T20 World Cup: Maheesh Theekshana likely to be rested for Bangladesh match due to side strain

With an undercook squad at helm, will the Calypso be able to retain T20 World Cup?

West Indies come into the seventh edition of the T20 World Cup as the defending champions and the most successful side in the history of the tournament. They have won two of the the last three World Cups defeating hosts Sri Lanka comprehensively in 2012, and then winning a ‘Remember The Name’ freak outing against England in 2016. However, the 2021 edition sees them field their weakest squad ever. West Indies Squad Kieron Pollard (c), Nicholas Pooran (vc), Akeal Hosein, Dwayne Bravo, Roston Chase, Andre Fletcher, Chris Gayle, Shimron Hetmyer, Evin Lewis, Obed McCoy, Ravi Rampaul, Lendl Simmons, Andre Russell, Oshane Thomas, Hayden Walsh Jr. Reserve - Darren Bravo, Jason Holder, Gudakesh Motie, Sheldon Cottrell There is no Sunil Narine, who ran riot in the 2012 final, picking up three wickets at an astounding economy of 2.45 bowling 3.4 overs. 2.45! There is no Marlon Samuels, who top scored in both finals for the Windies, shouldering them out of trouble when the rest of the top order failed to provide. For that matter, they do not have the belligerence of Chris Gayle at the top order anymore. The 42-year-olds inclusion has met with criticism from certain quarters in the Windies camp. Former fast bowler Curtly Ambrose and the ‘Universe Boss’ himself got into an ugly public spat with both players taking pot shots at each other. After the legendary fast bowler said that Gayle is not an automatic choice in the playing XI and that the left hander “hasn’t had any scores of significance” in the past 18 months, Gayle came out with a scathing reply. “I am speaking about Curtly Ambrose. I am singling out Curtly Ambrose, one of your own,” the Jamaican lashed out. “I can tell you personally, and you can let him know that Chris Gayle, the Universe Boss, have no respect for Curtly Ambrose whatsoever. I am finished with Curtly Ambrose,” the 42-year old said. “I have no respect, any time I see him I will tell him as well — ‘Stop being negative, support the team ahead of the World Cup.’ This team has been selected and we need past players to support us. We need that, we don’t need negative energy.” Gayle concluded. Gayle, while not a sure shot starter anymore could occupy the fourth or the fifth position in the batting order, but his dwindling credentials and inability to hit from ball one has put doubts in the heads of many. The Big Misses Sunil Narine Currently one of the best bowlers going around in the T20 circuit, Sunil Narine is coming off a very successful IPL where he single handedly won Kolkata Knight Riders a couple of games. Narine has pulled out of the T20 World Cup, but has not cited a reason for doing so. Not having Narine means that West Indies go into the tournament without a single spinner who is well regarded and feared across the world. On top of that in the slow tracks of the UAE, Sunil Narine could have been a very handy floater, used to dominate the spin bowling attack. Fabian Allen This could have been Fabian Allen’s World Cup. A free spirit, once probably a little carefree one, Fabian Allen’s stocks have risen rapidly over the past year. Gun fielder, a handy off spin bowler and blazing lower order batsman. Once very inconsistent in his performance, Allen turned things around after he missed the 2020 Caribbean Premier League season. It’s not like he got injured or wanted time off from the hectic schedule, Fabian Allen missed his flight from Jamaica to Barbados by arriving late to the airport. And due to strict Covid-19 protocols in place, he had to bow out of the tournament. In the next month and a half, Allen’s social media was buzzing with workout videos and he put a lot of effort on his body and his game. Things did work out, with the right-handed batsman’s T20I strike rate jumping from 120 to 164.28 within a year. However, he injured his ankle and has been deemed out of the World Cup. This will have major ripples across the team who will be well short of their fourth bowler and a more than able batsman who can give them a quickfire 30 runs on any given day and then save 15 in the boundary. Andre Russell Nono. Don’t panic. Andre Russell is not out of the World Cup, well, yet. The famed Dre Russ, who can strike fear in any opposition camp has severe injury concerns to his name. Coming into the World Cup, Andre Russell has not played any international standard games since 26 August. Throughout the season, KKR The Achilles’ Heel The bowling line-up that West Indies have at the moment is simply not good enough. Their two spinners, Hayden Walsh Jr. and Akeal Hosein do not even have combined experience of 40 T20Is together. On top of that their pace bowling attack of Obed McCoy and Oshane Thomas will be playing their first T20 World Cup. Both pacers have been in good form coming into the tournament, especially McCoy, who has given people a hard time with his left arm fast medium. Ravi Rampaul has been the surprise inclusion in the squad on the back of his CPL exploits. He has shown the ability to be handy with his variation of off cutters in the tournament, but it is unlikely that that he will get a chance in the first XI. Beyond their opening duo, skipper Kieron Pollard will have to trust the trio of Russell, Dwayne Bravo and himself to deliver the goods in the back end of the innings, since they do not have any other specialist death bowler. And if Andre Russell is not fit to play, they might have to ask Roston Chase to chip in with his off spin. Hit out or get out With Fabian Allen out and their bowling not in proper shape, the only way that West Indies can survive is if they bat out of their skin. And to be fair to them, they do have that kind of an attack. In the opening positions the duo of Lendl Simmons and Evin Lewis are as destructive as it gets. Lewis, especially, has been in tremendous form and has shown in IPL what he can do. In number three Windies will probably go with Roston Chase, who to everybody’s surprise became the top run getter in this year’s Caribbean Premier League, playing the role of a sheet anchor. He usually hovers around the strike rate of 125-127 and is a master manipulator of the field. He has shown his ability of using the long handle, but it is unlikely that he will be able to emulate that against the top bowling attacks in the world. Beyond this number three position, the defending champions have Chris Gayle, Shimron Hetmyer, Nicholas Pooran, Kieron Pollard, Dwayne Bravo and Andre Russell. Considering the left heavy middle order, it is just about hundred percent assured that if Andre Russell can keep himself fit, he will play as the number 7 batter in the team and in that case, Gayle will have to sit out. Rest of the players are automatic starters and pack a heavy punch. They will be responsible for finishing the overs strongly. Shimron Hetmyer can well turn out to be the best bid in this line-up with Nicholas Pooran struggling for runs. Hetmyer has scored at a strike rate of 170 in this IPL and has compiled 242 runs playing in the number 6 position for the Delhi Capitals. Post Russell or Bravo, whoever the number 7 or 8 is, West Indies will have one more batter in Hayden Walsh Jr. He is a bowling dominant version of Fabian Allen, but has the potential to hit it very big if he manages to connect. The final two players in the line-up, McCoy and Thomas do not bat much, but the batting the West Indies have, if on song, is the strongest in the tournament. They have a good mix of players who are known to dominate pace and spin and can well turn out to be their ‘get out of jail’ card when push comes to shove. Probable Playing XI Evin Lewis, Lendl Simmons, Roston Chase, Shimron Hetmyer, Nicholas Pooran, Dwayne Bravo, Kieron Pollard, Andre Russell, Hayden Walsh Jr., Oshane Thomas, Obed McCoy

CSA Provincial T20 | Knights crowned inaugural champions, beat Dolphins in thrilling finale

It was a thrilling finish to the Cricket South Africa’s Provincial T20 Knockout tournament, which started out as the first tournament of the revamped domestic structure of South African cricket. Knights, a well established domestic giants beat another giant in Dolphins by seven runs to be crowned as champions of the season’s first and only tournament where division 1 and division two teams played side by side. Set a target of 177 to win for the Dolphins, the team from Durban were not able to recover from the early blows and by the time they did, it was almost too late to wake up. Dolphins lost two big wickets of Keegan Petersen and skipper Marques Ackerman early on the chase and then the re-build was started by two other senior pros in Khaya Zondo and Sarel Erwee. The two added 51 for the third wicket before Alfred Mothoa removed Erwee. Though Bryce Parsons tried to build a partnership with Zondo and the duo did add did 26 for the fourth wicket, Zondo’s dismissal off the bowling of Nealan van Heerden was a big blow to Dolphins’ hopes. However, not leaving the battle till it was done with, Parsons partnered Jason Smith and the duo added 52 runs in just 37 balls to bring Dolphins as close as the fact that only 33 runs were needed in the last two overs to win. But with Migael Pretorius picking two wickets in two balls including that of Parsons, Smith was left with too much to do alone. Although the 27-year-old did take strike on all the remaining 10 balls in the innings, Smith could only manage to get 25 out of the required 33 as his team lost the game by seven runs. Earlier in the day, after being asked to bat first, Knights, with the help of opener Patrick Krugerskipper’s 61, Pite van Biljon’s 42 and quickfire 28 and 29* respectively from experienced pros Rilee Rossouw and Farhaan Behardien, managed to get to 176-5 in their 20 overs. Pretorius for his figures of 3-30 and especially for picking two match-changing wickets was awarded Man of the Match.

T20 World Cup | AUS vs SA: Familiar foes gear up to light up the Super 12 opener in unfamiliar territory

It is finally the round that everyone has been waiting for in the World Cup. The Super 12 is ready to begin and what better than to start the most crucial stage than with a clash between two of the world’s most competitive sides especially when they face each other- Australia and South Africa. Tales galore of the historic tight games between the two sides, however, none beats the 1999 ODI World Cup semi-final clash. But when it comes to the T20 World Cup, the sides really haven’t had a memorable game as the only time they met in a World Cup tie was way back in 2012 in Sri Lanka where Australia overpowered the Proteas in a five-wicket win. And as far as T20I tussle is concerned, then in 23 games, Australia have won 13 and South Africa eight with the recent record favouring the Aussies 6-4 in last 10 ties. Unfamiliar territory However, all the records discussed above are from either Australia or South Africa or territories that were familiar to both sides in some way or the other. But this time around they are going to be playing in Sheikh Zayed Stadium where both the teams have never met each other before. Also while Australia has played only one T20I at this venue, losing by a huge margin of 66 runs, South Africa have won two out of two games, both of which came way back in 2010. Though both South African and Australian players have played in the IPL in the last two seasons and are very well aware of the conditions of Abu Dhabi, playing as a team and knowing your strengths and weaknesses on a particular wicket is different from playing individually for other teams in a franchise tournament. Thus both the teams are at the same level as far as the familiarity with conditions is concerned. Form leading up to the World Cup South Africa have been in great touch coming to the World Cup as they beat Sri Lanka and Ireland 3-0 in T20Is and also won a five-match series against defending champions West Indies 3-2. Out of the last 10 matches, they have won nine and even in the World Cup warm-up games they beat Afghanistan and Pakistan from situations where it seemed like they might just fumble. On the other hand, the Australian team haven’t really had a good run-up to the World Cup, losing 11 of their last 15 T20Is that they have played in this year. This includes losses against New Zealand, West Indies and Bangladesh. Even after taking into consideration that they were not with their best of the resources in series against Bangladesh and West Indies, the results were just too bad to even discuss anything beyond them. The warm-up games in this World Cup haven’t been too bright for the Kangaroos either as they barely managed to chase down 158 against New Zealand while against India they were hit all over the park. Thus on the basis of form, South Africa seem to be having an upper hand over the Aussies. Australia vs South Africa: Match Details Match Number - 13 Date and Time: October 23, 2021, 03:30 pm IST, 02:00 pm Local, 10:00 am GMT Venue: Shiekh Zayed Stadium, Abu Dhabi Broadcast and Livestream: Star Sports and Hotstar Pitch Report In the four matches that have been played at the Sheikh Zayed Stadium in this World Cup so far, the wicket has behaved in a manner typical to slow and low wickets of UAE. It is not a rank turner, but there is something for the spinners if they apply themselves well and the bounce is not two-paced, but salwar ones and cutters can be very useful and so can be a total in the range of 160 or above. Weather Forecast The temperatures in the day are going to remain in between the lower to mid-thirties throughout the course of the game. Humidity will be low, below 45 and hence not much sweating for the players as compared to the recently concluded IPL. the best bet in such conditions would be to win the toss and bat first, give your spinners a chance to use the wicket second and try and extract some help. What did the captains say? Aaron Finch, the Aussie captain was confident of his all-rounders to bowl four overs among them and is thus going with only four specialist bowlers. “We are going with seven specialist batters and four specialist bowlers. We have got a lot of confidence in the depth of our squad and got a lot of confidence in our all-rounders in Maxwell, Stonis and Marsh to bowl four overs,” he said in the pre-match press conference. On the other hand, Temba Bavuma was also chuffed about his team’s performance so far leading up to the World Cup. “In terms of coming up against Australia, there's no bigger motivation for the guys. Clashes against Australia have always been full of fire and we don't expect it to be any different tomorrow. We won't be undermining them by looking at their past results. We know what type of team they are and it will be important we bring our A-game,” he said in the pre-match presser. Team News Australia With Finch clarifying that the team would be going with four specialist bowlers thus the question of Ashton Agar playing becomes an important one as Pat Cummins form in the warm-up games wasn’t great. However considering that the Aussies like to back their stars, both Cummins and David Warner look like certainties playing in this game at least. Probable XI David Warner, Aaron Finch (c), Mitchell Marsh, Steve Smith, Glenn Maxwell, Marcus Stoinis, Matthew Wade (wk), Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc, Adam Zampa, Josh Hazlewood South Africa Though spinner Tabraiz Shamsi suffered a groin injury in the warm-up game against Pakistan, Bavuma in the pre-match presser confirmed that he would be available for selection and hence it is assumed that he would be part of the Playing XI. With Rassie van der Dussen in great form, and Aiden Markram and David Miller being great support above and below him, the South African batting packs a heavy punch. Probable XI Quinton de Kock (wk), Temba Bavuma (c), Aiden Markram, Rassie van der Dussen, David Miller, Dwaine Pretorius, Keshav Maharaj, Kagiso Rabada, Anrich Nortje, Tabraiz Shamsi, Lungi Ngidi. CE XI Fantasy team Wicketkeeper Quinton de Kock Batters Aiden Markram, Rassie van der Dussen, Steve Smith All-rounders Mitchell Marsh, Glenn Maxwell, Marcus Stoinis Bowlers Kagiso Rabada, Tabraiz Shamsi, Mitchell Starc, Adam Zampa Vice-Captain Rassie van der Dussen Captain Glenn Maxwell

T20 World Cup | Sri Lanka bowlers thump Netherlands to end to their miserable campaign

It was a dominating performance by the Sri Lankan team as they beat the Netherlands by eight wickets in their last Round 1 game to get to the Super 12 stage with three big victories under their belt. It was actually a no match as far as both the teams were considered on the field. The Lankans dismissed the Dutch for a paltry 44, the lowest total in this World Cup and the second-lowest total ever in any T20 World Cup. From there on there was no coming back for the Orange brigade as the Lankans, even after losing last match’s half century-maker and opener Pathum Nissanka for a duck in the second over managed to chase down the total in only 7.1 overs courtesy of a fine knock of unbeaten 33 from wicketkeeper batter Kusal Perera who showed signs of coming back to form after being out of it for the last two games. However the problem up top continued for the Lankans as Charith Asalanka, who was selected to replace Dinesh Chandimal in the playing xi didn’t do any better either as he was dismissed for only six runs. It still remains a mystery as to why Dhananjaya de Silva is not being tried despite him being a great strike maker. The Sri Lankan bowling was top class once again as it has been throughout Round 1. Wanindu Hasaranga’s leg-spin was just too much for the Dutch batters to handle and added to that was the speedy inswinging yorkers from Lahiru Kumara and the mystery spin of Maheesh Theekshana. The three among themselves accounted for the nine wickets in the Netherlands innings, while Max O’Dowd was run out. Courtesy of topping Group A in Round 1, the Sri Lankan team will now be placed in Group 1 at the Super 12 stage where they will compete against the likes of England, West Indies, South Africa, Australia and Bangladesh for the top two spots to move into the Semi-Finals.