Tag T20 World Cup 2010

Same venue (Providence ground in Guyana) last year (2009), West Indies and England were involved in a one day match where rain played spoil sport and home team coach called his boys back thinking they were past par score..

West Indies were 1 run short, said Duckworth Lewis (D/L) method (read more).

Today, 3 May 2010, same rain and D/L method came to West Indies rescue as they chased stiff 192 from 20 overs in this game 8 of T20 world cup 2010. Chris Gayle and Shivnarine Chanderpual had began confidently, notching up six a piece in first two overs before rain halted proceedings for the 3rd time on day 4 of the tournament today.

191 required from 20 overs turned into 30 runs from 22 balls with all 10 wickets in hand, West Indies thanked Duckworth Lewis when game restarted and Chris Gayle liked the look of Graeme Swann who bowled the next over after Tim Bresnan completed his unfinished over. A double and then a huge six, Gayle brought asking runrate almost run a ball and with it, drove home the game as well.

England, as professional team as they are, did everything to stay focused after being hard done by D/L as Swann took 2 wickets in that same over and then Michael Yardy bowled a six single over. Stuart Broad was asked to defend 8 runs off his first but the last over of the match which he couldn't (Andre Fletcher smashed a leg stump ball past fine leg baundary).

Earlier, England started very well after being asked to bat first Gayle who knew chasing a target on a rainy day is much easier than defending in slippery conditions. Michael Lumb took attack to home team and scored brisk 28 off 18 balls and then wicket keeper Craig Keiswetter took over, smashing 26 from just 14 balls with 3 hard hit sixes. Star batsman Kevin Pietersen kept up the momentum but he was dismissed soon after Paul Collingwood was bowled by Darren Sammy to leave team in bit of dire straits.

Eoin Morgan and Luke Wright were left to rebuild the innings against some inspired bowling from Sammy and left arm spinners Nikita Miller and Sulieman Benn. For next 5 overs, left & right hand combination concentrated on gaps without any more hiccups which allowed them to attack later on. Wright hit 4 sixes while Morgan 3 and England scored 77 runs in their last 5 overs.

The scores

England 191 for 5 wickets in 20 overs
E Morgan 55, L Wright 45*, D Sammy 2/22
West Indies 60 for 2 wkts in 5.5 overs
Won by 8 wks & 1 ball as per D/L method.
Full scorecard : Eng v WI, World T20 2010.

Locals stuck on Radio

to follow the World T20 matches in St Lucia and most of caribbean as ICC has given broadcasting rights to a fairly unknown local TV channel. This may be a trick by ICC to encourage locals to reach out to the stadium but isn't fair that locals can't watch home team perform against world's best in a home tournment.

Both openers debutants

is a rare sight in cricket but today it happened as Michael Lumb and Craig Keiswetter started for England. Interestingly, this was 17th new combination English side has tried as openers in only 20 T20 matches they've played at the highest level!