What a master
class Virat Kohli served-up; the poise in character, the mental toughness and
the sheer willingness to fight. That an emotional Virat himself acknowledged
and placed the inning, as his top right now. The significant word
here is emotional; as he very well knows that the real tournament starts
now. As with New Zealand, England and West Indies we have three very dangerous
sides very much capable of winning the trophy.
Let’s start with
the second semi final between hosts India and West Indies taking place at
Mumbai on 31st March 2016, India can ill afford to take their opponents
lightly as the shortest format of cricket suits their player’s six hitting
capabilities, couple that with the technical know-how of countering Indian
slow and low spin friendly pitches which they learned by plying their trade in
the IPL (Indian Premier League.) With Chris Gayle’s powerful hitting, Dwayne
Bravo’s cutters, Samuel Badree and Sulieman Benn’s guile and Andre Russell’s
all round talent West Indies make a formidable opponent. India been
lucky this far in the tournament that they have not being made to pay despite
Suresh Raina, Yuvraj Singh and to an extent Dhoni’s regular failures, had it not
been for Virat’s brilliance India wouldn’t have been able to reach the semis. A
question needs to be raised here, whether the likes of Shikhar Dhawan and
Rohit Sharma along with the above mentioned names raise their hands and to be
counted or will they hide behind the one man army? All is not doom and
gloom in the India camp as they can take heart from the professional
performance of their bowlers; India’s perpetual Achilles’ heel. With the
emergence of Bumrah and the reintroduction of Ashish Nehra along with the
artistry of Ravi Ashwin and the usefulness of Ravindra Jadeja they have a
potent attack which can hold their own again severe of on slots. Mumbai
has been a high scoring ground, who can forget Chris Gayle century against
England in the group stages. One can expect more of the same with batsmen of
both the sides profiting or will the pitch be doctored to suit Indian strength,
spin, keeping in mind West Indies traditional frailties against it which were
once again exposed by the Afghanistan team in their last group match thereby
handing them their only loss of the tournament so far.
Coming to the
other games which kick start with the semi-finals, we have on the one side New
Zealand, the perpetual underachievers and the 2010 world T-20 champions England.
The former world champion tag does not make English favourites as New Zealand
has not only been the undisputed team of the tournament, but also the one who
have negotiated the conditions best. Looks like New Zealand have finally made
the transition from, being a competitive team to being the
team to beat. One question needs to asked, New Zealand who have been lucky
with the tosses and made best use of wickets by batting first, can they be
equally efficient in chasing totals? Kotla, New Delhi hosts 30th March
game between England and New Zealand gives Joe Root and Kane Williamson two of
the games up and coming superstars the world stage to showcase their talent.
The plethora of all round talent on display is mouth-watering, while England
have players like Ben Stokes, Rashid, Jordan and Willey in their ranks, New
Zealand can call up for the services of Anderson, Elliot and Williamson. Their
respective batting orders is also not shabby, with Martin Guptill, Munro and
Taylor New Zealand have powerful strikes who can merge their game with the
finesse of Kane Williamson and fight any condition whereas England possess
Morgan, Buttler who along with their linchpin Joe Root form a formidable and
dangerous batting order.
Mark the dates
30th and 31st of March 2016 where four great crickets nations will
fight it out for the honour of entering the world T-20 final going to be held
on the 3rd of April. Watch 44 modern day gladiators fight it out for a
game of cricket, which will be a war no less when they step on the field.
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