Lankans take on Carribians

After the Successive wins in their first matches in super 8, its now time for Srilanka and West Indies to justify who is the best one. The match is going to be held by 15 30 hrs at the lovely pallekale.

Srilanka has the upper hand as they have chased a huge target in the last match and their senir batsmen (Dilshan and Jayawardene) found their patterns along with malinga`s match winning skills came back.
They might play the unchanged as team which took on Zealand.

But, when the Gayle-Johnston pair stand for more than ten overs, match will turn as disastrous. You know about Gayle as he`s nothing just pure power hitter. Most of their batters in t20 format and reminding me the tennis ball cricket we play locally, as mad hitting.

Whatever it is, the West Indies are the maximum entertainers, and would like to watch their jiggy wiggys in the ground :)

Expecting anither nail biting encounter. :)
My guess : Srilanka wins with the help of the spinners :)

Heavy clash between T20 experts

By 1530 hrs today at premadasa international cricket stadium, there`s gonna be a big clash between South Africa and Pakistan.

The teams have had a nice time in the elimination round as they remain unbeaten and came as top of the tables. South Africa submitted a big win against the weaker zimbabwe and a rain reduced 7 over clash won with Sri Lanka, and Pakistan won against new zealand in a nail bitting encounter and chased bangladesh`s 175 with ease to record a win.
So far, Pakistan showed their ability of chasing and that makes them the best team in successful chasings. the 186 they chased with kamran`s knock and 175 they chased with Imran`s classy made them a dangerous side in t20s. The biggest strength of them is their batting. Next to india, they have the big batting line up. In whatever the scenario, the batsmen from number1 to 7 ready to hit the roofs, if their captain asked them to. Hafeez is really guiding his team well by motivating the youngsters to play freely in their own way.

Promising batsmen like kamran akmal, Imran Nasir, Umar Akmal and Nazir Jamshed will lead them a victory by anytime. No matter 25 required in last over, they will smash it :). Their bowling also not that shaky as Ajmal`s cameos still leaves the batsmen in blank. Tanvir and Gul having a good time with the end overs. Altogether they are very hard to beat, but their opponents were not as strong as a team like SA.

South Africans, in the other hand, I would say the best disciplined, equally spread team with top class seamers dale steyn (the remover) and Morne morkel, with great support from kallis, alviro and botha.

Their batting cannot be questioned as AB Devilliers in great shape and Du plesis, Levi, Duminy and Kallis doing their roles up to the mark. Therefore, a big opportunity for both the teams to prove their heroics today.

My prediction : South Africa wins with steyn breaks those 3 sticks thrice ;) ;)

Battle of the Champs

I`m very Happy to follow up this job since my yesterday`s prediction was 100% successful :)

Today, the big match going to be between Australians and Indians!

Both the teams are more rely on their Batting, compared to their bowling skills. India has a strong long Batting line up as Gambhir, Kohli, Raina, Dhoni, Yuvraj and Rohit all are in form. No matter they lose wickets in particular intervals, they will go on with the crackers. I suspect a change in the openers of India, as he was so good with Australia, Shewag might come back to open up the innings.
In the other hand, their bowling is really a worry for them when the opponents are Australians. Last match, dhoni played 2 full time spinners and changed the game with that choice, but if he chose the same team today, then that will be a bad decision of him. Unlike England, Aussies can bat quite good against spin. Mr. Cricket, Michel hussey will keep the spin with ease, Watson,Warner also plays good comparatively against spin. We have seen number of occassions where Harbajan was not a mystery for Australians. Therefore india needs some spinner with the ability to confuse the batsman, as what Saeed Ajmal did when Aussies toured UAE. So the better pick today for india would be Ashwin as he will be handy with the bat as well.

 I expect Zaheer to play instead Dinda, as he doesn`t have that much experience against an experienced Aussie XI. Dhoni : Common buddy, how many more times you gonna back rohit? try Manoj tiwary as well :).

Now, Aussies, my favourites for this T20 tournament and all the time :). Their strength can be written in one word so far with their performances in this tournament. That is indeed `Watson`.

 He is in drastic form with the bowl and bat. when he comes to ball at any circumstances, that golden arm of him doing much charm in the ground. He took Irish captain in the first ball of the innings, and against WI, took Chris Gayle. Bailey is totally depend on his vice captain. He was named Man of the match in their both matches. Apart from him, David warner and Michael Hussey doing their job fantastically. the problem for aussies will arise if they lose the first 3 cheaply in the early overs. so far, their IPL heroes, Cameron white and Dan Christian didn`t find the form. They have to go numbers with the bat in order to win with a team like india. David hussy would be handy with his all round performances and he played well in IPL and knows the cons and pros of Indians. Bailey has to connect with the bat and their bowling has to improve alot. Inexperienced Pat Cummins is very expensive with the bowl. Christian and `Chinaman` Hogg still searching for lengths. Only Starc and Maxwell doing their job well. If they dont produce early blows to India, then you kno the rest of the story :).

As an Aussie fan, I would really like to see them winning. and that is possible with the first three buddies firing all over the ground. Hope for the best :)

Sri Lanka to face the Dangerous Kiwis

Wow wow! Its time for the real T20 world cup now as the world`s best 8 teams have qualified into the super 8`s, thankfully there`s no minnows to give a big upset!

In the super 8 inaugration, the hosts, Sri lanka facing New zealand today (2012/09/27). Both teams looks in same formation, as they won their first match and lost in the second. It was a bad rain played Seven7 match between SL and SA, in which lankans failed to show their talents. in the other hand, Newzealanders gave up to Pakistan by 16 runs short with the unsuccessful late assault by Captain Ross taylor.

So, in a must win match for both teams to cherish their form, they meet up today.
I would say, Srilankans are the favourites of today`s match, as they play in their homeland with full of their enthusiastic supporters scream for `em all around the ground and its pallekale, the spin arena, where the murali`s magic was considered much. Mendisses will follow his path as they are in good shape, the only woe is that mendis had a strain trouble before 2 days and not fit yet for the match.
We saw number of times NZ players fall infront of spin in sub continent, therefore the carrom ball of Ajantha (if he play today...) and magical leg breaks of Jeevan would do a disaster for them.

The concernable issue for SL is their senior top order batsmen still finding the form. Dilshan, Sanga and Mahela still didn`t fire much and the addition of the new opener Dilshan Munaweera didn`t do much damage for opponent teams. My prediction would be to send Thisara Perera to open the innings with Dilshan, he really has the firing power, and if he shine so, Srilanka can find the next Jayasurya. another big trouble is the expensive spells of malinga. after the tremendous form in IPL, he didn`t ball well yet, instead giving much runs while he smiles for everything (same reaction for bids and offers, heh?). Mahela should not depend much on him as the poor decision in last match, he gave 2 overs to him in a 7 over match against SA (he conceeded 27 runs in 2). Will Akila Dhananjaya play in this match atleast, if Ajantha mendis not making it? waiting to see his performances, as there are much talks going on on his selection.

The opponents, the dangerous Kiwis, are ready to forget the last match and play their usual attacking cricket again. they never been the favourites of any tournaments, but they are not giving upperhand to any of their opponents. Especialy their batters in dangerous form. Brandon, the Birthday boy today, will be expected to do fireworks all around pallekake today, supported by franklin, guptill and taylor.

their bowling also not so bad throughout the tournament as southee doing his job quite well along with vettori`s spells. It would be a better try if Franklin bowl 4 overs, as his bowling is difficult to be faced by hard hitters.

Altogether, it will be an equal fight to be seen and will be a great entertainment, if the rain wouldn`t spoil the sport.

My Predictions : Srilanka will win with Dilshan finding form... :)