India vs. South Africa: Would you believe it, they are into the semis with a big bang by beating England yesterday and South Africa today. As Patrick Kid in Times Online Cricket Blog puts it "Six reasons why India are back in business".
See Yuvraj Singh's Twenty20 record of 6 sixes and over in the previous match against England.
Today they not only brilliantly outplayed strong contender South Africa but they have eliminated them out of the tournament. Ouch that will hurt South Africa. And New Zealand will be thanking India.
Pakistan vs. Bangladesh: Bangladesh was 20-30 runs short of an affordable victory against Pakistan. People say Pakistan did not look convincing as a Trophy contender although they finished at top of the group. But one thing people forget that Bangladesh has become competitive now a days. The talent is there, the experience is enriching. They just need some good battle plan and strong nerves. Everybody was impressed with the Bangladesh debutant opener Junaid Siddique who won the man of the match award for his brilliant 71 in 49 balls. He has sound techniques and right temperament. I think Ashraful was a bid unlucky with the lbw decision and there were some unlucky runouts. We often forget about the factor luck in one game. But as Ashraful said this was a decent tournament for Bangladesh.
Australia vs Sri Lanka: Clinical performance I should say. The team possesses some thinking cricketer. Before taking on Bangladesh they studied Bangladesh team from the field (watching Bangladesh's match with South Africa). Then they found out Bangladeshi players inability to play with short balls and strangled Bangladesh with their bowling in the match against Bangladesh. Today they did the same. Sri Lanka thought they could take on Australian bowling by attacking from the start. But Australia could chip some early wickets and Srilanka lost its way. It was an one sided match in the end.
So the qualifiers of the semis are India, Pakistan, Australia and New Zealand. Looking forward to see some exciting match in the Semi finals and the final. We may even see a India - Pakistan final!
