The mis-hit scoop from Misbah-ul-Haq continues to serve India even in the second World Twenty20. Being the top seeds by virtue of winning the inaugural edition, India get to be in the group that has two relatively weak teams, Bangladesh and Ireland. Their place in the Super Eights should be a mere formality.
Bangladesh have the ability to succeed in the shortest format. They started the last World Twenty20 with that promise, beating West Indies in the league stages to qualify for the Super Eights and earn a higher seed in this edition. But they are yet to win a game since that win.
They may be favourites for one of the two Super Eights slots from Group A but it's against India, not Ireland, that they will want to put up a special show. They need not struggle for motivation: in the past they have tended to raise their game against India. Look no further than the World Cup in 2007, when they were responsible for knocking India out.
The shrewd planning and format of the tournament, though, means this game is most likely to count for nothing - unless Ireland spring up a surprise. For if, as expected, India and Bangladesh go through to the second round, they neither carry any points nor get an easier group in the Super Eights by the virtue of having won both matches.
Form guide
(last five matches, most recent first)
Bangladesh LLLLL
They have shown flashes of brilliance with the bat in the warm-up games (including a score of 206 against Netherlands), but against tougher opponents those flashes have been too short-lived even by Twenty20 standards. Their bowling is the main area of concern, and was at its worst when Australia plundered 219 against them.
India LLWLW
A modest run of recent results for the world champions owes to their poor record against New Zealand. They are yet to beat New Zealand in Twenty20s, and the last two defeats came in the Southern Hemisphere. The trend continued when they lost to New Zealand even in their first warm-up game, but they will take heart from the thrashing they handed Pakistan.
0 comments:
Post a Comment