World T20 -very very early thoughts.

actually forget what I said about Jadeja, his bowling's been very respectable before today

saffers could put out a decent t20 side imo.

they could probably play two sides that could win

if i was a selector i would go:

smith
faf
ab
duminy
ontong
de ****
albie
botha
peterson
steyn
morkel

that would give you lots of power at the top, deep batting, 2 decent quickies, 2 decent spinners. I would also make de **** the keeper and that would allow ontong, ab, duminy and faf (4 of the best fielders in safferland) in the inner ring saving runs and making run outs.

unfortunately that aint gonna happen and the playing team is more likely to look like

smith
levi
kallis
faf
duminy
berhardien / ontong / peterson
albie / peterson
tsosolososkilele
botha
steyn
morkel

oh ffs who knows what these mugs will come up with

de ****

de kóck

Drop Kallis and play VDM and you guys have a genuine chance IMO Rolo.

Good Spinner, dangerous lower order batsman, brilliant fielders and an unbelievable attitude is Van De Merwe

My Team would be the follows - FAF, Levi, SMith, AB, JP, Ontong (or Whoever is the 6th best batsman with AB keeping), Albie, VDM, Steyn, Morne and Theron/Thomas or Tsosbe

windies look great

my team would be.

gayle
barath
dwayne bravo
samuels
dwayne bravo
pollard
russel
sammy
baugh
narine
roach

Gayle
Dwayne Smith
Dwayne Bravo
Pollard
Samuels
Russel
Cooper
Baugh
Narine
Roach
Bishoo

Top 7 all all-rounders...

No place for Sammy though.. maybe he could learn to keep wkt..?

awesome bench strength with Shillingford, Simmons, Darren Bravo and Rampaul.

Who will stop the mighty Maroon machine?

I don't see Sammy not being in the team!

he's managed to earn a bit of respect with his performances against Australia now.

who'd have thought you'd see a potential West Indies T20 side where they could choose 3 quality spin bowlers!

Sammy actually makes the team on Merit. He bowls stump to stump and  his battiing has come on leaps and bounds.

LOve the allrounders in the Windies side - Gayle, Simmons, 2 Dwaynes, Samules  and Pollard can all bowl. Sammy, Narine, Cooper, Rampaul can all bat.

Will be dark horses without Gayle and genuine contenders with him. Pretty sure he will play

cause ive got nothing better to do with my time...

WI

Gayle
Dwayne Smith
Samuels
Dwayne Bravo
Pollard
Russell
Sammy
Cooperman
Baugh
Narine
Roach/Edwards/Rampaul

IND

Viru
GG
Vrat
Raina
Rohit
MS
Jadeja
Irfan
Bhaji
Ashwin
Zak

AUS

Warner
Watson
Marsh
Mussey
Dussey
Piglet
Wade
McKay
SOK
Hogg
Lee/Cummins

NB - no bailey :)

Pomglomerate

Wright
KP
Shah-baash
Morgan
Ravi
Samit
Bedwetter
Broad
Swann
Finn
Dernbach

SA

Levi
JK (only due to lack of options really...)
Faf
AB
JP
VDM
Johannes Albertus
Botha
Dale
Morne
Tahir

All this lot pretty even IMO - India look the weakest though - bowling just so ordinary whereas all other teams have world class performers

Can't be assed doing the other teams - Pak pick themselves, as do SL mostly, whilst the Fruits will have a team of no-names

No idea how India and Aus are favs, baffling outright market. It should be clear to anyone who watches any sort of cricket that the strongest 3 sides in the world at international cricket are England Pakistan and SA.

India's bowling attack is woeful, i'm not sure how they plan to defend any score. Australia's attack doesn't look suited to conditions in SL either, i'll be looking to lay these two teams.

As i have stated on this forum numerous times bowling attacks win matches and tournaments, the strongest attacks in world cricket are again SA, ENG and Pakistan.

Also if you look at records, England, Pakistan and SA all have very good records in this format. Whereas India and Aus both have pretty poor overall records.

After taking all that into consideration, Pakistan at 8-1 has got to be the play, the tracks will suit their attack down to the ground, they probably have the best attack for those conditions and they have a great record in the comp, runners up, winners and Losing semi finalist (from 1.01).

SA record in T20 WCs is sh1te aint it dougy?

little englanders chatting reckless about india, ur boys gonna get mashed up easy

yep lix which is why I haven't backed them although if anyone offers anything bigger than 6-1 i will have to get involved. Pakistan at 8-1 my only play so far. But my main point is, is that the best three teams in world cricket right now are for some bizzare reason not the 3 favs for the comp.

totally agree there. market is all wrong although you'll still get a decent price on Pak cos rightly or wrongly people still dont fully trust em... and they've done some 'strange' stuff in SL before..

Their test series over there a few yrs ago was almost certainly dodgy but that was in the bad old days of Butt etc..

More recently they played their group games in the WC last year. We saw em concede 100 off 5 overs to NZ which didnt look right and also a very dodgy looking slow start from the openers against a minnow.

If the market was fully convinced Pak are 100% clean these days i dont think they would be as big as 8s.

They still look a bit short on batting especially some lower order power hitting if Razzaq is FINNISH at international level now The BPL was encouraging from a Pak point of view with Shezhad and Imran Nazir showing they had come on. Nazir a top class fielder too. not sure if he's in their plans though. They may have to recall Kamran Akmal.... His batting is fine in Asia.

was slow go v kenya!!  lost a few quid there me did. 

we'l have to get on a windies / pak final. 

I can't believe people still consier Kallis in this format.

Sa can't win with him, i will lay SA with all i've got if he plays

windies with gayle and narine....mmmnnnnnnnnn

no kp for england.

got a really horrible feeling Bopara will open for England at World T20s now KP's missing. Personally the team I'd go with is:

Cook
Hales
Kieswetter
Morgan
Davies
Stevens
Patel
Bresnan
Broad
Swann
Dernbach

Team looks far worse without KP, can't see any way we can win it now to be honest

nice to see gayle back playing for the windies.  Some good t20 hitting at the end of the windines v middlesex 50 overs game.   Hopefully narine will get a few now.

simmons
gayle 
da bravo
d smith
pollard
bravo
ramadin
russell
sammy
rampaul
narine

having fancied windies asked a few books for a wt20 double... narine and gayle..... no quotes as yet.

Im not very active in forums, but cant resist in saying that i havnt seen a better WI side ever to play a T20 event.The only issue with them as all know is thier lacklustre and brainless attitude, but this team has Sammy to lead them who somehow gives a feeling of a decent leader with a right to occupy a place in the team by merit.In opening they have Gayle who needs no intro, with Samuels,Bravo to support in  upper middle order and Polard,Russel,Sammy to finish the big hitting.The bowling for a change looks very impressive with Roach-Rampaul to lead the attack and later Nariane to Bamboozle with able support from Sammy and Russel.If WI doesnt win or reach the finals it would be highly surpising .

with todays game washed out, watching the re-run of the last wt20 final, got me thinking who goes further this time.

for me ...australia will go further than england this time.  How would peeps price this up?

england are a huge lay for me..

Eng could be one of the strongest teams there. Must be 50-50 that a compromise is worked out with KP and he plays. Owais Shah would be nice too.

Kies
Bopara
KP
Shah
Morgan
Patel
Buttler
Bresnan
Swann
Broad
Finn

That is a fkin strong team if you ask me. Better than the one which won last time in the caribbean.

I'd like to know how India win this with no good seamers...
Ashwin their only reliable bowler imo. THe likes of Jadeja,Pathan,PK,Munaf are gonna get smashed all over the place.

If England don't solve the issue of the missing ego then they may well struggle unless they can find a new player that can fill his role.  Filling his role isn't that easy though as the whole point is he can intimidate bowlers and a new player can't easily do that even if they are bashing the runs out.

surprised James Taylor didn't get a call up for the T20 squad.

do you reckon Shah would get a go, a long time since he was last picked?

is Luke Wright not fair game for a crack as opener if they can't resolve the KP issue?

At present only 6 players remain from the 2010 world cup winning side plus Anderson if he could get in the squad.

Wright the best Eng T20 bat behind KP and Morgs for mine....as long as he opens.

England are my biggest red at the moment, i was actually looking at the windies price and had ssnews on when it was announced that kp retires, so i laid them at about 8.4ish looking for a trade / overreaction but it hasnt happened..... yet.

For me...take out kp, and not sure shah will even get considered (tho after the ipl he should) and theres no one there that'l frighten the opps bowling and get some regular high scores.

could morgan go up the order? but then the middle order looks bleak.

patel seems to always have his place under scrutiny and under pressure and buttler even tho he's a good young kid, we'r all thinking is / when will he start cut the mustard at top level.  Bopara for england always seems to be under pressure also and i cant remember a game where he had a really high strike rate.  I think they'v all played well for england but from the knocks i can remember they were mostly in support and around a kp innings.

bresan / swann / broad /  a positive in terms of batting deep but i cant see them going at 9/10 / scoring many against top quality fastmen or spin like narine or ajmal And i worry if like 5 down (no kp / shah) how they might score 50 off the last 5 to set up/ chase a target.

At the top of the order (without kp) i dont see anyone that 's gonna bat for 15 overs and be close to a hundred.  Windies have gayle, aus have warner / watson, india have sehwag/gg,  even nz have jesse? / mucullum, sri lanka have dilsh where youd think theyd all be close to 100.  Bops probably be on 30 just infront of kallis. .. i like kies but will he be consistent.

After a poor start / powerplays ... i think the middle order will be under too much pressure to catch up and quite ofter collaspe trying to go to far.  I dont think theyr bad players, just the other teams will have set a better platform.  I also dont see the big finisher /s in the england side, that 'l help score the quick 30 off 15 balls at the end, bit like nz.(oram?)

No dhoni / jadeja, no pollard sammy rusell dw bravo..lol / , no afridi?, no morkel, no m-dussey / white even smith/johnson. Not even a no -perera

Bowling wise... i think swann will be ok, but the other spinners wont frighten anyone. And if a pitch offers little bounce not sure how the rest of the unit will get on.  Again, good players but will conditions suit them?   

For me, windies whom im on big now, along with pak, sa, aus and  india all go further than england.

^as do lanka and id love muruli to play the wt20.

we wont need 30 off 15 at the end. will be restricting sides to under 140 most of the time.



KP will play i reckon. He's too big a star if the form of his life to be sitting this out. The ECB will come to their senses.

India as favs is a hilarious joke. Their last two T20 WC performances have been shambolic and they are weaker this time round.

Guess India could go for Dinda, Aaron and Yadev.

Aaron and Yadev haven't played any T20 international cricket though. Might prove a bit tougher than IPL..

i just wish more eng and pak players played the ipl, think it'd be a bit easier to calibrate thoughts then.

off all the teams i think will go further, id probably say i was most worried about india due to their bowling but i was worried about india's world cup bowling but the batting just powered them just far enough in front.

but those you mention lix did seem to go ok.   Always remember chaminder doing ok in sri lanka , (also seems to destroy glammy too ) so left arm swingers zak and i.pathan might be ok.  The other pathan got smashed a few times but with other bowling options in raina / kholi and jadeja with ashwin have quite a few overs covered.

i think iv changed sides about 10 times now making cases for each team the more i think about it. 

add balaji when the track suits too like kkr? have done.

Interesting with Yadav, he really should be given games in the T20 side though I recall he went for a lot of runs in a pretty successful spell in the test side.

His economy was brilliant in the IPL though and he took plenty of wickets and has rare Indian genuine pace.  He must be played from their next T20 game onwards in my view

West Indies outright fixed odds is giving a 10 and lay on exchance is at 10

i thought exchance must have better odds

exchange has 8.8 to lay, a decent Arb that

dan the man back for nz.  looked quite ineffective in the ipl when he hadnt dropped himself but can only be a good thing for the kiwi's.

always thought he'd come back for this, was gonna try and do a team of players that wouldnt be playing but could or should be.... kp, muruli, dan, etc, etc.

Daniel Vettori has declared he will come out of Twenty20 international retirement and has made himself available for the ICC World T20 in Sri Lanka later this year. Vettori has not played a T20 international in more than two years and retired from the format in March 2011, although he continued to play T20 domestically at home and overseas.

At the time, Vettori said he was taking a break from one-day internationals but might return, although he said he had definitely played his last T20 international. His change of heart has come with the World T20 only three months away, and one of the major attractions is that it will be played in spin-friendly conditions in Sri Lanka.

"Dan was the number one ranked Twenty20 bowler in 2009 and is widely regarded as one of the best Twenty20 exponents in world cricket," David White, the New Zealand Cricket chief executive said. "His availability is a real boost for the Black Caps with his style of bowling well suited to conditions in Sri Lanka."

Vettori has played 28 T20 internationals, the last of which came against Sri Lanka in Florida in May 2010. He has competed in all three ICC World T20 tournaments so far, and is seventh on the all-time wicket tally in World T20s, with Shahid Afridi and Saeed Ajmal the only spinners to have taken more wickets than his 18 at 16.05

"Twenty20 is a format Dan enjoys and the opportunity to be part of a team which competes at a world event is enticing for him," Kim Littlejohn, the NZC national selection manager said. "He has been encouraged by his team-mates, coaching staff and others at NZC and we are thrilled to have him in the mix. He will offer a lot to the side."

New Zealand's preliminary squad for the World T20 will be named on July 18. The tournament begins on September 18 and New Zealand have been drawn in a group with Pakistan and Bangladesh.

South Africa 'B'  look like losing their last 2.. t20 matches ...to zim and banga.   Gubbings galore from there t20 experimental line ups on these pitches.

groups...

a..eng...ind...afgan
b..aus...w.i...ireland
c..sl....s.a...zim
d..pak...nz....ban

super 8's.  2 groups.

a1 v b2..... a2 v b1
a1 v d2..... a2 v d1
a1 v c1..... a2 v c2

b1 v a2..... b2 v a1
b1 v c2..... b2 v c1
b1 v d1..... b2 v d2

c1 v d2..... c2 v d1
c1 v b2..... c2 v b1
c1 v a1..... c2 v a2

d1 v c2..... d2 v c1
d1 v a2..... d2 v c1
d1 v b1..... d2 v b2

super8 a1  v super8 b2
super8 b1  v super8 a2

final.

not sure they have it confirmed as to the make up of the super 8 groups but more like its important to win the group as you get two second placed teams?? 

is this right?  just spent half hour trying to figure out what the groups might be in the super8's but its abit like one of those number puzzles

a1
b2
c1
d2

a2
b1
c2
d1

was easier to see when it was all written down. 

whats everone think about this price quoted by paddy p??

gayle top bat 7/2
narine top bowler 5/1

and you can have £20 on the double. 

Narine may get on fairly well on the Sri Lankan pitches but I wouldn't fancy him to be top bowler.

The curly haired one they decided to make the tournament logo is the man to beat and I don't see anyone beating him.

Gayle 7/2

Hilarious price. Is that Top Windies bat!?

no brett lee... retires from international cricket

http://www.espncricinfo.com/australia/content/current/story/572180.html

Rumours KP may return according to Hussain and co in the interval today

karman akmal back for pak t20's v aus + wt20

and  Raaaaaaaaaazzzzzzzzzzzzaaaaaaaaaaaqqqqqqqqqqqqq


http://www.espncricinfo.com/pakistan/content/story/572765.html

Been saying they should recall Kakmal for a while now. good move. His batting is fine in Asia. Decent player when he's er.. trying. Gives them a keeper who can score boundaries down the order unlike the hopeless Adnan who could barely knock the froth off a capuccino

Razzaq and Imran Nazir also good news

Hafeez
Nazir
Akmal
Shafiq
Malik
Umar
Afridi
Razzaq
Gul
Ajmal
Tanvir/Sami

Strongest bowling in the comp that. 4 good spin overs with Afridi/Hafeez/Ajmal  2 good seamers in Tanvir and Gul and decent support bowling in Razzaq and Malik if needed. Nazir also an excellent fielder. I think this team batters Aus/SA on any pitch with any turn in it.

just hope they get through group d then lix.

you still red on england? 

7/1 is very big on the world champs. Only side guaranteed to be in the super 8s too..

yes mate .  Il be shouting for the afgan's.  lol.

Holding tight for now.  Might take a small loss if kp goes but barring that, england retaining trophy will be a nasty red. 

Large loss...banga / eng
level...most
small win... pak
huge win ... windies.

indian wt20 preliminary squad.

MS Dhoni, Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, Suresh Raina, R Ashwin, Pragyan Ojha, Umesh Yadav, Ashok Dinda, Ajinkya Rahane, Manoj Tiwary, Rahul Sharma, Vinay Kumar, Zaheer Khan, Yuvraj Singh, Robin Uthappa, Irfan Pathan, Yusuf Pathan, Mandeep Singh, Piyush Chawla, Ravindra Jadeja, Shikhar Dhawan, Ambati Rayudu, Harbhajan Singh, Munaf Patel, Naman Ojha, Dinesh Karthik, Praveen Kumar, L Balaji

yuvraj singh in the 30, along with madeep singh (k11punjab) and Rayudu (mi) the only 2 uncapped players.

Rayudu!  Ambani will be SEETHING if he gets capped. Means MI will have to offer him up for auction and/or pay him the going market rate as declared on the salary cap system (instead of simply declaring his fee at $100k and bunging him another $300k under the table like they do now.. )

no kp in eng squad of 30

very happy for my book,  sad for cricket.

http://www.espncricinfo.com/world-twenty20-2012/content/current/story/572899.html

He hasnt un retired yet. they'll do a deal and he'll play. dont have to name the 15 man squad for weeks.

the red next to england doesnt look as worrying today tho.

will do when SA get knocked out by zimmers in the 1st rd..

  wouldnt mind that lix.   as long as windies end up in zim super 8's along with nz and afgan. 

Imagine saffers lose to Sri Lanka and then SA's game with Zims is rained off...  

Could be some early carnage in this comp.

india's game with the afgans rained off would be amusing.  Didnt england need the rain to stop in the last wt20 v ireland or they were gone?

not exactly. were still 1.7 favs when the rain came but could've easily lost yes.. 

arh ok, mem not what it use to be.  Thought i just remembered thinking / hearing a washout meant england might have been out.

i think the weather could do some damage, tho have they got some reserve days for this major comp?

bangladesh in trouble v scotland

scotland 162/7 off 20
bangladesh 109/7   15.4

bangladesh go down by 34 runs to scotland in the t20

bangladesh lose again.... this time to the dutch. 

Pietersen clings to Twenty20 hope.

The next significant date in the current dispute between Kevin Pietersen and the ECB is looming on Saturday with the deadline for England to name their World Twenty20 squad. 

mmmnnnnnn whats everyones thinking now?

Pak players should feel right at home come comp time. played a test and ODI series over there this summer
plus nearly all of them playing in the SLPL. top order players finding a bit of form too.

pak 2nd biggest winners behind da windies mannnnnn.  Have managed to watch a few spl games and was quite pleased with the akmal bro's among others doing well.  Not much change in their outright tho lix.

money coming wanting to lay england.   How long before they flip with pak or maybe new zealand?

you do know the groups right?

Eng       Aus
WI        Pak
NZ        SA
SL        India

Eng gonna have a v good chance of making the semis in that group no? Pak gonna have to do it the hard way

Lix, i would have taken quite short odds you'd reply with something along those lines.

no i dont know how the super 8, two groups will be made up. hopefully some upsets, but im just hoping windies make it to the semi's. 

still same nasty red eng but alittle happyier at the mo.  i still fear kp could still go.

eng will do well to make the semis with their team

no kp = no chance imo

theyll be begging him to come back in no time

Any begging will be done by Pietersen.

doubt it kp will probably tell you pommie ******** to go **** yourselves now and forever more

Where has this 'Mong' Envymygreen come from? Very bitter Aussie, either that or BigJoe reincarnated pretending to be a Aussie?

Definitely not Bigjoe - he had humour and intelligence altho a bit one eyed - this bloke is a total d1ckhead.

nice to see some action in the outrights now.  England price almost looking backable for a trade lix

windies just beat eng almost approaching being favs now. 

england 22/1+     just hope they win the next 2 now to lay off some green.

lanka playing well, really beating the windies.  just hope windies make lanka go right down to last over or 2 not to damage run rate.  FINGERS crossed now for a windies win v nz and another lankan win v eng.

looking at some nasty run rate damage for the windies here.

worst day trading the outright by me by far... what a nightmare today was.  Really thought the windies had blown it twice v the kiwis and gave over 6k green back at stupid prices.

(really gutted)

the windies train was far too bumpy for me today.  :-(   Probably would have left it had i not laid the kiwis to lose far too much.

totally gutted.  Shouting for the aussies tomor to get rid of me green and then closing book.

lanza, you were spot on with your very early windies prediction. I really think they have a great chance. Gayle will really click when it really matters. Had a decent bet on windies just when the super8's kicked off. Hope for a gayle force today.

cheers mick,  fingers crossed for both of us today then.

just took 400@ 2.52 on the windies winning.   Last few games taught not to get too greedy.  With a cheeky top up on Aus at 11.00.

Hope for a few aussies runs before narine comes on and maybe top back up on windies.

Would prob av got out if given chance at 2.5 v sri lanka so doing it now and maybe jump in later.

windies in the final.....  woop  woop  woop. 

Played Lanza!

Windies win if Gayle bats for 12/15 overs or so.

But I think the Sri Lanka spinners and Malinga will be much too cute for him and his fellow big hitters.  Hope I am wrong but I think it could be a cakewalk for SL.

1/5 

Well done lanza.

well done lanza , hope u absolutely smashed it !! like a 100 plus Metre  Gayle six
  great vision to anyone who backed the WINDIES at double figure prices before we knew Gayle would be joining them , well played

hope u didn't lay off too much during the tournament and especially the final , when Windies were 38 for 2 after 11 overs

laid off way too much in the end but the nz match was the killer for me. 

an ok win but not what it could have been.

never mind - hey.  well done to the windies and fellow windies backers.


http://idolator.com/6901791/what-is-gangnam-style

Good shout any idea on who wins the 2014 world cup in Brazil?