The teams that were part of the world Twenty Twenty’s first bowl-out had contrasting fortunes in their next matches. India lost to New Zealand rather badly and Pakistan played in an inspired manner to notch a win over the fancied Sri Lankans. That means that it’s now imperative for India and Sri Lanka to win both their remaining games to have any chances of qualifying for the semifinals. India have the tougher task as they have England and hosts South Africa in their group both of whom have bit more experience of the format than the Indians.
Pakistan have Bangladesh in their group so it maybe a bit easier than India but knowing how unpredictable a side they can be it’s never easy to predict how they will play. There’s no doubt that they picked themselves up in a stirring manner after the demoralizing loss to India and though they were slow to start with they came good with the skipper Malik and Younus Khan batting strokefully to break the shackles that Sri Lanka’s bowlers had bound them in. In this format it takes just a couple of overs for fortunes to change and Malik took to the experienced Jayasuriya and that started the flow of runs. Then later in the innings Afridi batted in his usual six-hitting way and with good contributions from Misbah-ul-Haq the Pakistanis totalled more than what looked likely at the half way stage.
A turnaround like this always lifts the team up and sends slivers of doubts in the minds of the team that has to chase and that was apparent in the Lankan reply. Jayasuriya is the lynchpin of the batting and when he fails the pressure gets a lot more. Sri Lanka are also unfortunate that Sangakarra hasn’t yet struck form for that adds to Jaywardena’s burden. The skipper tried as did Dilshan but the Pakistanis were not going to let go and some fine spin bowling from Afridi and some brilliant catches in the deep sunk the Lankans. Pakistan has not had a good start to their innings and may do well to look at having Afridi or Misbah at the top rather than have them come in so low in the order where they hardly get too many deliveries to play.
India too will have a task on their hands sorting out its bowling attack. With Zaheer rested after his magnificent showing in England the attack doesn’t have the edge that was there. R.P. Singh is a game trier but this format is particularly tough on those who don’t have a slower delivery nor bowl yorkers. The bowling coach had one of the best slower balls in limited-overs cricket and that’s why was such a wonderful bowler in the slog overs too. None of that has been picked up by the bowlers here and so they keep getting clobbered. Maybe India should go in with two slow bowlers or maybe they should go in with the extra batsman since at least that will give the team a chance to chase. The regular bowlers are taking a beating anyway so why not have Sehwag and Yuvraj bowl and add the extra batsman.
This format calls for thinking that’s different and that will surprise the opposition but with a new skipper perhaps there’s not the confidence to do so.