ICC Champions Trophy, 2013
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Thursday 27 December 2012
India v Pakistan, 2nd T20, Ahmedabad
Sound bowling options give Pakistan edge
Match facts
December 28, 2012Start time 1700 (1130 GMT)
Big Picture
A fabled rivalry was renewed after a five-year hiatus with a cracking match in Bangalore. The track wasn't the usual Twenty20 bowler-killing slab, having enough spice to interest the quicks. There were collapses, fightbacks and some heated moments, before Shoaib Malik enhanced his reputation for raising his game against India with a half-century that was topped off by a match-winning six in the final over. Ahmedabad fans will hope for similar thrills, but a different result, on Friday.
The IPL is regularly put forth as one of the reasons for India's Test decline. While that argument has divided opinion, the IPL doesn't seem to have done much to improve India's Twenty20 performances either. Their previous three World Twenty20 campaigns have been lacklustre, and while the batting is more or less settled, no bowler has yet nailed yet his place in the XI. The one spinner who had done that , R Ashwin, was surprisingly left out of the first T20, a move that Mohammad Hafeez suggested helped Pakistan.
In contrast, Pakistan have a plethora of bowling options, with Hafeez playing as a genuine allrounder, and Malik and Shahid Afridi able to contribute with both bat and ball. They also have two of the most successful T20 bowlers in Saeed Ajmal and Umar Gul, who combined to trigger India's astonishing late-innings slide in Bangalore. The home side's batting needs to find a way to negotiate them, if they are to stand a serious chance of levelling the series.
Form guide
India LLWWW (Completed games, most recent first)Pakistan WLWLW
Players to watch
A noisy Chinnaswamy Stadium become even more deafeningly loud when debutant seam bowlerBhuvneshwar Kumar got the ball to snake both ways, castling two Pakistan batsman and having another caught behind. It was not just the swerving deliveries that excited the fans but the manner in which he set up the dismissals. It was a dream start for Bhuvneshwar, but can he repeat the magic or was it a one-off? Ahmedabad will give us a clue.
Another new-ball bowler who didn't just catch the eye, but demanded attention with his towering frame wasMohammad Irfan. He was regularly around the 90mph mark, troubling the India batsmen with his pace and bounce. He was much quicker than in his previous international outings - a couple of ODIs against England in 2010 - and drew high praise from Wasim Akram.
Stats and Trivia
- Umar Akmal's zero in the first Twenty20 was the fifth of his career, leaving him one behind four players - including Shahid Afridi - for the most ducks in T20s
- Virat Kohli needs 29 runs to break Martin Guptill's record for the most T20 runs in a calendar year*
Quotes
"The way we played the last match, our morale is quite high … I will give credit to the bowlers and fielders. They [India] were 70 for no loss and after that we came back. Bowling has always been our strength and in the last match, even after a bad start, the comeback was outstanding. As a captain I am very pleased with that."
Mohammad Hafeez, the Pakistan captain
Mohammad Hafeez, the Pakistan captain
Hand injury puts Sangakkara out of Australia tour
Sri Lanka will be without batsman Kumar Sangakkarafor the remainder of their tour of Australia, after scans revealed a fracture to his left hand, where he was hit by a Mitchell Johnson bouncer during theBoxing Day Test. Sangakkara will undergo surgery this evening and will be unavailable for six to eight weeks, as he recovers. Fast bowler Chanaka Welegedara has also been ruled out of the Sydney Test with a hamstring injury, and will likely fly home, having not been named in the limited overs squads.
Sri Lanka are also waiting on the fitness of wicketkeeper Prasanna Jayawardene and fast bowler Nuwan Kulasekara, who are both suffering from hairline fractures. Jayawardene sustained his injury during Sri Lanka's first innings, when Johnson hit him on the right thumb. Kulasekara meanwhile had been complaining of soreness in the ribs after being hit there while batting on the fifth day in Hobart, before scans on Thursday revealed he had a cracked rib.
Sangakkara was hit on the bottom hand while fending a short ball after lunch, and immediately called for the physiotherapist upon crossing for a single. The removal of his glove revealed significant swelling on the bottom of his index finger, and he left the field for the hospital soon after.
Sri Lanka thrown to the lions
Australia 460 (Clarke 106, Johnson 92*, Watson 83, Warner 62, Prasad 3-106, Eranga 3-109) beat Sri Lanka 156 and 103 (Johnson 2-16, Bird 2-29) by an innings and 201 runs
In his summary of the 1974-75 Ashes series, Wisden's correspondent John Thicknesse wrote of the havoc wrought by Dennis Lillee and Jeff Thomson that "England's batsmen must have experienced the same sort of emotion as they waited for the next ball as early Christians felt as they waited in the Colosseum for the lions."
Sri Lanka's batsmen were wracked by that same feeling of helplessness and inevitability as Australia completed a fearful mauling of the tourists in the Boxing Day Test, as the incisiveness of the home bowling attack combined with a dreadful glut of injuries to have the match over by 2.10pm on the third afternoon. The fall of Sri Lanka's seventh wicket, fittingly to a short-pitched ball, meant the end of the contest, as none of Prasanna Jayawardene, Chanaka Welegedara or Kumar Sangakkara were fit to bat.
Sangakkara had suffered a suspected finger fracture at the hands of the man of the match Mitchell Johnson, who began the day by guiding Australia's tail to a lead of 304 and ended it as the chief inflictor of pain on a Sri Lankan team that was overwhelmed even more comprehensively than India had been last year.
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