Congratulations to the Indian team on winning the Twenty20 World Cup! What a great final - the match was up in the air until the final moment. This element of unpredictability is what makes the Twenty20 game so interesting. This is certainly a key element in most american games - the ability to turn a game on its head until the last moment, and at this the 20 over game excelled. It was a fun tournament and I'm glad the next one is just 2 years away.
The ICC seems to have plans to restrict the Twenty20 game to just a few games a year but I don't see how it can be contained. After all, money rules the world of sport and surely the buzz generated by this world cup was noticed by everyone. It will be interesting to see how thisdevelops. Not everyone is impressed, obviously.
I watched the full game thanks to the internet and my friendly local source, Rajesh. Thanks for the feed, Guruji! :)
Woohoo! Thrilling win for India at the Twenty20 game vs. Pakistan!
UPDATE: Videos now available! Worth watching :)
Highlights:
The Bowlout:
and the original post -
So, admittedly India could have wrapped this one up with much less tension! With Pakistan chasing and 29 runs required from 12 balls at the end of over 18 (39 required from 14 at 17.4), they just needed to stop the boundaries and sixes. However, after a disastrous over from Agarkar, which resulted in 17 runs in just one over, Pakistan looked to come up on top. With the game tied and 2 balls to go, Pakistan looked a sure winner before India came back to hold them to a tie.
The tied games are resolved shootout style in Twenty20 cricket and each team picks 5 bowlers to have a go at the stumps (no batsman). I'm copying the bowlout commentary from CricInfo here so you can see how it all went down!! :)
Bowl out
Shoaib Malik has won the toss and he has asked India to have the first go. Both teams are out there practising hitting the stumps.
How hard can it be to hit three stumps without a batsman in front of them? We'll soon find out.
India have nominated Sehwag, Uthappa, Sreesanth, Pathan and Harbhajan. It will be Gul, Tanvir, Arafat, Afridi and Asif for Pakistan.
Round 1 Sehwag is up first for India. Dhoni waits behind the stumps. Sehwag has a big grin on his face. Sehwag runs in, bowls flat and fast and hits the stumps.
Arafat gets ready for his turn. He bowls a full toss that misses off stump.
India lead 1-0 after the first round.
Round 2
Harbhajan bowls quick and straight and hits. He's delighted and celebrates like he's taken a wicket, or scored a penalty.
Gul runs in off a short run up and also misses the stumps. The Indians love it.
India lead 2-0 after the second round. Massive pressure on Pakistan.
Round 3
Robin Uthappa runs in, bowls seam up and knocks the stumps over. He takes off his cap and bows to the crowd.
Pakistan have to hit the stumps with all their three remaining chances to stay in the bowl-out. If India hit one more time, they will win.
Here comes Afridi and he fires it down leg side! India have won the bowl-out 3-0.
Amazing scenes at Kingsmead. It was like a football shootout and the Indians are celebrating fittingly. They won the match 3-0 through a bowl-out after the proper match ended in a thrilling tie!
Go India!! Very impressive!
I wish ESPN2 or some secondary sports channel would pick up and telecast these shorter Cricket games, they sound fun!
On a somewhat related note, did you know Google shows you Cricket scores now? Go to www.google.com and try typing in "India Cricket" as your search term!
