By Adrian Meredith
VICTORIA, Australia (TheSportsNEXT) October 6, 2012: Sri Lanka vs Pakistan promised a lot as we had two teams that had each only lost once - Sri Lanka to South Africa and Pakistan to India.
Both were in great form, with Sri Lanka comfortably beating the team who until recently were world number one, England, while Pakistan had just beaten the previously undefeated Australia, and by enough to make sure that it was hard for India to qualify.
Two in-form teams with in-form players the whole way through! Both with qualify in form bowlers but some big power hitters too.
Sri Lanka won the toss and batted first and it seemed odd that they were batting so slowly. No wickets lost but they just couldn't seem to get it away. It almost seemed like a deliberate tactic though, to absorb some of the quality bowling. But when would they go for it? Mahela Jayawardene at least had some semblance of controlling, managing 42 off 36 balls but he didn't manage a single 6, and only 7 4s. Nonetheless, by the time that Jayawardene was the first wicket to fall in the 11th over, they had lasted enough overs to set a platform to launch. The problem was that they weren't even at 6 runs per over yet. Sangakkara tried his best to lift the tempo, smacking 3 4s on his way to 18 off 11 but he was ultimately out a bit too early. Dilshan meanwhile seemed to be playing the sheet anchor role but he was leaving it a bit too late to launch, as he managed a mere 35 off 43 balls, before being out LBW - virtually the opposite to Jayawardene's effort - and a rarity in a T20 match for a player in a long innings to score at less than a run a ball. Jeevan Mendis had managed the same thing though, on his way to 15 off 18; but these two wickets in successive balls allowed Sri Lanka's two real power hitters in Perera and Mathews to come in. With plenty of wickets in hand they had a licence to launch and they did it, adding 21 runs off the last 2 overs to propel Sri Lanka to a total of 139. But that would be hard to defend. It wasn't entirely impossible but it would be tough.
Pakistan came out and found it a lot easier than Sri Lanka had, easily getting over 6 runs per over and adding lots of runs before Ajantha Mendis came in, and, somewhat surprisingly, mystified the Pakistani batsmen. Imran Nazir was perhaps a little unlucky to get bowled after it rolled back onto his stumps but that started the rot, as Angelo Mathews, Herath and Ajantha Mendis went wild, cutting Pakistan significantly down to size to 4/64 off 11 overs.
Mohammad Hafeez held onto hope, scoring 42 off 40, including the only 6 of the match, but when he was out, stumped off Herath, it looked all over, as Pakistan, at 5/91 in 14 overs, had far too much to go.
But never fear, Afridi is here! He could get the 49 required in 6 overs at 8 runs per over with just 5 wickets in hand. If anyone can do it, Afridi can! Except that he was yet again out first ball. And with his dismissal Pakistan really were no hope.
Sohail Tanvir's elevation to number eight ahead of Umar Gul - who had won Pakistan the earlier game against South Africa with his batting - was mystifying, especially as his partner in that match, Umar Akmal, was still in. But by the time that Sohail Tanvir was out, having chewed up 13 balls for his 8, the target required was 27 off 14 balls.
Now Umar Akmal and Umar Gul had to do what they did against South Africa - only better - and quicker. But it wasn't to be and they didn't even get close.
Instead of 27, they managed just 10 more, as Pakistan fell in a whimper, to lose by 16 runs. Probably the best performer, figures wise, was Mohammad Hafeez but Mahela Jayawardene got the man of the match award in a match that was as much about team tactics as it was about individual performances.
Afridi, though, was almost lynched because of his meek dismissal.
Australia vs West Indies was not expected to be quite as exciting. Australia, who had won 4 of 5 matches, were up against West Indies, who had won just 2 and had 1 no result, to go with 2 losses, including a loss to Australia.
Indeed, even Australia's only loss, against Pakistan in their latest match, was effectively a win, as they got as much as they required to qualify for the semi finals.
West Indies started off slowly, very slowly. Whether it was the pitch, good bowling, or Chris Gayle having his now customary "getting his eye in" we couldn't be sure. Some even suggested that Gayle was hiding from the pace men so that he could launch against the spinners.
Starc and Cummins bowled fairly well - Watson less so - and eventually managed to get Gayle's opening partner Johnson Charles out in the 4th over with just 16 runs on the board.
In came Xavier Doherty who second ball had Marlon Samuels out LBW. Good job. Except that the umpire, in spite of looking at it for a long time, and seeming to be a bit uncertain, opted to give the batsmen the benefit of the doubt.
It was to be the only mistake by the umpires in the innings, and, given that Australia didn't miss any catches, stumpings or run outs, I should now be writing that West Indies were out cheaply and Australia won easily.
That is what is meant to happen, at least. But the ball after Samuels got his reprieve, he smacked Doherty for a 6. Doherty had looked like taking a wicket every ball but that 6 was confusing, especially as it was a good ball. Doherty's bowling looked in many ways like the best of the bowlers, yet he kept getting smashed for 6s and he failed to take any wickets, though had the umpire got it right with that LBW then it may have been a different story.
That 6 kick-started the innings and soon West Indies went from a run rate of 5 to 6 to 7 to approaching 8. Samuels hogged the strike though. Gayle seemed to make a cameo every now and then to smash a couple of 6s, but otherwise it seemed like a psychological game, to convince the Australians that he was invincible, as they targeted the other end.
Australia were demoralised from this psychological warfare long before their run rate started to really lift. Samuels was eventually out, reasonably cheaply, for just 26, after Cummins shattered his stumps, but then Dwayne Bravo looked all at sea, but it was all an act, it seems.
Just as Bravo looked like gobbling up both the strike and balls, he launched, smacking 3 6s, and lifting the run rate considerably. Then in came Keiron Pollard, who is currently out of form, and he did the same act that all of the other players partnering Gayle had done, appearing to be unable to read the bowling while sneaking in some big hits here and there. Chris Gayle finally got the strike a bit towards the end and was soon smacking it to all corners, eventually managing 75 not out off 41 balls.
Then came the decision for who would bowl the final over. West Indies already had 180 on the board and it was a choice of which slow bowler out of Hogg or David Hussey. Hogg seemed the most likely as he had at least managed to avoid getting smashed quite as much.
There was still the option of bowling the mercurial Dan Christian, a medium pacer with a wealth of experience, the Australian record holder for most wickets in domestic matches, who, oddly, hadn't bowled all innings - odd as he probably would have troubled Gayle.
Instead, Doherty got the ball, seeming to be the stupidest decision since Marlon Samuels bowled both the final over and the Super Over against New Zealand. But while Samuels officially won them the match, this one really didn't work out. 61666W was how the over went.
Gayle got a 6 and a 1 while Pollard went 6, 6, 6, before mis-hitting one. It wasn't the first mishit of the innings; but the others, by all of the West Indian batsmen, had gone for 6. This one was caught. But there were no big celebrations.
The average score at Colombo was 150 and West Indies had managed 205. It looked to be about 55 runs too many. It proved to be that way. West Indies copied Pakistan's tactics of an all spin attack to great effect, as Badree got a lucky one that clean bowled Warner - one so confusing that the umpires called for a review as they couldn't believe it had really bowled him, thinking that the wicket keeper must have done something.
Michael Hussey did his best to rescue the innings but he too was bamboozled. A George Bailey cameo looked nice on paper but in reality his 63 off 29 balls made no difference to the total. Ultimately, West Indies won by a massive 74 runs. To their credit, Australia were still going for the total even at the end - they were bowled out with more than 3 overs to spare.
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