The Hindu : Sport : A fitting finale to the World Twenty20

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Sep 25, 2007
ePaper

Sport

Sport

A fitting finale to the World Twenty20

S. Ram Mahesh

The notable success was the conversion of a few purists

— PHOTO: AP

MOMENT OF TRUTH: S. Sreesanth cannot hide his excitement after taking the crucial catch offered by Misbah-ul-Haq to begin celebrations in the Indian camp.

CHENNAI: It was fitting that the inaugural World Twenty20 — constructed on the premise of thrill-a-minute action — ended without fading into banality. Every conscientious lover of cricket cautioned against the inherent risk of the format: in a pool of adrenaline-filled moments, how does one sift the outstanding from the irrelevant? With every six hit, every wicket taken, every catch snagged celebrated homogenously, how does one determine context?

Fortunately, the last moments of the final played at Johannesburg were stripped to cricket’s very bone: a battle of parity between bat and ball.

Thirteen were needed off six — Advantage Batting Side in a match of insignificance, but in the final of a world championship, particularly one between India and Pakistan, the scales were even.

Pressure

Misbah-ul-Haq’s first six was drawn from how he had constructed his innings: calm calculation in farming the strike and timing his surge. The next ball witnessed the kind of improvisation the format encourages — though proper cricket strokes more than hold their own — with Misbah pulling out the scoop to fine-leg. There was, to the observer on the armchair, little need to play the stroke; but pressure does strange things, and, for the second successive match, Joginder Sharma had produced a defining last over.

Matches of importance and, in particular, world tournaments are remembered by their final moments: the 2007 World Cup will never exorcise the ghosts of official bungling and the false finish, but the World Twenty20 will forever be linked to a finish that wasn’t contrived but arrived at. Again fitting, for the two sides had played out a contrived finish in their group match.

Bowl out

In Durban, the world — or so the ICC will have us believe — saw the first high-profile Bowl Out. While the logic in the stipulations can be argued (was a result absolutely necessary with the sides not carrying over points to the next stage?), there’s little doubt the event caught the imagination of non-serious followers.

Purists wrote of the conflict in their minds: their kids, with little interest in the game, were captivated by the Bowl Out; but would the game, as the purists know it, sustain their interest?

It’s one of the format’s many maddening stipulations: surely the means to end a match shouldn’t be this different from cricket’s fabric.

Lasting impressions

The two-week tournament had its moments. Yuvraj Singh’s six sixes off Stuart Broad was the first instance of an international-class bowler being treated that way in an international.

Moreover, the batting connoisseur saw in the strokes, the clearing of the front foot, which continued to counter-balance his sweeping back-lift, the near-ideal contact with the ball, delayed or quickened to accommodate line, length, and pace, and impeccable shifts in weight.

Perhaps the most notable short-term success of the World Twenty20 was its conversion of a few purists. If Umar Gul and Stuart Clark found space for expression, indeed the former bowling as well as he ever has on the international stage, and Zimbabwe found cricketers to shock Australia, it couldn’t have been all bad.

Spinners who attacked got wickets. But, a note of warning: it’s strictly for professionals; don’t try the format at school.

Photo gallery

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail