle, and then smashing the part-timers around.

A likely XI would have two seamers and three spinners, Yusuf included. The West Indians don't play spinners particularly well, as could be seen in the last match. Yusuf, in particular, will be useful as a sticky slow bowler with little or no pace, keeping it straight, while the others can try to turn and flight the ball. They will have to rest Irfan and RP Singh, as these two can't stand up to attacking batsmen in full flow, and get them back against the other two teams, though Irfan is a far better new-ball bowler than in the final overs, where he gets caned. That's anyway dicey, since both have come off a good IPL, and have hardly played T20 since. Praveen Kumar may be a good interim replacement for Irfan, or else they can stretch the batting with Karthik.

That's a very good analysis, Arjun....

However, I would go a step further.

Chanderpaul has actually struggled in this format of the game. I would dare to suggest the unthinkable - maybe his place in the 20/20 side is in question....

I really think India would do well to pay a lot of attention to Gayle's opening partner, Andre Fletcher, who can be a devastating batsman in 20/20 cricket. And of course, there's the ever-dangerous Bravo....

 

[Smith]

It would be nice if Sachin came back, would add a lot of balance to the side.

At 36, India are better preserving him in a cotton wool just for the tests and ODIs which matter. India revolutionised T20 cricket thinking by making it a completely youngsters game, much like Australia revolutionised ODIs by introducing seperate teams with seperate captains. So far it has not done any bad, actually won them a WC. So better stick with that.

 

[Sirhail]

i hope india dont focus too much on gayle today. i think every west indies batter is gonna come out swinging. this is what is all about. beating the defending champs in the world cup.

west indies to win