A topsy-turvy tournament

Sunil Gavaskar

The ICC World Twenty20 was a topsy-turvy tournament as is usually the case with this latest format of the game.

Even in the Indian Premier League, fancied teams have bitten the dust as was seen in the first edition when the Rajasthan Royals won the trophy even though they didn't have the superstars in their team as other teams had.

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This year, the holders couldn't make it to the semi-finals and last year's bottom team Deccan Chargers went on to win the event while last year's second from bottom team, the Royal Challengers of Bangalore, were the runners-up.  Both these teams had done their homework and had learnt from the previous year's experience and didn't commit the same mistakes as in the first year.

In the ICC Twenty20 World Cup, India, the defending champions, were expected to win again simply because of the exposure that its players had through playing two editions of the IPL. But what happened was different as other teams having watched the IPL tournament in South Africa and studied the discomfort level of some Indian batsmen to the short ball, peppered them with that delivery and India never got off to the kind of start that ensures a team gets a healthy total on the board.

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Individually too, players had done their share of introspection.

So, Shahid Afridi, who in the first few games of the ICC tournament batted exactly as he had in the first IPL  throwing his bat at the first ball and getting out most times, was now prepared to bide his time and play himself in.

He thus ended up as a match winner because he wasalready bowling well, and once he started to make a contribution withthe bat, Pakistan benefitted hugely.

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It was Afridi who started the turnaround for Pakistan, and apart from his bowling and batting, who can forget that stunning catch he took when he ran back thirty something metres and ended up inches from the boundary ropes with his hands aloft in triumph.

It was thus understandable that he thought that having ended up on the winning side, he should have been the player of the tournament rather than Dilshan.

The Sri Lankan batted brilliantly throughout the tournament, but when it came to the finals, the Pakistanis bowled him a barrage of short-pitched stuff, which did not allow him to get onto the front foot and had him out for a duck.

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No doubt other teams will also try the same tactic, but for it to succeed, the pitches will need to have some life in them.

His shot over the head (the Dilshan scoop) was an amazing innovation and he played it at will against the best of bowlers.

Despite his duck in the final, he had plenty of points in his favour in the semis chipping in with his fielding as well and that puts him ahead of Afridi as the CEAT International Cricketer of the Week.

Professional Management Group

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