ICC World T20 anyone?

Nice distraction pre-ashes.

Going to quite a few of this games, mainly the ones at Trent Bridge, have semi final tickets as well so am looking forward to a bit of power hitting.

India are the strongest but I think I'm going to tip SA for this, a very complete team with few weaknesses in bat ball or field.

England against Netherelands (yes you heard that right) to kick us off in a bit...tennis on the telly and England on the laptop - Friday afternoons can be so tricky sometimes...

GROUP A: India, Bangladesh, Ireland
GROUP B: Pakistan, England, Netherlands
GROUP C: Australia, Sri Lanka, West Indies
GROUP D: New Zealand, South Africa, Scotland

Havent been able to find any good streams for the England games or indeed any of the games and the prospects dont look good. So any you get...would be good if you posted.

Couldnt get a stream for the Holland game for example.

SA are my tip too. Just the perfect side at the moment, a complete all round unit.

Yeah I just tried to find a stream too - no luck

Is it possible to be anymore embarassed than this?

In answer to my original question of ICC World T20 anyone?

The answer is a categorical NO in Englands's case.

Are we that naive and stupid in the shorter version of the game?

Oops -well there is no need to watch any more Cricket till the Ashes

As for streams - I'm paying for them at the moment so I'm not really looking for free ones - though if I come across any I will post them.

Well if we beat Pakistan we will almost certainly go through. Undeservedly so though.

I hear justin.tv are running a few streams - havent tested any out so its worth a try there.

very few if any myp2p streams are working and as for live footy I'm not too sure as you need to install zango to use the website I think so havent been able to see it.

England 185-5 on a good wicket after 20 overs.

Shouldve scored about 15 or so more but should be good enough...i hope

edit: links on here to try too.

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20090605023450AACOpGA

I saw the Pakistan innings on a good stream - Thought our bowlers did ok, but it was more a case of the Pakistan batsman looking right out of form - Afridi or whatever his name is was terrible

Back from watching SA hand out a free T20 lesson to England.

SA were brilliant to watch in every department and it is hard to find a fault in their side which is why many have made them favourites even ahead of the talented India side.

As for England, shows they are still a bit behind the others in terms of the shorter version of the game, not just in mentality and approach but also in quality.

SA are brilliant in the field, their enthusiasm and jsut general ability to pressure and save 15-20 runs is brilliant, they have a player for every position and this is without playing the Yusuf Abdullah in their side.

Great to watch, sometimes you cant complain and just have to admire the opposition play and thats what we did.

Look at that - world beaters - lol

Credit where credit's due - the bowlers did the damage and really limited the talented Indian batsmen.

And thats what T20 is about - Netherlands beat England then England beat th champions - makes no sense and all for the nejoymnt of the fans.

Hope England dont lose sight of what this summer is really about and notice the Aussies hav two months to prepare - I really hope the management are doing something behind the scenes

But England have a good chance of qualifying for the semis now - its the Windies and a win does it.

I feel as though England have everything it takes to succeed at T20 level, but for some reason just dont have the consistency. As you say, we beat the Champions and if you can do that once, you can do it any time.

In the bowling department we are strong and it could be argued that in any form of cricket we have one of the best and most balanced attacks in world cricket. All we lack is a real top class spinner, but in Monty we have someone who turns the ball and in Swann, someone with intelligence and guile. If only we could roll them into one.

Its the batting that lets us down at T20 level, relying too heavily on KP. He is the only aggressive batsman we have, that is international top quality. Bopara could be argued international quality because of his test centuries, but he wouldnt go in the top bracket with KP. When you look at other countries at the top, SA with De Villiers, Gibbs, Smith, Kallis, India with Yuvraj and that other guy etc, they have multiple top quality aggressive batsman.

On our day, when it works we can win, mix it with the best, but too often we dont get enough. If KP fires we have the bowling attack to restrict anyone as we showed yesterday. Cant help but feel low scoring T20s are suited to Engand....do these exist? If 140odd plays 140odd, we are well up there. 190....not so sure.

And there it goes again - The day after beating the world champions England lose to the WIndies - although it was a target they had to reach in 9 overs and with 10 wickets to get it is rather difficult for the bowling sides even if the batting side requires 9 runs an over to win.

Well done to the two stalwarts of West Indian cricket using their experience to guide them through at the end, you did feel they needed something from Gayle but it didnt turn out too difficult in the end.

England's bowling did look good in the competition - though I'd only agree with abcdef's sentiments about the most balanced bowling attack if Flintoff is there, if not then we lack the experience needed to guide the talent we have, and yes we do have a problem in the spin department.

The batting has huge question marks, whether the aussies will be able to exploit it is now the question - relying too much on KP and Bopara our only other outlet, I feel Bell is going to be recalled to the squad now for the ashes.

Hopefully we get back on track now and wake up to what this summer is really about, but it has been fun to watch.

Pakistan, West Indies and South Africa are three of the four through with New Xealand and Sri Lanka battling it out for the final semi final spot.

Pakistan pulled off a second consecutive shock in the ICC World T20 tournament to win the competition after comfortably beating Sri Lanka in the final at Lords.

Sri Lanka won the toss and decided to bat first but some intelligent bowling from all-rounder Razzaq got him early wickets including that of the player of the tournament; Tillekeratne Dilshan at the start of the innings. Pakistan continued to take wickets at regular intervals, with reverse swing expert Umer Gul and and the fans favourite Shahid Afridi chipping in with acurate bowling.

Skipper Sangakara was the only light for a poor Sri Lankana batting effort who finished the innings on an unbeaten 64 of 52 balls. Sri Lanka finished on 138-6 (20 overs).

The Pakistani openers K. Akmal and the youngest player in the tournament Shazaib Hasan then went after the varied bowling attack that Sri Lanka offer, but not letting them settle one bit by taking the attack to the bowlers. An opening partnership of 48 set the tone as "boom boom" Afridi came out at number 3; who then played a magnificent mature innings of 54 n.o. of 40 deliveries and finished with Malik at the crease to ease Pakistan home to victory with 8 balls to spare.

I feel we will rely less on KP when the Ashes come around. I think in Strauss and Cook we have very good openers and if Shah or Bell or Bopara play, they are all decent at Test level. I am not convinced about Bopara yet, but against the Aussies he can prove what he is worth. In Prior now, we have an excellent WK/batsman, averaging around 40. Collingwood has a good average and has runs in him aswell.

The you can consider batting contribution from bowlers, which I consider to be the contribution that turns 350's into 400's and 400's into 500's. In Flintoff we have a player who can only be considered for his bowling (should bat way down) but who can contribute with the bat if he refinds the form of his earlier career. In Broad, we have a player who I like a lot with the bat. He has great shots and if he can improve his shot selection, he could be worth a 50 or two, more in the mould of Giles' contributions back in the day. Swann can wield a bat and Anderson is moulding himself to hang around as Hoggard once did, although he is probably better at it.

I think at Test level, we have great talent in the batting department, we just dont succeed in the shorter game because our top quality international batsman dont score fast. Most T20 sides are not too different from the normal teams. Fact is, our Test quality players, top internationals, Strauss, Cook, Collingwood etc cant score the runs fast enough.

We have the batting for the Ashes. And the bowling. And we can win. Just got to get it all right at the same time.