24th netherlands opted for bangladesh to bat first. they were 72/4 off ten overs and afterwards added 72 more runs and lost 4 more wickets. netherlands must have thought 145 was within reach, but only got to 50 during the 10th over, exactly 3 overs more than bangladesh had taken and at the end of the 10th over they were 21 down at 51/4 and needing 94 more. the next three overs brought only another 16 and the 13th was, most inconveniently, a wicket maiden. as you can imagine, maiden overs are scarce in t20. 66/6 off 13 meant 79 were needed off the final 7. more savage batting helped a little, but wickets continued to fall and 24 were needed off the last over and then 12 off the last two balls, which only brought 2 runs and the tenth wicket. too many dutch batsmen failed; only three made double figures, and the second highest scorer was number 11 paul van meekern with 24. top scorer was colin ackerman* with 62. bangladesh's taskin ahmed took 4 for 25 and two of the bowlers went for 20 and 15 (for 2 wickets) off their four overs. * which reminds me that city legend alf ackerman was from south africa, where many are of dutch descent. the zimbabwe v south africa game was delayed by rain. when it was eventually able to start, it was down to 9 overs each. zimbabwe started badly and were 19/4 off 3.4 overs (and 4.0 overs). calmer batsmen then scored double figures from all but one of the remaining overs, and did have their partnership ended off the last ball, but the last 5 overs had brought another 60 runs, making 79/5, to at least present south africa with a bit of a challenge. wessly madhevere did the damage with 35 runs off 18 deliveries (22 runs from boundaries), giving a handy strike rate of 194.44. the south africa reply went straight into 5th gear with turbo boost turned on. quinton de kock began with 4, 4, 4, 6, 4, 4, and 1, making 23/0 after the first over, and taking the strike for the second. the second over started with a no ball followed by a dot ball, but then rain brought things to a halt. on the resumption, the target had been amended to 64 off 7 overs. de kock was straight back in the groove, with four more fours in the over, taking the score to 40/0 off 2 overs. the third over was only slightly less eventful, and bavuma even got to face a couple of deliveries, both of which brought him singles and off the strike. de kock added 8 more to give him 47 off 18, and made the score 51/0 off 3 overs. some of the play had carried on despite rain, but eventually the umpires stopped it, and it didn't restart. south africa had only to make 13 off 4 overs, but because they hadn't batted for five overs (and zimbabweans were doing a spot of time wasting) the verdict was no result. a point each.
Great reports x, Keep them going! The tournament seems to have come to life. I haven’t got into a routine of watching them yet
India Pakistan was a game for the ages, which will be spoken about and replayed for years, it was that good. Felt desperately sorry for the Pakistan spinner who had to bowl the last over, but have to question how the captain let it get to that stage when he could have used his last over when India were plodding along throughout the Middle overs. If England don't make it, I hope we get a second installment of that fixture in the final
25th just the one game today. a group 1 game between sri lanka and australia. this one appeared to be drifting along in a standard mundane manner. until it wasn't. but first things first. sri lanka batted first and at the halfway point were 63/1. the intended acceleration came, along with the usual incidental wickets, and 94 more runs were added for the loss of 5 more wickets, making 157/6. opener and top scorer pathum nissanka spent 45 deliveries - seven and a half overs - compiling his 40, which may have hindered progress, rather than helping it. nevertheless, australia were set 158 to win. the austrialian innings was an odd mixture of high and low over totals. the first seven overs, for example, took them to 38/1 and the next three overs added 47 for a 10 over score of 85/2. the next two overs yielded a mere 3 runs. and then things changed. at 89/3 off 12.2 overs, marcus stoinis came to the crease and evidently had an urgent appointment elsewhere with not much time to get there. by the end of the over, he had 3 off 7 deliveries. an over later, it was 16 off 7. after the 15th, he had 34 off 12. the last ball of the 16th took him to 53 off 17, an australian record for t20 internationals. the next over lasted three deliveries until he hit a winning 6 off the only one he faced. 59 not out off 18, strike rate of 327.77 per hundred or 19.67 per over. six sixes and four fours, making 52 in boundaries, and 10 of the 18 he faced reached or passed the rope. the final partnership lasted 25 deliveries and added 69. australia won with 158/3. no prizes for guessing motm.
26th two more from group one, completing the second round of games. an ireland team, buoyed by the mere fact of being in the final groups, batted first against an england team that plays hard but knows there will be banana skins. would this be one of them? the ireland innings was paused for rain after 9 deliveries with the score 8/0, leading to a delay of around 20 minutes. perhaps the prospect of losing overs prompted ireland to take the initiative and, despite losing a wicket in the 3rd over, the run rate was pushed and by the end of the 10th over - which went for 18 - ireland were on a very handy 92/1 and england's bowling figures were an uncharacteristic mess. the final ball of the 12th broke the second wicket stand of 82 when adil rashid dived to stop a drive off his bowling and deflected the ball onto the wicket, thereby running out lorcan tucker, who was backing up. tucker made 34. two deliveries later his replacement was back in the pavilion. a 19-ball 29-run stand ensued and was ended when captain and man of the match andy balbirnie was despatched for 62. this acted as a reset button for england's bowling and fielding, or it set off a state of panic in irish heads; the final 24 deliveries of the innings upped the score by 25, but at the cost of the remaining 7 wickets. the total was 157 from 19.2 overs, giving england the same target that australia chased down against sri lanka yesterday. normally 158 would not be a problem for this england. england, however, appeared to have forgotten this. butler went off the second ball. hales went off the 16th. stokes went off the 31st, by which time england were 29/3 off 5.1. malan and brook took the score to 63/3 after the 10th over, 29 behind ireland, and with 95 still needed. brook fell in the next over, and malan, top scorer with 35, went on 13.1 at 86/5. moeen ali had replaced brook and was moving things along in a positive manner. he took 12 off the first half of the 15th, but then rain started. and didn't stop. had the score been just 6 more, england would have won via messrs duckworth and lewis, but lost. had the rain waited a few more minutes, ali, with 24 off 12, might have made up the difference. but those things didn't happened and england ended with 105/5 off 14.3, 53 short. on balance, perhaps the weather saved ireland but perhaps ireland deserved it. england had an off day and still could have nicked it if not for weather which doesn't seem typical for australia. meanwhile, new zealand and afghanistan had even more atypical australian weather and didn't get started. a point each left new zealand top.
Ah yes, the weather favoured the Irish, such rotten luck, and the team had a one-off bad day. Well, I am glad that you are comforted by that synopsis.
Ireland deserved that IMO, we were poor and went into it thinking we would roll them over without getting out of first gear. Having said that, I had a feeling if the weather hadn't intervened then we would probably see us get over the line.
27th two group 2 games today, both going as expected. bangladesh v south africa south africa racked up the highest total so far in the finals, 205/5. this was largely thanks to quinton de kock (63 off 38) and rilee rossouw (109 off 56) who came together at 2/1 and added 168 in 13.3 overs. slightly surprising that south africa added only 35 more in 5.3 overs. the 168 was the highest partnership in t20 world cup history (which stretches back for years and years, of course), but the partnership was ended on the very next delivery. the score was 91/1 after ten overs. the third over had gone for 21, but a rain break in the 6th over slowed scoring briefly. over 11 went for 21 and over 14 went for 23. bangladesh lasted until 16.3 overs when the were all out for 101. top scorer litton das made 34, batting at 3 and was 8th out. bowler anrich nortje took 4 for 10 off 3.3 overs. india batted first against the netherlands and, after a cheap first wicket, three half centuries - sharma 53, kohli 62no, yadav 51no - made 179/2. the halfway score was 67/1, so 112 were added in the second half. netherlands lasted the whole 20 over, but couldn't get the runs. the top scorer made 20 and five others were out in the teens. the meanest indian bowler was kumar with 2 for 9 off 3 overs. netherlands ended with three fours to make 123/9.
and the third match of the day: zimbabwe batted first against pakistan. after a first wicket stand of 42 and a 4th wicket stand of 31, four wickets fell in 6 deliveries with the score stuck on 95. the next wicket added another 31 until it ended in the last over, and four more took the score to 130/8, way well short of anything successfully defended thus far. sean williams top scored with 31. mohammad wasim took 4 for 24 in his four overs and shadab khan 3 for 23 in his four. pakistan must have fancied their chances, but found runs hard to come by. the first 7 overs brought only 31 (for 2) and at the halfway point they were 54/3, compared to zimbabwe's 67/3. the 4th wicket pair added 52 from 6 overs but another wicket fell a ball later, leaving 43 to get from 6.1 overs with 5 wickets to spare. the next four overs brought 21 runs - not even half - for the loss of one more wicket, so 22 were needed from the final 2 overs. a six in the 19th contributed to 11 off the over, so, at 120/6, a repeat would do the job. the last over started with a 3 and a 4, leaving 4 more to win. a single followed, but then came a dot ball. three to win, 2 more deliveries. the 5th ball brought a wicket... so onto the last ball, three for a pakistan win, two for a tie, under two for a zimbabwe win... the batsman hits it, and they run, but it's too near a fielder; the throw is to the striker's end, but the wicket keeper fumbles it. the batsmen have to keep running but the keeper gets control of the ball and makes the run out. one run scored, but it's not enough, and zimbabwe defend 130 and win by one run. pakistan ended on 129/9, shan masood scoring 44. the zimbabwe bowlers gave away absolutely nothing. none that completed their four overs gave away more than 25, the pick being sikanda rosa's 3 for 25.
for the sake of completeness 28th group1: australia v england and afghanistan v ireland didn't even start. a point to all of them.
29th just a solitary group 1 game today. sri lanka, in the final groups after getting through the qualifiers played new zealand, confident and playing well. new zealand batted first and ran straight into bother. a first over wicket was followed by others in the third and another in the fourth, leaving the score at 15/3. the second had brought glenn phillips to the crease and with daryl mitchell he set about steadying the ship. the sri lankan bowlers were giving nothing away and new zealand were a disappointing 54/3 after 10 overs. mitchell eventually fell for 22 in the 15th over, by which time the partnership was worth 84 from 10.3 overs. phillips by this point was on 63 from 44 deliveries and pushing up the run rate. the remaining overs all went for double figures, with 68 added off 5.3 overs with three more wickets falling. phillips was out in the last over for 104 off 64. mitchell's 22 was the second highest. the final total was 167/7. two of the sri lanka bowlers went for 23 or less from their 4 overs, but 113 was added in the second 10 overs. sri lanka's reply was a disaster, but could have been worse. after 21 deliveries they were 8 for 4. after ten overs they were 58/6, actually ahead of new zealand at that point, but running out of wickets. the sixth wicket was that of bhanuka rajapaksa, who had made 34 from 22. two and a half overs later they were 65/8. dasun shanaka briefly fought back, making 35 from 32, but fell at 93/9. the last pair managed to take the score to 102 to restore a little dignity, and the final wicket fell at 19.2 overs, giving new zealand a 65 run win. trent boult took 4 for 13 from 4 overs. glenn phillips (104 and motm) scored more than the (four) others that had reached double figure scores (102) combined.
