Story SouthAfrica's International Diary(ICC CT 2009) - Boucher tries to Steady the Ship

[just_cricket]

Nice presentation. The stage is set for a competitive tournament...

 

[Jaztheman]

This competition is gonna be a blast, can't really predict the winner.

England's team isn't bad but I don't believe it is good enough to beat the likes of Australia and India. Gonna be tough.

Awesome presentation, Shan.

 

[shantanu_rooney]

Proteas and Kiwis arrive​

Welcome back to ESPN for the latest news on the upcoming Twenty20 World Cup. South Africa, and New Zealand cricket team arrived today morning at the London airport. South Africa will have their base camp at The Lords, and the Kiwis will train at Tent Bridge.

The South African selectors have chosen a well balanced squad having a good mixture of youth and experience. Youngsters like Lonwabo Tsotsobe, Wayne Parnell and Roelof van der Merwe have been selected along with the experience guys like Jacques Kallis, the inform Herschelle Gibbs and keeper Mark Boucher. Yusuf Abdulla who was the surprise package of the Indian Premier League picking up 13 wickets for Kings XI Punjab has also been included in the squad. While Hashim Amla, Vaughan van Jaarsveld miss the chance to play in England.

Graeme Smith (c)
Mark Boucher (wk)
Jacques Kallis (vc)
Herschell Gibbs
Albie Morkel
Morne Morkel
Johann Botha
AB de Villiers
Jean-Paul Duminy
Dale Steyn
Makhaya Ntini
Wayne Parnell
Yusuf Abdulla
Roelof van der Merwe
Robin Peterson
Lonwabo Tsotsobe

Player to Watch: AB de Villiers

AB de Villiers became the first player to score a century in the second edition of the IPL. AB de Villiers has been in great form recently and scoring runs for fun. He is one of the best fielders in the world and his speed on the field is breathtaking. He has a variety of great shots and can be dangerous in any format of the game.

The New Zealand selectors have decided to give Brendon Diamati a chance who has average over 47 with a strike of 102 in the State Shield. Jeetan Patel and Chris Martin failed to make into the final 16 due to their poor form in the shorter format of the game. Jacob Oram who had a decent second season of IPL comes in for Grant Elliot who had an excellent summer. Overall the side is balance with many youngsters along with experience guys like Brendon McCullum, Daniel Vettori and etc.

Daniel Vettori (c)
Brendon McCullum (vc)(wk)
James Franklin
Neil Broom
Martin Guptil
Ross Taylor
Nathan McCullum
Scott Styris
Jesse Ryder
Ian Butler
Peter McGlashan
Kyle Mills
Brendon Diamati
Iain O'Brien
Jacob Oram
Tim Southee

Player to Watch: Jacob Oram

Jacob Oram is one of the big hitters of cricket who every bowler is afraid to bowl. Oram on his day can single handedly change the course of the game in no time. Oram had a decent IPL 2 in South Africa scoring around 150 runs with bat and also picking 7 wickets for the Chennai Superkings. His ability to ball the gentle medium pacers can cause the batsman a lot of problems by slowing down the run rate or also by picking up some wickets.

 

[MWaugh]

my tip is with the australians. however the indian squad looks red hot

 

[shantanu_rooney]

Sri Lanka and West Indies squad announced​

Again welcome back to ESPN for the latest updates on the Twenty20 World Cup. Today morning two more teams arrived at the London airport, they were the Sri Lankans and the West Indies. Sri Lankans will have their training camp at The Oval while the West Indies will have their base camp at Tent Bridge.

The Sri Lankan selectors have selected their best possible squad full of experience along with some youngsters. Kumar Sangakkara will lead the side as Jayawardene resigned before the start of the IPL. Lasith Malinga and Upul Tharanga have been recalled to the squad after a long time thanks to their good recent performances. Farveez Maharoof also returns to the squad along with Chamara Silva and Chaminda Vaas who missed the ODI series against India and some part of the Indian Premier League due to injury.

Kumar Sangakkara (c)(wk)
Muttaih Muralitharan (vc)
Sanath Jayasuriya
Tillakaratne Dilshan
Mahela Jayawardene
Chamara Kapugedera
Chamara Silva
Farveez Maharoof
Nuwan Kulasekara
Thilan Thushara
Lasith Malinga
Chaminda Vaas
Ajantha Mendis
Upul Tharanga
Thilina Kandamby
Dilhara Fernando

Player to Watch: Lasith Malinga

Maling made a brilliant come back from his one year long injury by ending as the leading wicket taker in the second edition if the IPL by picking up 22 wickets for the Mumbai Indians. Malinga has a fearsome reputation as he bowls with a distinctive and explosive round-arm action which generates genuine pace and can disconcert batsmen who struggle to pick up the ball's trajectory.

Like the England team, West Indies selectors have gone with some Twenty20 specialist in their squad for the World Cup. But there is no lack of experience in the side as they have Chris Gayle, Shivnarine Chanderpaul and Ramnaresh Sarwan. Young guns like Xavier Marshall, Andre Fletcher, Nelon Pascal, Lionel Baker have given a great opportunity to prove themselves at the world stage. Dwayne Bravo and Jerome Taylor both return to side after serious injuries.

Chris Gayle (c)
Denesh Ramdin (wk)(vc)
Ramnaresh Sarwan
Shivnarine Chanderpaul
Dwayne Bravo
Dwayne Smith
Xabier Marshall
Jerome Taylor
Fidel Edwards
Kieron Pollard
Brendon Nash
Andre Fletcher
Lionel Baker
Nikita Miller
Darren Sammy
Nelon Pascal

Player to Watch: Dwayne Smith

The tall, aggressive and powerful Dwayne Smith will be the players to watch for in this Twenty20 World Cup. His flamboyant hitting is matched by his athletic fielding, while his useful medium-pacers have already tasted some success at domestic level for Barbados and Deccan Chargers. Dwayne Smith played an important role for the Deccan Chargers in the IPL scoring about 110 runs in 8 matches and picking 6 wickets and also fielded brilliantly.

 

[Jaztheman]

All four teams are rather a joy to watch, even West Indies on a good day, so at least we're going to get a few excellent matches. My tip to win is India.

Awesome presentation, Shan.

 

[shantanu_rooney]

Associates arrive in England​

Welcome back to ESPN for some live updates on the upcoming Twenty20 World Cup. Today the remaining four teams - Bangladesh, Kenya, Netherlands and Ireland arrived at the London airport in the evening with their complete squads and will be hoping to put forward a good performance in the tournament. So lets have a quick look at their 16-man squad.

Mohammad Ashraful (c)
Mashrafe Mortaza (vc)
Mushfiqur Rahim (wk)
Aftab Ahmed
Farhad Reza
Mehrab Hossian jnr
Shahadat Hossain
Shahriar Nafees
Shakib Al Hasan
Abdur Razzak
Rubel Hossain
Mahumudullah
Nazimuddin
Syed Rasel
Tamin Iqbal
Dolar Mahmud

William Porterfield (c)
Naill O'Brien (wk)
Andre Botha (vc)
Jeremy Bray
Peter Connel
Alex Cusack
Phil Eaglestone
Trent Johnston
Kyle McCallam
John Mooney
Eion Morgon
Kevin O'Brien
Andrew Poynter
Boyd Rankin
Regan West
Andrew White
Gary Wilson

Ryan Watson (c)
John Blan (vc)
Colin Smith (wk)
Kyle Coetzer
Gordon Drummond
Gordon Goudie
Gavin Hamilton
Majid Huq
Moneeb Iqbal
Neil McCallum
Calum Macleod
Dewald NelNavdeep Poonia
Qasim Sheikh
Jan Stander
Craig Wright

Jeroen Smits (c)(wk)
Peter Booren (vc)
Mudassar Bukhari
Tom de Grooth
Maurits Jonkman
Alexei Kervezee
Mohammad Kashif
Dirk Nannes
Ruud Nijman
Darron Reekers
Edgar Schiferli
Pieter Seelar
Eric Szwarczynski
Ryen ten Doeschate
Daan van Bunge
Bas Zuiderent​

 

[surendar]

They are not called " minnows ". They are "Associates "!:cool: Hopefully one of these nations win this trophy I know its a high ask

Keep up the excellent works

 

[shantanu_rooney]

They are not called " minnows ". They are "Associates "!:cool: Hopefully one of these nations win this trophy I know its a high ask

Keep up the excellent works

Yeah I know they are Associate teams but Bangladesh isnt. But they are minnows in the competition again except for Bangladesh to some extent.

 

[surendar]

Yeah I know they are Associate teams but Bangladesh isnt. But they are minnows in the competition again except for Bangladesh to some extent.

The polite way of referring them is, " Associates! "

Who are the minnows? These are the non-Test-Playing nations that have been included into this year?s Cricket World Cup. They are Bermuda, Canada, Scotland, The Netherlands and Ireland. The ICC more politely refers to them as ?ICC Associates?.

 

[just_cricket]

They are not called " minnows ". They are "Associates "!:cool: Hopefully one of these nations win this trophy I know its a high ask

Keep up the excellent works

Yeah, I hope one of them at least reaches the semis... here, and in the real thing.

Nice pres, kiu

 

[Left_Hander]

Looks like the stage is set for a great tournament. I'm hoping the Australians can lift the trophy in England.

Very nicely laid out presentation might I add

 

[shantanu_rooney]

ICC Twenty20 World Cup 2009, England
England Vs Netherlands
Group B, Live from Lords.


Welcome to the first match of the ICC Twenty20 World Cup between the host England and the underdogs Netherlands at the Lords. The stadium is already packed up and the atmosphere in the stadium is just brilliant.Everyone is eagerly waiting for the match and of course this entertaining tournament to start.

Well, without wasting any time lets go down to David Lloyd who has the pitch report for us.

Pitch Report​

Well the atmosphere in the stadium is brilliant. Its already fully filled and the crowd are eagerly waiting for the start of the first match of the Twenty20 World Cup here in England. The weather is perfect for a game of cricket. There are some clouds over head but we will surely have a full game of cricket.

Looking at the pitch, it has an even covering of grass and dry surface. The ball will come on nicely but later on it will become slower. The outfield here is quick and the boundaries are not very long so there would a lot of boundaries hit today. So what to do if you win the toss? Easy answer, bat first as the pitch is very good for the batsman and set a total around 170-180 runs as it will become very difficult to chase under the lights.

Toss​

England captain Kevin Pietersen has won the toss and he has decided that, England will bat first and set a total.

Both teams are well balanced with good depth in batting and bowling. England have made many changes to their team that played against West Indies, as Napier, Foster, Key and Mascharenhas come in. There is again a change in the opening pair for England and this time Ravi Bopara who had an excellent IPL with Kings XI Punjab opens with Kent skipper Rob Key. No spinners in the England team which means Kevin Pietersen will bowl.

Netherlands have strengthen their team with the return of Ryan ten Doeschate from Essex duty and the Bushrangers' pacer Dirk Nannes who has decided to play for Netherlands. Rest of the team remains unchanged from their last match in the ICC World Cup Qualifiers.

The two openers are taking guard, so stay tuned to ESPN as we slip in for a short commercial break because on the other side we have all the live action.

 

[saladguy]

I'm looking forward to this encounter!

 

[harrisb]

looking great, i tip england to win the whole thing.

i'm looking forward to reading about Napiers innings. May include sixes.

KIU