Ahh.....Twenty20

The Twenty20 World Championship has begun and what an atmosphere! On day one, at the Wanderers in Johannesburg, it seemed like the whole of the Eden Gardens was there! The noise was deafening, the atmosphere jubilant – with the match yet to begin. It certainly was party time.

We all hoped the cricket would be similar. Around the world, in all the countries that play cricket, one cannot find someone more capable of starting a party than Christopher Henry Gayle. He began the World Championship with a four through backward point – with a slight misfiled though – off Shaun Pollock. That was where undoubtedly the greatest innings in the brief history of the Twenty20 game had begun.

Gayle treated all the bowlers with sheer disdain. Gayle chose to pick on one of the most economical bowlers in the world – Shaun Pollock. We all know how useful Shaun Pollock is to control the runflow. But something tells me Twenty20 is not Shaun’s favourite.

In his first over, Shaun Pollock conceded eight, in his second 14, third 14 as well and in his fourth, 16. He finished off with figures of four overs, no maidens, 52 runs and the wicket of Marlon Samuels. It’s not very often that you see Pollock being dismissed in this manner.

Gayle has always showed us the power he has. But there were some shots which kept us in wonderment. He flicked one of his pads into the air and the ball just hung in the air and seemed to never come back down. He cleared even the stands with so much ease.

There was one stage where we all though he had got off to a good start but had to capitalise. More often than not, when there is such a thought, the batsman throws away his wicket. But Gayle simply went on. He seemed like he didn’t have a worry in the world. Fittingly, Gayle brought up his hundred against Pollock, and off just 50 balls!

Pollock was treated worse than most of the other bowlers because Pollock was probably relying on the ball to swing. The ball did absolutely nothing. This meant he was just feeding Gayle with quicker than military medium length balls. And Gayle took complete advantage to go on and score 117 of 57 balls.

Hopefully we can see more of this from Chris.

Wednesday, September 12, 2007 is a day Zimbabweans are not going to forget very easily. It is a day which prove to be a very significant one and – if looked at without bios – a good one.

This was also a good day for cricket as the result meant the defeat of the world’s strongest team. What cricket did not want is a one sided tournament and a one sided circuit. The defeat of the Australians aided this requirement. The fact that it came in the hands of minnows made it all the more significant.

Zimbabwe’s victory was with a close margin, but it has to be noted that the Africans did not just scamper to victory. The Zimbabweans were always in control of the game. They got a couple of early wickets and went on to take wickets just when they needed them the most. After that, they got the start they needed with Vusimuzi Sibanda playing some extravagant drives through the off side.

They bowled well, restricting the Australians to a not-so-comfortable score. Not just that, they also went on the construct their innings very well. Zimbabwe also fielded extremely tidily.

There was also a sense of maturity in the young side. Every player knew his role and knew what was expected of him and what he should do to satisfy that. Brendan Taylor played a wonderful innings and when the other batsmen recognised Taylor’s form; they just played around him and helped him build his as well as the team’s innings.

Although they won with just a ball to spare, it was an easy victory. As for the Australians, Zimbabwe just played better than Australia……for once.-BS