Gautam Ganguly
(gautamganguly2012@gmail.com)
Befitting the biggest cricketing extravaganza of bang-bang cricket, nail-biting, heart-stopping matches, aggressive batting, electrifying fielding coupled with upsets have been witnessed in the ongoing eighth edition of 'Men's T-20 World Cup, so far, in the run-up to the semifinal.
Curtains for another edition of exciting, high-voltage cricket rose on 23rd October with the mother of all encounters, India and Pakistan, clashing with each other, at Melbourne. True to the expectation of teeming millions of cricket lovers, the match was a thriller with the pendulum of success kept rotating from one team to the other till the last ball. The nail-biting encounter had quenched the thirst of the connoisseurs of cricket to watch quality tussle between bat and ball. At the Indian score reading 31 for four wickets with Pakistan bowlers firing all cylinders, it appeared to be a Himalayan challenge. India, however, reached the victory target of 159 runs by fighting stupendously, thanks to Kohli's single-handed effort. Kohli's 82 runs in 52 balls have been described by 'pundits' as one of the finest knocks ever in the history of T-20 games.
Parodying Shakespeare, one can say, "Upsets and setbacks, thy name is The T-20 World Cup, 2022". While India's victory against Pakistan was igniting patriotic fervour, a major heart-stopping setback occurred when mighty Pakistan was beaten by lowly placed Zimbabwe!! Then, Ireland sent another shockwave by beating England in a rain-truncated match with the DLS method coming to their aid. And then the climax of all setbacks!! South Africa has been comprehensively beaten by rank outsider the Netherlands much to the chagrin of South African supporters as well as cricket admirers across the world.
A few scintillating and breathtaking innings have adorned the ongoing World Cup with Surya Kumar Yadav topping the list in this category. His fifty in twenty-one balls against Zimbabwe, when India was tottering, is the fastest half-century in T-20 matches to date with an awesome strike rate of 244.00!! Two of his earlier knocks against South Africa and the Netherlands have been equally flamboyant. The blitzkrieg by David Miller scoring 59 runs in 46 balls and his swashbuckling partnership with Markram against India when chips were down was superb. In the crucial, must-win match for Pakistan against South Africa, Pakistan, at one stage, was reeling at 47 having lost four wickets. Shadab Khan then tore apart the South African bowling scoring 52 in 22 balls and their partnership with Iftikhar added 81 runs in 33 balls to bring the game in their favour. Max O'Dowd and Raja, two of the batsmen of lowly placed Netherlands and Zimbabwe respectively, have stolen the limelight with their spirited display. Max O'Dowd stands second on the table with 242 runs in his eight outings for the national side. Taliban-infested Afghanistan sent shivers down the Australian team when the celebrated spinner, Rashid, blasted their famed bowlers scoring 48 runs off 23 balls to take them to the threshold of victory.
Australia won the match narrowly by four runs.
Rain and frequent use of Duckworth and Lewis' permutation and combination are the hallmarks of this tournament in the league stage. The results of India vs Bangladesh,
Pakistan vs South Africa and England Vs Ireland were impacted in favour of winning teams by the application of the Duckworth-Lewis method. Possibly, no other previous ICC tournaments have been marred by rain like the present one necessitating the use of the dreaded DLS!! A few bizarre umpiring errors have also surfaced in this World Cup.
And keeping alive the tradition of the host country invariably losing out the final stage, the host, defending champions Australia had to make an ignominious exit much to the displeasure of its home crowd.
Pakistan's entry to the semifinal is almost a 'Phoenix-like rise.' They lost two of their first games against India and Zimbabwe successively, and no one ever thought of Pakistan's chances. The scenario for them is akin to the ICC World Cup 1992. During that tournament, Imran Khan-led Pakistan lost several games. They lost against India too comprehensively. Dame luck was in Pakistan's favour as they somehow reached the semifinal to encounter a charged-up New Zealand led by dynamic Martin Crow. And the rest, they say, is history. Pakistan eventually went on to become champion in the 1992 version of the World Cup. This time, too, Pakistan will have to face a strong New Zealand in the semi-final on the 9th of November.
Formidable England will be Team India's opponents in the ensuing semifinal on 10th November. It is expected to be a cracker of an encounter with many English batsmen in superlative form. Indian fragile bowling will have an up-heal task to get the better of the English side. However, Indian batters are in fine form. A lot will depend on KL Rahul, Yadav, Kohli and Hardik to pile up an imposing score. While the supporters of respective national teams will pray for their team's victory, eventual results of the pulsating semi-finals lie buried in the unforeseen future.