They were qualifier matches going on for the lower teams. The actual T20 starts 21st March, so tomorrow with India Vs Pakistan. England play on the 22nd against new Zealand.

What are everyone’s predictions??

Last matches from Qualifying Group A and a surprise or two..

First to play was Afghanistan vs Nepal, with Afghanistan winning the toss and deciding to field.

Nepal: 141 for 5 from 20 overs - not a bad score... and one that proved to be very good in fact as they ran out winners by 9 runs... Damn I should have put cash on that 3/1....

Afghanistan: 132 for 8 from 20 overs...

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Next up was Bangladesh vs Hong Kong and you would think it should be a very easy task for Bangladesh to breeze through this match, however they only managed to go and lose it, although by such a small margin that they still qualify and will join West Indies, India, Pakistan & Australia in Group Two.

Hong Kong won the toss and decided to field.

Bangladesh: 108 all out from 16.3 overs, an extremely poor show...

Hong Kong: 114 for 8 from 19.4 overs...

I hadn't even considered this to be an option, Hong Kong was something like 7/1 or 8/1 for the win!!! If anyone had put a double on them and Nepal, apart from needing their head read, they would be laughing all the way to the bank now...




Tomorrow sees the last games from Qualifying Group A...
Zimbabwe vs UAE and the important match (for Ireland anyway) Ireland vs Netherlands, 4/9 for Ireland with the Dutch at 7/4...

Simple, Ireland needs the win, if not it all goes down to net run rates, especially if Zimbabwe win also... 4/1 for the UAE to pull off an upset, nah, then only 1/6 for Zimbabwe I'm afraid...




As well as these, the real T20 gets under way as uvburns said with India vs Pakistan in a day/night game in Mirpur, 8/11 for India and 11/10 for Pakistan.

India will win today, Pakistan have never beaten India in a world cup match and i doubt that will ever change!! India recently lost to them though so it could be anyones game, but this game is always the highlight of the tournament..

It usually is a cruncher and a match that neither side ever want to lose, talk about national pride at stake!!!

So onto the last of the qualifying... and who will join with the Super 10 Group 1 teams of Sri Lanka, England, South Africa & New Zealand...

Zimbabwe vs United Arab Emirates, Zimbabwe won the toss and choose to field first..
The UAE did manage to bat out their 20 overs but didn't post a target that would challenge the Zimbabweans...
United Arab Emirates: 116 for 9

13.4 overs was all that was required Zimbabwe: 118 for 5, but it was all in vain as the outcome of the other match was the important one of the day..



Ireland vs Netherlands, the Dutch won the toss and also elected to field first, at least then you know what you have to do to be in with a chance of qualifying..

Ireland: 189 for 4 from 20 overs and a score that you would say would be good enough to see them through even if they lost... you would think so!!!

However the Dutch had other ideas...

Netherlands: 193 for 4 from 13.5 overs and a mighty nineteen (that's 19) 6's!!!
Stephan Myburgh made 63 from 23 balls and made the 2nd fastest 50 (17 balls) in T20's.. He and Peter Borren made 91 from the PowerPlay overs... sweet... even sweeter if you took that 7/4 on offer.

An exciting end to the Qualifiers in that group for sure... So let's start the tournament proper.
I've put my money on the West Indies, so that's obviously fucked up their chances now!!!

Here it is, the World T20 gets under way in earnest now with India vs Pakistan, with India winning the toss and also deciding to field first as MS Dhoni notes "It looks to be a slow pitch but it won't change much in 40 overs."

A pretty good decision as it turned out as they managed to restrict Pakistan to a relatively low score... Pakistan: 130 for 7

Setting the Indians 6.55 an over to take the first win, and although it was easy enough, it certainly wasn't over convincing, India: 131 for 3 in 18.3 overs. But a 7 wicket win nonetheless.



Tomorrow sees the other group kick off with both matches from Chittagong with Sri Lanka vs South Africa in the morning followed by England vs New Zealand.

Sri Lanka @ 4/5, SA @ evens and NZ 8/11, England @ 11/10.

A double on SA & England will give you 3.2/1 or 2.1/1 if you fancy backing the two favourites...

Today was a good day for cricket. Being an Indian I was very proud we beat Pakistan. Didn't just beat them we smashed them. However the holland game was a tremendous watch. The run chase by holland was probably the best cricket I've seen for a long time. Good watch today

looking forward to England v New Zealand later today (dont know why ?! ever the optimist ) shame Luke Wright is out of it. On his day he can spank it around with the best of them - but please please please dont play Jade "bloody" Dernbach - he gets on my wick with all his stupid bowling - just bowl the effing ball in the block hole - trying to be clever for the sake of it imho
he should be named after the South Africa keeper (de) Kock !

Before we get to see England lose miserably again, Sri Lanka and South Africa take to the stage... Sri Lanka win the toss and decide to bat first. as Chandimal remarks "The pitch tends to turn so that's why I chose to bat first."

Sri Lanka: 165-7 not bad considering Dilshan was out for 0 in the 1st over...

8.3 an over need for the Proteas then, not impossible but it all depends on how the likes of Malinga will bowl...
and with the wicket of de Kock, Malinga becomes the leading wicket-taker in the history of World Twenty20 cricket with 33.

A decent enough start from South Africa, but wickets fell at the wrong time and when de Villiers got out it was not looking positive, but fight to the end they do but just fall short...

South Africa: 160-8 and Sri Lanka beat South Africa by 5 runs.

So it's crunch time now with England and New Zealand, Craig Kieswetter comes in for Luke Wright who's out of the tournament with a right side strain.

New Zealand win the toss and will take to the field first. Broad also says he would have bowled first... Nuffin doing though, you'll have to bat now and stick up as reasonable total, you just saw that 165 is a decent score so that should be where you're heading for....

Team News:
ENGLAND: Michael Lumb, Alex Hales, Moeen Ali, Eoin Morgan, Jos Buttler (wk), Ravi Bopara, Tim Bresnan, Chris Jordan, Stuart Broad ©, James Tredwell, Jade Dernbach
NEW ZEALAND: Martin Guptill, Kane Williamson, Brendon McCullum ©, Ross Taylor, Colin Munro, Corey Anderson, Luke Ronchi (wk), Nathan McCullum, Tim Southee, Kyle Mills, Mitchell McClenaghan

That's 4 seamers and 1 spinner (plus Ravi of course) for England - how many times do they have to learn that slower the better!!! Oh well, I guess we'll see in a short while if that was the right picks...

A 10 minutes delay, play will start at 13.40 uk time.... Hope England play better than they look in their outfits!!!

1st over 1-1, as Alex Hales is out for a duck as edges one off to Corey Anderson... What a wonderful start...
Moeen Ali joins Lumb and he sets about the NZ bowling giving them a good thwacking about, bout time we had a good PowerPlay session... 55-1 Ali (34) and Lumb (16)...

and there go Ali in the 8th over followed by Lumb in the 9th, 76-3. Morgan cannot get a score today, only 12 for him as he falls to Southee, 103-4 after the 1st ball of the 13th over...

Buttler dashes for 32 off 23 balls, but he's out bowled by Corey Anderson, 129-5 in the 16th over, still plenty of time to make a decent score...

18th over and Chris Jordan falls, 148-6, plenty of wickets left, go for it, 20+ more needed.... and that just what they do... 172-6 from their 20 overs , Bopara (24) & Bresnan (17)...


All up to the bowlers now, can they bowl a decent line and not gift too many easy runs...

Here comes New Zealand, and it's Moeen Ali to bowl the 1st over, say what... only 3 singles but a boundary off the last spoils it a bit, still something new from England, what can Dernbach do in the 2nd...

Pretty much the same result 15-0 after 2 overs...

Dernbach takes the 1st wicket in his next over, Martin Guptill out for 11 with a simple catch for Chris Jordan, NZ 29-1

5 overs gone and 47-1, Brendon McCullum is picking up the pace, but the weather is taking a turn for the worse and the umpires take them off, 52-1 after 5.2 overs... Let's hope or rather England does that they can get back on otherwise a D/L result is not in their favour...

Well, that was a heavy bit of weather, but it's subsided now and the umpires are out looking around, it may be due to start again anytime...
It was looking promising until the rain started up again... it now looks certain that D/L will be employed...


The match has now been officially called off and the result is NZ win by 9 runs, a good short spell of hitting by McCullum allows New Zealand to win their first match, do you think he had an inkling this was going to happen???