The Studs and Duds of T20 World Cup
One has to admit that the current T20 World Cup was quite a successful one. The fans from Sri Lanka were quite co-operative. Even a neutral fixture had nearly capacity crowd at the stadiums. Also, the matches were much more closer and competitive.
The players played an important role for this tournament’s success. So on the eve of the T20 World Cup final, let us see who were the players who set the stadium on fire, and also the players who disappointed with their poor performance.
1) Shane Watson: The Australian all-rounder was in the form of his life. He topped both the batting and the bowling charts for most of the tournament. No wonder then, that he won 4 continuous man of the match awards for his excellent performances. One can confidently admit that he has been the driving force behind Australia’s campaign and without him, it would have been extremely difficult for them to have reached the semi-finals.
2) Chris Gayle: The Gayle storm struck again. The only difference is, this time, he went the Gangnam way. The West Indian batsman has been at his ferocious best in this tournament. Not only did he consistently give good starts for his team, but also ensured that he stayed at the crease until maximum damage had been done. Who knows this better than the poor Australian team! They were smashed all over the park in the semi finals, which completely crushed their hopes of reaching the finals.
3) Virat Kohli: This boy from Delhi has been in top form for the past year or so. He continued to be so this time round, being the only bright spot in the out-of–form Indian batting line up. His performance was pretty impressive, but could not stop India’s exit.
4) The Pakistani and Sri Lankan spinners: The subcontinent teams are always known for their spinning talent; and these two did not disappoint in this tournament either. Saeed Ajmal, Rangana Herath, Mohammad Hafeez, Ajantha Mendis and Raza were spot on for their teams and kept the opposition batsmen dancing to their tunes.
1) Shahid Afridi and Virender Sehwag: Much was expected from these swashbuckling batsmen. But they could not live up to the fans’ expectations. Sehwag’s form was as bad as it had been for the past year; but Afridi was much worse. His batting contribution for Pakistani team was virtually nothing.
2) The English team: The defending champions were a huge disappointment in this tournament. First of all, their key batsman Kevin Pietersen was excluded from the team thanks to his indiscipline on social networking platforms. Though they started their campaign with a bang, with Luke Wright scoring 99, the next few matches exposed their inability to play spin bowling and left them reeling.
3) The South African team: South Africa again showed their inability to keep their nerve in tight matches. Yet again, they choked and went out of the tournament without even winning a match in the Super Eights.
Yuvraj Singh, who battled cancer just months ago, returned to international cricket successfully and was the second highest wicket taker for the Indian team.