T 20... A bag full of surprises, and then, some familiar stuff!!!

The T 20 Cricket World cup had almost reached its end with the semi finals and finals left.

This tournament, criticized by some, applauded by some, and even dismissed by others as "Fun" has thrown its own set of surprises.

Astonishingly, West Indies, after thrashing SA for 205 in the opener( albeit they lost that match) went down to Bangladesh, making it the second time in succession Bangladesh has ousted a "Big" team form a major tournament.

Even more Astonishingly, Australia lost to Zimbabwe and ricky ponting was forced to use some harsh words for his players. Stating the top order's performance to be "diabolical" and asking his players to show more respect to the game in such frank and honest words was something I hadnt anticipated from Ricky.

After australia's 2nd loss, to pakistan, adam gilchrist came out stating that he found T 20 much more enjoyable while watching rather than when playing. I guess that's the case with all teams that end up on the losing side, Gilli!!! Andrew Symonds has also seconded Gilchrist stating the "unpredictibilty" and "frustrating nature" of this format. Now, make no mistake, Australia are by far the best cricketing team in the world, but these words seem to indicate sore losers, mighty ones at that.

To quote Symonds-- "It's a frustrating game because you can be beaten by the lesser sides and they have to be good for a shorter period of time," Symonds said. "That's why he [Gilchrist] is probably finding it frustrating and I'd probably have to agree with him as well."

As far as i know, wasnt the side that LOST the game supposed to be the LESSER side, at least on the given day?? Cmon Mr Symonds, even 5 year old Girls dont whine like that!!! Guess Aussies are just not used to losing and find it pretty difficult to digest!!!

Another revelation of this tournament has been the Pakistani Side, especially Misbah-ul-Haq and Sohail Tanvir!! Misbah, criticized after he was selected at age 33, and over Mohd Yousuf has played two of the best innings of the tournament, one tying the match agianst India, and the another winning it against the mighty australians. Sohail Tanvir has, quite simply, caught the world on the WRONG FOOT, pun intended.

Thankfully, especially for India, not all has been new and there have been some familiar going ons in this world cup too.

India still maintained its record of not losing to Pakistan in a world cup match, winning this one in the most curious circumstances, the BOWL-OUT. The ludicrousness of the situation compelled Dhoni to quip about winning his 1st match as captain with a scoreline of 3-0.

And just today, South Africans lived up to their name of CHOKING at the crucial moments of the big tournaments, and were again ousted at Durban in the 2nd group stages, a venue which wud still bring nightmares to Graeme Smith after the Duckworth-Louis fiasco in World Cup 2003.
Just a few days ago, Shaun Pollock had commented that this format is too small and fast for SA to have time to choke... Wonder what his take would be now!!!

In some quirky tales,
Yuvraj avenged the thrashing by the ahnds of dimitri at the oval and repaid England in kind by smashing 6 sixes in an over off poor stuart broad;
while KP proved his mouth is bigger than his bat when England were given a sound spanking on the ass after his call to "humiliateA" the world champions and avenge the ashes.

All in all, as SA again proved that maybe its not destined for them to win a WORLD CUP, India live to fight another day, and fight hard they will have to, given their match against australia.

For all of Australia's supposed lack of interest and amorance for this form of the game, they still are a might to be reckoned with, and India would have done extremely well if they manage to put it past the aussies!! If they do manage tat feat, i just hope the Aussies dont start up again about the frustrating format and "Lesser Teams"!!!!