20/TwentyWorld Cup.

[F.O.X]

at least give them our Support, they need it very much right now.

Recent Updates:

Zewzeland bt india

Australia bt Bangladesh

Tomorrow:
Pakistan vs Australia ( Damn)


Regards
Wilco

 

[melb4aust]

Tomorrow:
Pakistan vs Australia ( Damn)

Regards
Wilco

Dude i guess its (Pakistan vs Sri Lanka)..tommorrow.

 

[F.O.X]

Hainnn, r u sure ?? bcoz i thought it was Pak vs Aus.


Regards
Wilco

 

[edi]

16th Match, Group F: Pakistan v Sri Lanka at Johannesburg - Sep 17, 2007 (18:00 local, 16:00 GMT)


18th Match, Group F: Australia v Pakistan at Johannesburg - Sep 18, 2007 (14:00 local, 12:00 GMT)

 

[Marathaman]

Soumya Bhattacharya, Hindustan Times
Email Author
September 17, 2007
First Published: 00:23 IST(17/9/2007)
Last Updated: 00:24 IST(17/9/2007)
Vision 20/20

As India took on Pakistan in the Twenty20 World Cup in Durban on Friday night, I settled into a corner of my ersatz leather sofa at home with an advance copy of Philip Roth’s forthcoming novel, Exit Ghost. The TV was tuned to Animal Planet: my six-year-old daughter was watching a fleet of lions barrelling through the African savannah.

India was playing an international cricket match, and I couldn’t be bothered with even the score. It hasn’t happened since I was five years old.

Usually, it’s not like this. Usually, when cricket is on (and it need not necessarily be an India game), life at home is what happens between overs. It’s been like that for as long as I can remember. As a matter of fact, not too long ago (or at least not long enough ago for me to be not able to remember), before I was an average, middle-class, getting-to-be-middle-aged working father, all of life was what happened between overs.

Even now, ‘V.S. Naipaul’ is what flashes across my mind second when someone says ‘Trinidad’; ‘Queen’s Park Oval’ does first. On the underground in London, I still always feel a certain quickening of the pulse, an odd, visceral thrill when the train pulls into the Oval station.

Cricket gives me — has given me for as long as I can remember — a sense of place. I think of cities in terms of their cricket grounds: it is the most enduring geography lesson I have ever had and it brings closer and makes familiar places with which I have little acquaintance. It gives me a sense of time: a certain event in my life is referenced with the memory of a particular game. It is, I have found, something that offers a coordinate, a centre amid the daily, changing clutter of life with which it is so tough to keep up.

So what happens with Twenty20? Why does it leave me so cold? Let alone not wanting to watch it closely, why do I actually not care at all how far India go in the World Cup in South Africa?

The trouble is, Twenty20 doesn’t seem like cricket to me. It appears to be not so much a speeded-up, watered-down version of cricket, a sort of cricket-lite for dummies who are incapable of comprehending the complexities and subtleties of the greatest game in the world, but an utter impostor. It has whittled away at cricket’s essence; it has snuffed out its soul; it is unrecognisable as the game I adore.

One of the great allures of cricket is the sense of narrative the game offers, the manner in which a Test match (or, to a lesser extent, a one-day match) unfolds with its ebbs and flows, its twists and turns, its shocks and surprises.

And then, there are the subplots, the small face-offs within the larger confrontation that give the narrative of a particular game its very own sense of frisson: Shoaib Akhtar versus Sachin Tendulkar within Pakistan versus India; Shane Warne versus Kevin Pietersen within Australia versus England.

The ruminative, contemplative nature of cricket (can you think of any other game that would accommodate meal breaks in the rhythm of the regular day’s play?) makes it enthralling to its followers. When a fast bowler charges in with the new ball and beats the batsman time and time again outside the off stump, the uninitiated believes the same action is repeating itself over and over again. It seems as though nothing is happening, that the game is not going forward.
For the fan, though, something like this is as spectacular as it is absorbing. And yes, to him/her, plenty is happening, the game is going forward — the batsman’s confidence is being undermined, the bowler has his tail up, the batsman is being set up for the kill, balls like these will have an impact on the subsequent run of play — although no runs are being scored and no wickets are falling. The charm of cricket often lies as much in the apparent intangibles as in the devotee’s ability to know where to look to find joy.

I can’t think of any other game in which conditions — of the pitch, of the ball, of the light, of the weather — are so critical. In football, if the field is slushy, both teams play on it at the same time. If there is a strong wind swirling around a tennis court, both players need to adjust their ball tosses in equal measure while serving.

But in cricket, conditions change as the game wears on, and it’s never the same for both teams. A crumbling final-day pitch; an overcast sky that helps bowlers; dew in the evening of a one-day match that makes it hard for the fielding side; sun that dries up a pitch and makes it hard and ideal for strokeplay — all these are things on which the result of a match can hinge. That is cricket’s particular charm.

These things need, above all, time. And time is what Twenty20 doesn’t have. It has no time for any of these factors to come into play and deliver the surprise and the excitement that is unique to cricket as we know it.

Worse still, it has no time for bowlers. There is no contest between the bat and the ball. In the Twenty20 version, bowlers have simply been taken out of the equation. Batsmen get a free hit (an extra ball to hit in which they can’t be dismissed) after every no-ball; to me, it seems that every ball is a free hit. There are next to no fielders out in the deep, so that makes things even more unequal. Sometimes, it looks as though Twenty20 needn’t bother with bowlers: batsmen may as well throw a ball against a wall and hit it as far as it can go.

Look, I can see the point of Twenty20. I know it is supposed to make the game more inclusive, to introduce it to a newer, wider audience. You can see it happening in England, where people are streaming into the ground at the end of a working day for a game, ties loosened, wine coolers ready, with children and wives and girlfriends. It is supposed to be like an evening out. The multiplex is all booked? Go to the cricket. Its brevity is its biggest draw. And who knows, with the Champions Twenty20 league just announced, it might just be the cornerstone of cricket’s popularity in the future.

So I’m not dense enough to not understand why it’s good for us. Trouble is, I don’t think it’s much good. Oh, it’s great fun, sure. Just don’t call it cricket.

Soumya Bhattacharya is the author of You Must Like Cricket? Memoirs of an Indian Cricket Fan.

Its a rather long article...but read it!! Very nicely written.

 

[F.O.X]

16th Match, Group F: Pakistan v Sri Lanka at Johannesburg - Sep 17, 2007 (18:00 local, 16:00 GMT)


18th Match, Group F: Australia v Pakistan at Johannesburg - Sep 18, 2007 (14:00 local, 12:00 GMT)

tnx for the clarification edi.

Regards
Wilco

 

[su-47]

Its a rather long article...but read it!! Very nicely written.

i beg to differ. i thought the article was rather narrow-minded. Cricket was never popular world-wide due to its length. Twenty20 aims at reducing that length to make it more appealing to other nations. it makes minnow teams more dangerous and gives them a chance to beat the established cricketing powers. also its not just a bastman's game. just take India v Pak and SA v england. both were bowler dominated.

The author is looking more at the dramatic aspects of cricket rather than the sheer enjoyment of it. i find twenty20 more entertaining and challenging.

 

[F.O.X]

PAKISTAN wins over Srilanka .


Regards
Wilco

 

[F.O.X]

Pakistan raise all-round game in easy win

Magnificent half-centuries from Shoaib Malik, the captain, and Younis Khan propelled Pakistan to a formidable total and a miserly three-wicket spell from Shahid Afridi then choked the life out of the Sri Lankan chase as they romped to a facile 33-run victory at the Wanderers. Sri Lanka had started superbly, with Dilhara Fernando producing an impeccable spell of 2 for 17, but their subsequent nightmare was best summed up by the plight of the legendary Sanath Jayasuriya, pummelled for 64 in his four overs and then knocked over for just five.

Malik and Younis added 101 at a tremendous clip after Pakistan were struggling at 33 for 3. Once again, they got no sort of start, with Salman Butt and Imran Nazir failing to make an impression yet again. Nazir pulled Fernando for a six behind square, but was utterly clueless about a slower ball from Chaminda Vaas that he gently bunted to cover.

Butt got another start, but was cleaned up by a tremendous delivery from Fernando that was timed at 144.5 km/hr. And after Mohammad Hafeez had come in and clipped Vaas for two fours, Fernando delivered another scorcher, a yorker that crashed into leg stump at searing pace.

But with Vaas bowling out and Fernando taken out of the attack after three superb overs, the pressure eased. Younis got going with a pull for four off Lasith Malinga, and Malik greeted Jayasuriya's entrance with a huge swipe that just cleared the man at long-on. Even then, Pakistan had reached just 69 at the halfway stage, scarcely the sort of total that would have given Mahela Jayawardene too many headaches.

It started to unravel for the Lankans after that though, with Gayan Wijekoon and Jayasuriya repeatedly lofted through or over midwicket as the run-rate mounted alarmingly. Younis struck a couple of meaty sixes over midwicket on his way to a 32-ball 50, and Malik followed suit in just 27 deliveries courtesy some scorching strokes down the ground and through the leg side.

Both men departed lofting Malinga into the deep, but there was still time for a 17-run cameo from Afridi, and a crisp contribution from Misbah-ul-Haq, who followed up his splendid knock against India will two mighty sixes in Jayasuriya's final over.

Sri Lanka's pursuit of 190 started in disastrous fashion, with Upul Tharanga top-edging Mohammad Asif to third man before he'd opened his account, and there was further drama in the opening over when a Jayasuriya miscue was dropped by Sohail Tanvir at short fine leg.

Tanvir redeemed himself in the best possible fashion though, yorking Jaysuriya with his very first delivery. That left Kumar Sangakkara and Jayawardene to rebuild the innings, and Sangakkara set about it with a magnificent six over backward point off Asif. His defiance didn't last though, and an unfortunate dismissal - bowled off the arm while going for the pull - really appeared to have put the skids on Sri Lanka.



Not much went right for Sanath Jayasuriya as he was cleaned up for 5 after giving away 64 off his four overs earlier © AFP

But after Jayawardene clipped Tanvir for a beautiful six over square leg, Chamara Silva concentrated his energy on Asif's final over. A pull and a cut started it, and when Asif bowled a no-ball, the free hit was hooked for six over fine leg. With Shoaib Malik watching frustrated, Asif was rather harshly called for another no-ball. This time, Jayawardene edged the free hit for four as 22 came from the over.

Chamara Silva greeted Mohammad Hafeez with a sweep for four, but it was soon apparent that the slow bowlers would be Pakistan's trump card. Both Hafeez and Shahid Afridi gave next to nothing away, and the pressure finally told when Jayawardene mowed an Afridi delivery to Umar Gul at deep midwicket. He had made 28, adding 53 with Silva.

Silva was the last hope, but after heaving and then deftly cutting Afridi for two fours to move to 38, he was flummoxed by a full delivery that crashed into the stumps. Jehan Mubarak and Gayan Wijekoon both failed to trouble the scorers, and the Pakistani tactic of saving Gul for the end was amply justified as the match was efficiently closed out.

Tillakaratne Dilshan took three sixes from the penultimate over bowled by Hafeez, but that was of no more than nuisance value after an emphatic statement of intent from Malik's men. For Sri Lanka, it was a rude wake-up call, and they will now most likely have to beat Australia to make the last four.
Cricinfo - Pakistan raise all-round game in easy win

Regards
Wilco

 

[Habiba Gillani]

The match was ROCKING!!!

 

[IceCold]

Finally something to cheer about regarding pakistan cricket team

 

[haviZsultan]

Finally something to cheer about regarding pakistan cricket team

Have mercy on your Pakistani brothers stuck in Canada without money to buy internet or Pakistani channels or repair their broken laptops... only thing i can do to watch the twenty20 is:

Get me out of Canada! Cheap country! There you go... now the Canadian government will pick me up tommarrow for talking too much and send me back to Pakistan where I can be with my people and watch the twenty20... then i will also get 20/20 for the quiz 2marrow at my cheap college and I can celebrate all i want

 

[Queen Anny]

Please all of you pray to Allah that Pakistan win reaches semi finals.

 

[A.Rahman]

Please all of you pray to Allah that Pakistan win reaches semi finals.

Aim for the moon

 

[Awesome]

After Bangladesh we just got 2 games to win and the world cup is ours!