India Twenty20 failure

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< 1 minute read

India are really bad at Twenty20. Their bowlers lack variety, the batsmen can’t innovate and the domestic structure has too little riding on each game, meaning a side can finish fourth and still win the league.

Turns out the IPL isn’t the ultimate Twenty20 school.

DON'T BE LIKE GATT!

Mike Gatting wasn't receiving the King Cricket email when he dropped that ludicrously easy chance against India in 1993.

Coincidence?

Why risk it when it's so easy to sign up?

13 comments

  1. Absolutely KC.

    India play really well one day and then play like drains the next. Much like Austrailia, England, West indias, Pakistan………

    Only South Africa can guarantee to play really well until a game that really matters, such as a must-win match, semi-final or a final, and then find an intriguing way to get themselves eliminated. Usually in some strange rain-affected match.

    I do like writing comments that are much longer than the article upon which they are commenting.

  2. india is really un lucky their is no powe like previous last world cup team their is no player like sehwag indian team required power full player like sachin and sehwag pitch hitters becouse t20worldcup 150 is a essy chessable score their is no probs abt bowlers only the bats man problem to loose a game

  3. Can we just stop analysing 20/20 as if it were some sort of cricket? In horseshoe-pitching, you chuck a horseshoe at a pin. If it goes around the pin, you get a point. If it doesn’t, you don’t. That’s it. There is no point having a team meeting before the event to discuss tactics. The only comment would be “Hit the pin more.”

    In 20/20, you chuck the bat at the ball. If it connects well enough, the ball goes over the ropes for six. If you miss, you might be out. That’s it. I’m not saying that there is no skill in it, just that there are no tactics.

    “That’s right, Jonathan, we didn’t play well enough today. I think that tomorrow we need to have our batsmen hit the ball for six more and get out less.”

  4. Bert, love your posts usually but (in my humble opinion) think you’re being unfairly dismissive of T20 here.

    Of course there are tactics in T20. England even apparently had some yesterday! They picked a team suited to the conditions and the opposition and appeared to have a game plan for the match, which they pretty much stuck to. I’m not denying that India shot themselves in the foot by opting to chase and cocking up their batting order but I do think there was evidence that England had a specific strategy for dealing with the various Indian players and that this contributed to their victory.

    I would never argue against Test cricket being the ultimate format but surely you can’t deny there has been some top quality cricket played in this tournament? A past criticism of the format has been the dominance of bat over ball but we’ve seen much fairer contests, with bowlers regularly picking up the motm award. I think it’s been completely absorbing and will almost certainly have attracted new fans who hopefully will cement their love of the sport during The Ashes.

    Apologies for being lengthy and very crickety, KC!

  5. I was at the match and saw Rob Key with my own eyes. As he ran on with drinks my whole world shook. I may have been slightly too keen in sharing the majesty of his approach with nearby India fans, but I think at the end of my 20 minute monologue they were nodding in stunned appreciation, rendered mute by his magnificence.

    In between Rob’s interventions there was some cricket perpetrated by people who were actually playing, but this seemed inconsequential at the time.

  6. India’s defeat against host team England shocked me much. India is my favorite team. However, I lost my interest to see Twenty20 World Cup. However, two South Asian teams Sri Lanka and Pakistan are still in the competition. I expect that any of them will grab the trophy of this year.

  7. Stefen, I think you’ve been on too many football blogs. Grammar, punctuation and correct spelling are par for the course here and there is definitely no tolerance for text message style abbreviations!

  8. Benno, dear old thing, you do Stefen a great disservice. I think the word ‘chessable’ best describes twenty20.

    End of the IPL after this tournament? Oh, please god, please, please…

  9. I think Stefen / Stefan might even have spelt his name incorrectly. That’s the only guaranteed mark in any old-school exam straight down the shitter.

  10. Thanks for the nice comments, SarahCanterbury. You don’t have to be nice, though, if you want to disagree – just go right ahead. I’m married, so I’m quite used to being wrong.

    I take your point, though. I’ll not say that there is no strategy in 20/20, just that it is as likely as not that whatever strategy you pick can be wiped out by a few (lucky?) blows. The game remains one that can be dominated absolutely by a single batsman who is seeing it like a beach ball, irrespective of everything else. Nip him out with a lucky one early, and you win. That top edge clears the infield and goes for four, you lose.

    (Apropos of the Foster debate, that is why you need a KEEPER-batsman in this version, but a keeper-BATSMAN in tests.)

  11. Gosh, Bert, you really are in a serious mood this morning.

    I’m mostly with Sarah on this one but recognise that T20 has an intriguing mixture of skills, tactics, strategy and luck. Intriguing enough to keep me interested.

    I was there Sunday, Simon, and can confirm the earth-shattering nature of Rob Key as drinks waiter. The Indian fans started cheering and waving their flags. The England fans sat in near-silent awe. It was a pivotal moment.

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