Some Magic Moments from ICC Men's T20 World Cup 2022

The ICC Men's T20 World Cup 2022 has been marred by rain but it has provided some very good matches being played on very good surfaces. The toss has not mattered a lot and good cricket has been required to win matches.

Let us look at some of the best matches that have been played so far!!

Namibia vs Sri Lanka - Simonds Stadium, Geelong

Namibia defeating Asia Cup champions Sri Lanka in the first match set the tone for the World Cup! It was a total capitulation by the Asian Champions against a spirited Namibian side.

Scotland vs West Indies - Bellerive Oval, Hobart

Scotland repeated Namibia's feat on the second day defeating 2 time World Champions West Indies. Again, it was a comprehensive victory by Scotland and would later prove pivotal as West Indies would crash out in the qualifier stage after the Irish would trash them again 2 days later.

New Zealand vs Australia - Sydney Cricket Ground, Sydney

New Zealand weren't given much of a chance on the opening day against hosts and current champions Australia but Finn Allen and Devon Conway came out and launched a blitzkrieg against Aussie bowlers, one they would never recover from and crash to an 89 run loss in their first match.

Pakistan vs India - Melbourne Cricket Ground, Melbourne

India and Pakistan squared off at MCG in front of a packed 90,000 racous crowd. Young Arshdeep nipping out Babar and Rizwan, Ifthikhar counterattacking 50, Haris Rauf 2 quick wickets - the match provided magic moments at regular intervals but the last ball finish left everybody stunned as Virat Kohli snatched victory from jaws of defeat by timing his acceleration to perfection.

Ireland vs England - Melbourne Cricket Ground, Melbourne

MCG was again to be at the center of a wonderful game when Ireland defeated England a few days later in a match decided by DLS method. Ireland showed tremendous grit to first put up a big score under cloudy conditions and later picked regular wickets of a star studded English batting line up before the heavens opened up and sent Irish fans and players into delirium.

Zimbabwe vs Pakistan - Optus Stadium, Perth

You can count on Pakistan to provide regular hum-dingers! They were at it again in their second match when they faced Zimbabwe at Perth. Chasing 131 to win, they seemed to be in control at 88/3 in 13.3 overs but they kept losing regular wickets from that point onwards to lose the game by 1 run. Zimbabwe bowlers gave nothing away and their fielding was top notch. Special mention to Sikandar Raza who snared 3 important wickets to derail the run chase!!

Looking forward to more good cricket over the next few weeks!! Any more matches stand out to you?

Asian Champions Sri Lanka to take on Namibia in T20 World Cup Opener

So the big day has finally arrived with Sri Lanka taking on Namibia in the T20 World Cup 2022 in Australia to kick start their campaign!

Sri Lanka would be confident and raring to go but face a Namibian side that will be looking to impress once again after a stellar showing in the last edition.

They squared off in the qualifier stage in the T20 World Cup last year and Lankan Lions trumped Namibia easily.

Theekshana and Hasaranga proved too much for them as they folded for 96 batting first and Sri Lanka then chased down the total with ease.

The spin twins will once again hold the key for Sri Lanka especially as news is coming out that the impressive left arm pace bowler Madhushanka suffered an injury scare in their last practice session.  That could mean a coming together of last year's combo of fast bowlers for Sri Lanka - Dushmantha Chameera & Lahiru Kumara.

The batting is fairly settled with Asalanka making way for the multi faceted Dhananjaya De Silva at least to begin with. Kusal Mendis and Rajapakse will be the driving force for them as far as the strike rates are concerned.

Namibia will rely on their skipper Gerhard Erasmus along with all rounders Jan Frylinck, JJ Smit & the ever present David Wiese. Trumplemann, the left arm pacer, who impressed last year will be looking to put on another good showing.

Geelong is a very funnily shaped ground with some sides as small as 51 m. Bowlers will have to keep their line and restrict the batsmen to one side of the ground.

Top Fantasy Picks from Sri Lanka v Namibia

Sri Lanka

Mendis, Nissanka, Theekshana, Hasaranga

Namibia

Erasmus, Smit, Frylinck, Wiese

Key Battle

Sri Lankan spinners v Namibian batsmen

How Namibian batsmen handle the Lankan spinners will be the most important battle in this match, one that will most likely decide the outcome of the match.

Sri Lanka v Namibia Probable XI

Sri Lanka: Kusal Mendis, Pathum Nissanka, Dananjaya de Silva, Dhanushka Gunathilaka, Bhanuka Rajapasksa, Dasun Shanaka, Wanindu Hasaranga, Maheesh Theekshana, Chamika Karunaratne, Dushmantha Chameera, Lahiru Kumara

Namibia: Stephan Baard, Lohandre Louwrens, Jan Nicol Loftie-Eaton, Gerhard Erasmus, David Wiese, JJ Smit, Jan Frylinck, Zane Green, Ruben Trumpelmann, Bernard Scholtz, Ben Shikongo

The match will start at 9.30 AM IST (streamed live on Disney Hotstar app & on TV on Star Sports)

How do you see the match panning out?

T20 2022 World Cup, Group A Preview: Sri Lanka, Namibia, Netherlands & UAE

Sri Lanka, Namibia, Netherlands and UAE will contest Group A in the first round of the 2022 ICC Men’s T20 World Cup for the right to reach the Super 12 stage.

Sri Lanka

Asian powerhouse, Sri Lanka start the campaign having to play qualifiers for the second consecutive edition of the ICC WT20. They will be buoyed by the recent success having win the coveted Asia Cup last month and will look to top the group A & then impose a challenging march towards the world title. Sri Lanka have also hired the services of WT20 winners Mahela Jayawardene & Lasith Malinga which should help them immensely.

Favorites to top the Group, the young Lankan side will rely on Pathum Nissanka and Kusal Mendis to give them a steady start. Rajapakse and skipper Shanaka will look to close the innings out with their big hits.

Hasaranga and Theekshana will shoulder the bowling attack having done exceedingly well in the last 10-12 months. Chameera & Kumara are back after lengthy lay offs but the surprise package might be the left arm pace of Madhushanka known to swing the ball prodigiously.

Namibia

Namibia, defying odds, progressed to the Super 12 stage in the last edition of the T20 World Cup by defeating Ireland & Netherlands.

They will be looking to repeat the feat and have already defeated Ireland again in their first warm up match to lay down the marker. 

They have an experienced squad led by Gerhard Erasmus. All rounders Jan Frylinck, JJ Smit & the wily old David Wiese give their middle order an impressing look. I was very impressed by their opening left arm quick Rubel Trumplemann too!

Looking forward to seeing them again for the second time!

Netherlands

Having been on the cricket scene for a long time now, Netherlands are on a somewhat downward slope. They lost all 3 matches in their qualifier last edition and bowed out without a fight.

They've lost their warm up match against Scotland and will be looking to quickly turn things around if they are to get past the qualifier stage this time.

They have enough experience shoring their squad with openers Myburg & Max ODowd looking to set the pace. Tom Cooper, Bas De Leede & veteran van der Merwe will need to make useful runs from the middle to lower order.

Klassen, Gugten, Glover will be their main bowlers with all rounder Leede & spinner Merwe completing the set.

Retirement of star Ryan ten Doeschate will surely have left a big hole in this side though and it'll take a special effort for them to get past the qualifier stage.

United Arab Emirates (UAE)

UAE are back on the T20 World Cup scene after a long gap of 8 years and will be looking forward to get a scalp or two.

I was expecting them to roll over in their warm up match against West Indies but they first restricted the two time champions to 152/9 before making a spirited chase losing by only 17 runs in the end.

Junaid Siddiqui was the star with the ball taking a 5'fer while opener Muhammad Waseem made a sparkling 69 off 52 balls to keep them in the hunt till the end.

How they fare in high pressure actual matches remains to be seen.

T20 World Cup 2022 Qualifier Format

The top two teams will progress from the group after all four have played against each other once in the round-robin format, kicking off with Sri Lanka taking on Namibia on October 16.

All the matches will be played at Kardinia Park in Geelong.

The winners of the group will join current champions and hosts Australia, as well as Afghanistan, England, New Zealand and the Group B runners-up in Group 1 of the Super 12 stage.

The team who finishes second will join Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, South Africa and the Group A runners-up in Group 2.

Predictions from Qualifier Group A

1st Sri Lanka Q

2nd Namibia Q

3rd Netherlands

4th UAE

Do let me know what do you think about this group!

Click here to read about Group B Preview

Bangladesh, India Enter the Semi Finals of the ICC U19 Cricket World Cup

Bangladesh and India progressed through to the Semi-Finals of the ICC U19 Cricket World Cup 2016 being played in Bangladesh.

Bangladesh U19s defeat Nepal U19s by 6 wickets

In the first Quarter Final of the ICC U19 Cricket World Cup hosts Bangladesh faced off with Nepal, a team that had defeated New Zealand and Ireland in the group stages. Nepal won the toss and decided to bat first and they were jolted early to be 19-2 before their captain Raju Rijul took centre-stage. He played a fluent innings of 72 off just 80 deliveries and strung important partnerships with opener Sunil Dhamala (25) and 3 down Aarif Sheikh (21). But other than Raju, no other batsman could carry on to make a sizeable contribution. They also suffered due to poor running between the wickets loosing 4 wickets to needless run-outs. Nepal finished on 211-9 in their 50 overs.

Bangladesh lost opener Saif Hasan early to Dhamala and then lost three quick wickets of Pinak Ghosh, Nazmul Hossain Shanto and Joyraz Sheik between the 20th and the 28th overs to leave them in a bit of strife at 98-4 and still requiring over a hundred runs to win the tie. Wicket-keeper Zakir Hasan joined Captain Mehedi Hasan Miraz and the two first stopped the bleeding by running the singles hard and eased the pressure slowly by occasionally finding the boundary. The two displayed a mature and calm mind to steer the chase easily as both of them completed well deserved fifties. Zakir remained unbeaten on 75 off 77 deliveries while Mehedi made 55* off 65 balls. Captain fantastico Mehedi Hasan Miraz won the Man of the Match award for his excellent performance with both bat and the ball.

India U19s defeat Namibia U19s by 197 runs

Indian captain Ishan Kishan won the toss and elected to bat first. He did not enjoy a long stay in the middle though and was dismissed for just 6 in the 3rd over. But Rishabh Pant who had made the fastest U19 50 in the last match against Nepal carried on from where he had left and first shared a huge 100 run partnership with Anmolpreet Singh (41) and then another 50 run partnership with Sarfaraz Khan before being dismissed for a peppy 111 off just 96 balls. Namibia failed to apply any kind of pressure on the Indian line up as Sarfaraz (76 off 76 balls), Armaan Jaffer (64 off 55 balls) and Mahipal Lomror (41 off 21 balls) all made significant contributions right till the end to help India post a mammoth 349-6 in their 50 overs.

Namibia started the chase reasonably well with the openers, Eaton and Davin putting on 59 in the 10th over but the wicket of Davin opened the floodgates and Namibia continued to lose wickets in a heap. Mayank Dagar and Anmolpreet Singh were the pick of the Indian bowlers picking up 3 wickets each. Namibia were bowled out for a meagre 152 runs thus handing India a humongous win by 197 runs and paving their way through to the Semi Final stage of the ICC U19 World Cup.

This blog post is inspired by the blogging marathon hosted on IndiBlogger for the launch of the #Fantastico Zica from Tata Motors. You can apply for a test drive of the hatchback Zica today.