Balanced teams get into final gear: Preview to World T20 finals

Unlike the long, grinding T20 competition immediately preceding the ICC World T20, this one has taken less than a fortnight to decide on its best two teams and by the end of Sunday, a new champion of the T20 would be crowned. While Sri Lanka will go into the game having not lost a single game in the tournament, while Pakistan have been brilliant on days, and scrapped through on the others, to get this far.

Oooh, the sameness: Almost spookily, the two teams are as evenly matched as a cliché could go. There are two quality spinners, and a reliably quick bowler who has the tendency to bowl yorkers like it was his primary occupation, in both the sides. If Shahid Afridi and Saeed Ajmal have been both, restrictive and wicket-taking for the Pakistanis, Ajantha Mendis and M.Muralitharan have made life miserable for the opposition. Similarly, Umar Gul and Lasith Malinga look to be two peas of the same pod, having the ability to pitch it so further up the batsman that scoring becomes as difficult as one can think of.

It does seem that there isn’t much to choose from between the two and the only slight difference could arise in the form of the reverse-swing that Gul looks to be extracting from the slightly older ball in this tournament.

Dilshan versus Pakistan? Kumar Sangakkara had a neat start to the tournament, Sanath Jayasuriya savaged the West Indies with one half-century, while Mahela Jayawardene came into his own in a couple of games in the Super Eights, but none of them, or the others, for that matter, have been consistent enough to give too many nightmares to the batsmen. With, obviously, the exception of Tillakaratne Dilshan, who has grabbed the opening slot with both hands – and legs and the other part of the anatomy. He leads the batsmen’s pack with more than 300 runs and has left behind the rest by more than 100 runs. The cuts and the pulls have arrived out of compulsion and so have the ensuing runs.

The only worry for Dilshan is – and this was observed in the semi-finals against the West Indies early on – to go hard at the ball in the initial part of the inning because of the kind of confidence that looks to be oozing out, instead of getting himself in, before launching the assault. That, could be something that the Pakistanis could work on and get the better of.

Boom/Doom Afridi: It all depends on the kind of mood Shahid Afridi is in, but on his day, a half hour of him on the crease could take the cup away on a PIA flight back home. The mayhem that he created in the South Africa game damaged the South African bowling enough for the batsmen to almost lose confidence against his bowling as well and that ended their hopes of getting to the finals.
On the flip side, Afridi’s promotion to the number three slot could result in an early and easy scalp – such is his way of going about things – and peg the Pakistanis back, with an exposed middle-order to the spin of Mendis and Murali!

Sri Lankan middle-order blues: Over-dependence on Dilshan has had its own set of issues for Sri Lanka, as they haven’t had stability in the batting from positions three, four and five. Sangakkara looks to be getting out a tad too early, while T20 does not seem like Jayawardene’s most favourite format in cricket. Chamara Silva has yet to prove his credentials in this tournament, while Jehan Mubarak hasn’t had the opportunities to be able to get going at the crease. If Dilshan did fall early, it could lead to complications and a sudden collapse cannot be ruled out if the middle-order fails to read the Pakistani spinners.

The Crowd and the captain: At this level, in ideal conditions, the crowd support should not make too much of a difference, but then, that is only on paper. In reality, for youngsters of the likes of a Shahzaib Hasan, Mohammad Aamer, Isuru Udana or even Angelo Matthews, the concoction of a vociferous Asian crowd, the pressure of a finale of this magnitude and having to bowl to some of the best batsmen at the opposite end could prove a tad too potent and difficult to swallow.

This is where, the likes of Sangakkara and Younus Khan could do wonders in soothing the jangling nerves of the youngsters and get the best out of them. In the end, for me, the team which holds these vital parts of the body better, will get to hold that cup aloft!

Suneer Chowdhary
Suneer is a freelance cricket writer and can be reached at suneerchowdhary (at) gmail dot com