Monday, September 17, 2007

Twenty20 - Excitement galore!


The sweetest sound of the ball hitting the juicy part of the willow, followed by a huge roar in the crowd – You’ll get to hear these very often now. Yes, the Twenty20 world cup has kicked-off and its time for some excitement. Initially, I was one among those who criticized this format of the game citing various reasons like no scope for bowlers, etc., But, I had to soften my anti-Twenty20 stance after watching the Australia v Zimbabwe match. It was a cracker of a match and Zimbabwe’s stunning triumph sent the most significant message to all cricket teams around the world – On any given day, any team can beat any team, no matter how strong you are.

It has been said that the bowlers don’t get a chance to show off their talents, but I don’t see that happening. Though it is a batsmen’s game, there are a lot of things to do for the bowlers. Bowling in the Twenty20 game requires a lot of skill and character. Its all about showing variations, putting the ball in the right areas
and bowling well in tandem. They should start attacking from the word 'go' and they cannot afford to relax at any point. We saw the Proteas bowl exceptionally well during the death overs against England and the lights of Vettori, Flintoff, Jayasuriya were impeccable with the angle they bowled, making life difficult for the batsmen. It’s all about skill which really matters. In fact, the batsmen don’t have many options but to somehow find the boundaries. When the shots in the book don’t work, they should probably play a few strokes like Dougie Marillier. The power plays, free hits and the most sensational bowl-out are all included to spice up the game. The crowd could not have asked anything more at Durban when they witnessed a truly spectacular game of cricket. It’s hard to express those joyous moments when India clinched the thriller with a bowl-out.

Let us wait and see how this Twenty20 cricket is gonna affect the 50 over format. 300 was once a impossible target but today, even 400 is being chased. The evolution of Twenty20 could well take the one-day games to another level. We can hopefully see teams scoring over 400 consistently and also chasing it successfully. I see this as a major opportunity for the minnows to narrow the gap between them and the test playing nations by playing more Twenty20 cricket.

ICC hopes for globalization of the game with this format. We can also hope that cricket becomes a part of the Olympic Games as the time duration is reduced to just three and half hours per game. I can now expect a true competitive cricket match even when Australia plays Bangladesh. Cricket, a game of glorious uncertainties gets even more uncertain when it gets much shorter.

Though ICC is eyeing on the financial implication of the game, there should be no negligence shown for the test matches. The real essence of cricket lies in test cricket. The real skills of a cricketer can be evaluated only in test matches. Besides watching the willows behave violently, we would like to watch a good battle between the bat and the ball. The ICC should encourage Twenty20, without diluting the number of test matches in future which is very healthy for the game.

Cheers….!

7 comments:

wutanger said...

20-20 is very much a bowlers game if they can bring in variations to their craft.. poor bowling and fielding have made the batting seem monstrous
point-in-case.. ystd eng bowled well but fielded vv.v.v. poorly and let SA of the hook...or our own india losing by 10 runs(courtesy the lst 5 overs going for 78 rns)

ashwin sundar said...

First of all the mouse pointer disappears da on ur page.. have to search for it each time.. donno whether it happens only to me.. chek it anyways.. 20-20 is good.. lets c how things shape up

Femin Shibu said...

I didn't see even a single match in this series. But you have showed me all the past matches in front of me through blog... Good...

Nilofer Anbarasu said...

The twenty20 series is lot more exciting but I personally feel it more depends on fluke. Only in limited 50 over matches u can judge the exact strength of a team.

Anonymous said...

T20 is just fun da. Its not cricket.Having played and watched cricket fo so long as a die hard cricket fan , i feel the core of cricket is missing.The scores that we see could entertain us but we will be fed up at some time.This should not impact ODI and Test. T20 can occur once in 2/4 years instead of the champions trophy. But this should not be the future of cricket.

It is ideal for globalizing cricket / Olympics but cant be considered ambassador of cricket to the world

Rathna said...

hmmm yeh man! T20 is a bowlers Game! But why you have started writing all these man! Dont worry i wont write any comment regarding your love man. Your girl really looks pretty and she is so sweet:-). At any cost dontever miss her man! STOP WRITING ALL THESE AND GET BACK TO YOUR LOVE MOOD :-D.

((pottachu pottachu...)

Nilofer Anbarasu said...

//On any given day, any team can beat any team, no matter how strong you are.//
U r right ....India beat Australia in the semifinal on Saturday. Let us wish India to clinch the tropy by beating Pakistan in the final. (No matter how strong they are..)