Finally, World T20I has begun. Any organizer would like that everything starts on a positive note and once the event starts without a hiccup, it settles the nerves and they can get relaxed. As a team, especially the teams that are playing the first day, feel a bit of pressure as they would not have any history to bank on in terms of the nature of pitch, dew, etc. As a fan, even I have been looking forward to the start of this festival. A world cup is always exciting to watch. The shorter format offers a bit more excitement as there is always unpredictability associated with it. This time there are 16 teams participating and we will get opportunity to see what teams like Nepal and Hong Kong have to offer.
The first day of any tournament of this level is always exciting. The excitement in my opinion was even more because of the matches to be played on the first day. The games scheduled were Afghanistan v Bangladesh and Hong Kong v Nepal. Both these matches were important in their own respect. All four teams belong to the same group and only one team would qualify for the Super-10. From this aspect, the match between Afghanistan and Bangladesh assumed lot of importance. Without any disrespect to the other teams, it could be assumed that these two were the stronger teams compared to the other two. So the winner of this match had a very good probability of reaching the next stage. The other match was also important for the two teams. They were making their debut at this level. If there was any game that they were going to win it was this. I believe there were no better fixtures to start a tournament. Unfortunately for the fans (excluding Bangladeshi and Nepali), both games ended up as one sided.
Afghanistan had already impressed the world with its ascent to this level. They have played the previous two editions of the world T20 and they have now qualified for the 50 over world cup as well. To top it all, their performance in the Asia Cup suggested that though they lack experience at this level, they are here to stay. After their victory against the host Bangladesh in the Asia Cup, the expectation from them had increased for this game, as they seem to be more comfortable in this version of the game. On the other hand, Bangladesh skipper had already indicated how important this game was for them, calling it a 'revenge game'. They wanted to prove to the world that their loss to Afghans was just an aberration and nothing more than that.
Bangladesh were on the money right from the word 'Go'. The very first ball got them the wicket. Shehzad has to understand that he cannot always go after the bowling from the word 'Go'. Afghanistan's batting has always been a concern. From what I have seen so far, they do not have any plan B. They always come with one plan and their plan does not even change with the opposition. May be this has worked for them at associate level, but at the highest level, they cannot get away. Nabi seemed to attribute the dismal performance to their inability to play quality spin bowling. But in my opinion, they have struggled hard to rotate strike, which is basics of batsmanship. It was disheartening to see that they have not learned even after their exposure in the Asia Cup journey. On the other hand, it was cleat that Bangladesh was bolstered with the return of Tamim Iqbal and Mashrafe Mortaza. Nothing much to say about their performance. It was exceptionally clinical. They were on field with a purpose. Good bowling, good fielding and finally good batting summed it up all. I do not see any possibility of upset where Bangladesh would lose to either Nepal or Hong Kong. So in a way, they are through to the Super-10.
In the other game between Nepal and Hong Kong, it was expected that they would match each other in all aspect. Nepal had defeated Hong Kong in their previous two encounters. Hong Kong were bristling with confidence before the game having won its warm-up games against The Netherlands and Zimbabwe. It was the game where both the team would have thought that this was their realistic chance to win a game. But it was Nepal who showed that they had the nerve as well as skill and for Hong Kong, probably the big stage got into them. Nepal had a good start batting first, but the openers fell in quick succession and then the 11 overs stand between skipper Khadka and Malla came to their rescue and they finally posted a formidable target of 150 for Hong Kong to chase. Hong Kong had the most forgettable start losing their first wicket on the very first ball of the innings. After that they kept losing wickets on regular intervals, some exceptional spin bowling by Nepal. The big stage probably let them down. The other two games are going to be a challenge too, but at least they would have come over the nerves by then.
The other games in this group will be of limited interest, but being a T20 version, you can never predict. Even the warm-up games threw lot of surprises. Anyway the event has begun, a lot more cricket to come. I have not tried to get into very technical aspects of the game and tried summarize things as a fan. I would try my best in the coming days.
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