The Shorter Wisden 2013 (73 page)

Alex Hales had his moments, but the feeling grew that Craig Kieswetter was unsuited to a top-order role, especially if preserving wickets was the mantra. He attacked, failed, blocked, failed
once more – and was finally dropped for the game against Sri Lanka, in which Malinga took three wickets in four balls, as good as ending England’s pursuit of 170 before it had
begun.

An alternative team might have included Ian Bell alongside Hales and Wright at the top; married Pietersen and Eoin Morgan in the middle order (allowing Pietersen to make spectators’ hair
stand on end, rather than gelling his own to the same effect for the benefit of TV viewers); and recognised Samit Patel’s ability against spin, a skill that was belatedly underlined with a
48-ball 67 against Sri Lanka. Kieswetter and Jonny Bairstow could then have contested the keeping position at No. 7. Jos Buttler, exciting and innovative, but naive and far from battle-hardened,
would have been a standby batsman able to observe his trade.

The side England
actually
selected, young and untutored in Asian conditions, put excessive onus on setting up the game for Morgan. Yet there were weaknesses with the ball, too. Danny
Briggs, whose graceful left-arm spin had been a key component in Hampshire’s domestic success, played only one match, opening against New Zealand, and was a less appealing selection under
lights, when the ball was more likely to zip around. Steven Finn led the attack with pace and purpose, but Tim Bresnan had a mediocre tournament, and Jade Dernbach’s variations did not
prevent him from being England’s most expensive bowler. Any ambitions for Ravi Bopara’s fiddly medium-pace on pitches which grew slower had to be abandoned because his batting was in
such parlous shape. His last-gasp inclusion for the Sri Lanka match smacked of desperation; he made one from six balls.

There was criticism of the qualifying stage, which never sparked into life. But it lasted only eight days, and any ennui was as much the fault of the quality of the sides contesting it.
Ireland’s
long-serving seamer, Trent Johnston, railed against the habitual description of his team as “minnows”, and demanded they be judged by the standards of a
Full Member one-day nation – in which case it is fair to observe that they remain light on quality and will struggle as long as England pilfer their best cricketers.

Bangladesh’s
fielding was at times abysmal, and
Zimbabwe
were knocked out before five teams had even started their first match. Among the lesser sides,
Afghanistan
alone performed above expectations, playing with flair and aggression, even if it seemed Ten10 might be more their game. India beat them only after considerable
discomfort, a reminder in these high-tech days that raw talent cannot be entirely discounted.

The same message came from Akila Dananjaya, a young off-spinner – with lots of variations – who was fast-tracked into the Sri Lanka side after being spotted in the nets by
Jayawardene. He suffered a fractured cheekbone missing a fierce return catch on debut against New Zealand, but performed admirably when he had the chance.

There were grumbles that all four preliminary group winners ended up in the same pool, but an element of pre-seeding had logic on its side. A large number of travelling supporters cannot book
accommodation in a couple of days, and it was entirely sensible to plan for a scenario in which, say, as long as Afghanistan were eliminated, England would play in Pallekele and India in Colombo in
the next stage, whatever their final group positions. To determine Super Eight venues by group results would have risked reducing the number of overseas supporters.

In the Super Eights, India (on net run-rate), New Zealand and
South Africa
– a disappointment once more at a major tournament – succumbed along with England.
India
had the most romantic story – the return of Yuvraj Singh after treatment in the USA for cancer. Yuvraj had a solid tournament, although there were times when his
inclusion appeared to add to the confusion of India’s selections. Only Virat Kohli, looking ever more likely to succeed Sachin Tendulkar as his country’s cricket idol, possessed
authority with the bat. With Zaheer Khan on the wane, their pace attack rarely looked competitive.

Quite what it all said about the IPL was hard to judge, for India actually won four games out of five, only to do their run-rate irreparable damage when they were thrashed by Australia in the
match that mattered most. It is one thing having the most successful domestic Twenty20 tournament in the world; quite another for that to lead to a successful national side. There was little
evidence Indian players were benefiting any more from the IPL than the assortment of international players who descend annually upon their shores. This is no surprise in England, where the glitz
and glamour of football’s Premier League, awash with foreign players, has not translated into international glory.

New Zealand
had an extraordinary tournament. They were involved in two eliminator-over deciders in the Super Eights, against Sri Lanka and West Indies – and lost both,
leaving their captain Ross Taylor struggling for words. Their new coach, Mike Hesson, understandably questioned the rationale of using these one-over tie-breakers in group matches, when it ought to
have been perfectly possible for the teams to share the spoils. That would not have saved New Zealand from elimination, but Hesson had a case. An American-style aversion to tied matches seems to
have crept into cricket without much debate.

Pakistan’s
semi-final qualification ahead of India owed much to a remarkable recovery against South Africa, when Umar Gul and Umar Akmal put on 49 in 27 balls for the
eighth wicket to pull off an unexpected win. But Pakistan’s interest ended when, on a crumbling pitch at the Premadasa, Jayawardene produced a delicate gem of an innings to guide Sri Lanka
into the final.

West Indies saw off Australia in the other semi as the mighty Watson failed to deliver; Australia were lucky to keep the margin down to 74 runs as their batting line-up, at last exposed, plunged
to 43 for six. Nevertheless, a team that had briefly been ranked tenth, just below Ireland, a few weeks before the tournament, had at least silenced the sniggers.

A team of the tournament might have gone something like this: Shane Watson, Chris Gayle, Mahela Jayawardene (captain), Virat Kohli, Marlon Samuels, Eoin Morgan, M. S. Dhoni (wicketkeeper),
Mitchell Starc, Sunil Narine, Saeed Ajmal and Dale Steyn. Here were 11 players who had performed excellently in a short, sharp, engrossing tournament. If only the ICC would apply the lesson
elsewhere.

FINAL

SRI LANKA v WEST INDIES

V
IC
M
ARKS

At Colombo (RPS), October 7, 2012. West Indies won by 36 runs. Toss: West Indies.

West Indies won the World Twenty20 for the first time, sparking more cricketing optimism in the Caribbean than it has known for a decade or more. The margin of victory seemed mammoth for a
Twenty20 game, yet there were moments when West Indies seemed doomed to failure – a situation familiar to Darren Sammy’s side on their route to the final.

Earlier in the tournament they had looked destined for an early return home. They managed to qualify for the Super Eights without actually winning either of their group games, like previous
champions England in 2010. Then, six days before the final, they looked certain to lose to New Zealand, but fought back to tie, against the odds, before prevailing in the super over by smashing the
18 runs required. These scrapes seemed to forge a wonderful, joyous spirit within the West Indian camp, as well as the belief that this would be their trophy.

Even in the final, a West Indies victory seemed out of the question after the first ten overs, at which point they were an unfathomable 32 for two. Their champion, Gayle, had been dismissed for
three, and Jayawardene was controlling affairs like a master puppeteer. But Samuels played an astonishing innings. After a cagey start he cracked 78 from 56 balls, smashing six sixes along the
way.

His assault on Malinga was breathtaking. While Mathews and Ajantha Mendis bowled their eight overs for 23 runs and five wickets, Malinga – probably the most experienced, and feared, fast
bowler in the world in this format – was carted for 54, including five of those sixes. Somehow Samuels differentiated between the slower and quicker balls before depositing them over the
leg-side boundary. This was an enthralling display of brutal, calculated hitting. Bravo and Sammy offered handy assistance, and the total advanced to 137 – far more than expected, and enough
to generate hope.

Sri Lanka’s chase was badly hindered when Dilshan was bowled by Rampaul’s first delivery. Then the wise old men, Jayawardene and Sangakkara, set about knocking off the target as
sensibly as possible – but they could not score quickly enough on a pitch that offered increasing encouragement to the spinners. Sangakkara was well caught by Pollard at deep midwicket,
Jayawardene felt compelled to reverse-sweep and lobbed a catch to point, then panic set in. There were run-outs, as West Indies displayed an athleticism in the outfield that few international sides
can match, and the unorthodox spinner Narine, a potential Caribbean star for the next decade, tormented everyone.

There was a little scare when Rampaul conceded 22 in the 16th over, as Kulasekara regularly found the boundary. But soon the game was up, and the cricketers of the Caribbean, as united as they
have ever been since the golden days, began to celebrate as only they know how.

It was a proud moment for Sammy. “Today we were down and out, but our never-say-die attitude came out,” he said. No one had a smile broader than Gayle, until recently a so-called
mercenary, but now the heartbeat of the side.

Man of the Match:
M. N. Samuels.
Man of the Tournament:
S. R. Watson.

Umpires: Aleem Dar and S. J. A. Taufel. Third umpire: R. J. Tucker.

Referee: J. J. Crowe.

ICC WOMEN’S WORLD TWENTY20, 2012-13

A
LISON
M
ITCHELL

1. Australia 2. England 3= New Zealand and West Indies

The third Women’s World Twenty20 ended with the thriller the tournament was crying out for, as Australia beat England by four runs in Colombo to become the first team
– male or female – to retain the title.

England were heavily fancied to repeat their triumph of 2009, in the first tournament, having only recently been halted on a run of 19 Twenty20 international victories (excluding abandonments).
They picked the same XI throughout the competition, including four spin bowlers – Holly Colvin, Danielle Hazell, Laura Marsh and Danielle Wyatt. Australia’s openers came out firing,
however, and they clinched victory off the last ball of a tense final. “I’m disappointed we lost,” said England captain Charlotte Edwards. “But I’d rather play in a
final which was a great spectacle for the women’s game. I’m very proud of that.”

For the third time, the women’s event ran parallel to the men’s. The group games were hosted in Galle, where crowds were small, despite the efforts of ICC marketeers to raise
enthusiasm by erecting life-size cardboard cut-outs of the leading players next to their male counterparts on roundabouts across the city and in Colombo. The semi-finals and final were staged as
double-headers at Colombo’s Premadasa Stadium before the equivalent men’s matches, and broadcast worldwide by ESPN STAR Sports.

The semi-finals were a perfect illustration of why the pace of the pitch is so important to women’s cricket, which is determined more by canny deflections and careful placement than brute
force. A painfully slow turner led to a turgid game between England and New Zealand, but a truer surface the next day made for far more engaging cricket, even though Australia’s win over West
Indies was similarly one-sided.

England had swept through Group A unbeaten, with their batsmen rarely tested. Against India, Edwards became the first woman to pass 1,500 runs in Twenty20 internationals, and she finished as the
tournament’s leading scorer, with 172 at 43.

India, long regarded as one of the big four of the women’s game, lost every group match, prompting concerns that Australia and England were pulling away from the rest of the world –
a theory strengthened by the ease of England’s semi-final win over two-time runners-up New Zealand, the other member of the quartet. India’s nadir was confirmed when, in an
unattractive, low-scoring game, they were unable to chase down 99 in a dead rubber against Pakistan.

It was their first defeat by their arch-rivals, and the first time since 1988, when they did not even send a team, that they had failed to reach the last four of a global tournament. Their
captain, the experienced and respected Mithali Raj, said the loss ought to be a jolt for the women’s game in her country. Meanwhile, Pakistan captain Sana Mir renewed her call for more
fixtures against the top countries in order for them to improve.