T20 World Cup, June 1-29

[Durhamfootman]

so he did

I didn't notice the 4 maidens

[Durhamfootman]

perfect scenario for Williamson

23 needed with 10 overs to get them. He'll probably need 7 of them

[mikesiva]

West Indies 218-5

Pooran 98
Charles 43

Gulbadin 2-14

Afghanistan 114 all out

Ibrahim 38

McCoy 3-14
Hosein 2-21
Motie 2-28

[Arthur Crabtree]

So a group with SA, WI, US and England. I suppose WI and SA will be favourites.

Australia, India, BD and Afghanistan looks a foregone conclusion.

[bigfluffylemon]

South Africa only just scraped over the line against Namibia and were unconvincing in a weak group. West Indies are also flaky, but at home. England can beat either of them on their day.

[Arthur Crabtree]

Both won 4/4 at least. But there's a lottery element in the format, so who knows.

[alfie]

t20 is always a bit of a lottery as long as the teams are not hopelessly mis-matched so anything could happen in the next round...hopefully the games will decided on the field and not via weather interference.

SA's 4 wins maybe not that much of a convincing statement as they only won one match with any great comfort. Which might indicate they have mastered the "nerves" that often seem to plague them at WCs - or alternatively mean they have just about used up their luck quotient for this one ! West Indies are suited by the home conditions , especially if we see more batting friendly pitches as their game plan remains pretty much the same : don't worry about dot balls or running between wickets - as long as we hit enough sixes we are going to win a lot of games...

Who knows with England ? Rotten start ; but they bounced back well , albeit against skimpy opposition. Says to me the mood is good , unlike it was in the 50 over WC after a similarly poor start - so that is a plus. Question will be whether they can do the business against the tougher opponents coming up : the relative lack of time in the middle so far for all but the first few batsmen might be a problem ; but if they get it right I think they have the class to go further. Think USA have had their fun for this WC.

As for the other group : logic says Australia and India will cruise . But a couple of my Indian friends are not at all confident ; and this is t20 ... probably can't completely rule Afghanistan out.

I didn't watch the NZ game : 4 maidens must be a first for t20 !

[Durhamfootman]

I didn't watch the NZ game : 4 maidens must be a first for t20 !

yes, I believe so

[Durhamfootman]

give him a game against a team trying a new game out for the first time and suddenly QdK looks like a world beater again. He hasn't looked like that for ages. Did very little in the IPL and nothing before today in the WC

[Arthur Crabtree]

US up with the RR after five. But too much to do to sustain it.

[mikesiva]

South Africa won by 18 runs.

South Africa 194-4

De Kock 74 from 40
Markram 46
Klaasen 36

Netravalkar 2-21

USA 176-6

Gous 80*
Harmeet 38

Rabada 3-18

[Arthur Crabtree]

US up with the RR after five. But too much to do to sustain it.

Handy effort though.

[bigfluffylemon]

Wood bowling on a good surface against big-hitting West Indies batsmen who love to use the pace.

What could go wrong?

[bigfluffylemon]

Looks a bit scrappy from both sides at present.

[bigfluffylemon]

King retiring hurt, while England are taking a walloping in the powerplay. Feel as though the pace is working against England at the moment - WI are just using it to score boundaries.

Meanwhile it's taken England nearly half an hour to bowl five overs...