Green, the colour of victory

The 2009 ICC World Twenty20 took place in England recently. This was the second ICC World Twenty20 tournament, following the inaugural event in South Africa in September 2007.

The tournament featured 12 teams — the Test-playing nations and three qualifiers. The matches were played at three English grounds — Lord’s, The Oval in London, and Trent Bridge in Nottingham.

The finals which took place at Lord’s on June 21 saw Pakistan beating Sri Lanka by eight wickets.

In the 2007 tournament in South Africa, India beat Pakistan in a gripping finale by five runs.

How it began

Twenty20 is a form of cricket, originally introduced in the U.K. for professional inter-county competition by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB), in 2003. A Twenty20 game involves two teams, each has a single innings, batting for a maximum of 20 overs.

A Twenty20 game is completed in about three-and-half hours, with each innings lasting around 75 minutes, thus bringing the game closer to the timespan of other popular team sports. It was introduced to create a lively form of the game which would be attractive to spectators at the ground and viewers on television and as such it has been very successful.

Since its inception the game has spread around the cricket world. On most international tours there is at least one Twenty20 match and most Test-playing nations have a domestic cup competition. The inaugural World Twenty20 was played in South Africa in 2007 with India defeating Pakistan in the final by a very tight 5 runs. Pakistan featured in the final again, in the 2009 World Twenty20, this time against Sri Lanka, winning it by eight wickets[2] and thus becoming the most successful team at ICC World Twenty20, by reaching the final both times.

Photo : AFP

Shahid Afridi : Triumphant.

Shahid Afridi saved his best for the last and took Pakistan to the Twenty20 World Cup trophy with priceless fifties in the semifinal and final. The mercurial Pathan struck an uncharacteristic, unbeaten 54 against Sri Lanka in the summit clash to help his team overhaul the 139 target it has set. Pakistan had been the losing finalist to India in the inaugural edition of the event last time around.

Still not 30, Afridi’s fate in the event mirrored that of his team. Both began like zombies in the league phase and gained momentum as the event progressed. Pakistan’s rise through the tournament was similar to its performance in the 1992 ODI World Cup under Imran Khan when a solitary point from a rain-abandoned match prevented it from being knocked out in the league phase.

“I’m the second Khan winning a World Cup for Pakistan, so I’m very proud,” said skipper Younis Khan who announced his retirement from Twenty20 cricket after the win. The skipper was also instrumental in pushing Afridi up the order as a remedy to his poor form.

Unbeaten en route to the final and, along with South Africa, the most balanced side in the tourney, Sri Lanka tasted its first defeat in the match that mattered. Tilakratane Dilshan (317 runs at a strike-rate of 144) was the batsman of the tournament, but he failed in the final scoring a duck.

South Africa looked impregnable till it lost the plot against Pakistan in the first semifinal. After restricting Pakistan to 142, the Proteas failed to counter the full-on pace of Umar Gul (the top wicket-taker of the tournament with 13) or the guile of Afridi and Saeed Ajmal. In the process, South African added another forgettable result in its long history of ‘choking’ in important matches.

Chris Gayle had gone on record with his preference for the shortest format and the West Indian skipper stood alone amid the batting ruins of his team in the second semifinal against Sri Lanka. Chasing 158,

Gayle scored an unbeaten 63 but not before he had watched Angelo Mathews gouge the heart out of the batting line-up with three wickets in his first over, effectively ending any contest that was on the cards.

Earlier, fancied India was given the boot when it lost all three of its matches in the Super Eights. Going down tamely in all games (to West Indies, England and South Africa), India’s defeat was ascribed to several factors including questionable decisions by skipper M.S. Dhoni, a tired, overworked line-up and the batsmen’s susceptibility against the bouncing ball.

Bundled out in the league phase, Australia fared even worse than India, indicating perhaps that dominance in the longer versions of the game doesn’t necessarily translate into wins in its shortest format.

Quick look

In October 1996, when he was 16 years old Afridi, was brought into the ODI team as a legspinner as a replacement for the injured Mushtaq Ahmed. He then gained notability as a pinch-hitter and began opening with Saeed Anwar. He holds the record for scoring the fastest century in One-Day Internationals (off 37 balls), scored in only his second match and his first ODI innings. He also shares with Brian Lara the record for the third-fastest century in ODIs (off 45 balls). One of Pakistan’s most useful all-rounders, he has an aggressive batting style, which has garnered him over 5,000 ODI runs (including an erstwhile world-record 249 sixes, recently broken by Sanath Jayasuriya), as well as taking over 250 wickets at ODI and 47 at Test level.

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