Wizards to spin web of T20 intrigue
Top eight wicket-takers could turn showpiece alight
SPINNERS, once considered irrelevant in hit-and-run cricket, will play a pivotal role when the World Twenty20 reaches the business end with the first of two semifinals in Dhaka today.
Among the top eight wicket-takers in the elite Super-10 round, six are spinners with South Africa’s leggie Imran Tahir leading the pack with 11 wickets in four games.
Defending champions the West Indies, who clash with Sri Lanka today in a repeat of the 2012 final, boast two prolific slow bowlers in Samuel Badree and Sunil Narine.
The duo shared six wickets as the Caribbean stars demolished Pakistan by 84 runs in the last league match on Tuesday to qualify for the semifinals.
Sri Lanka have an ace up their sleeve in veteran left-armer Rangana Herath, whose sensational figures of 3.3-2-3-5 destroyed New Zealand in Chittagong on Monday. The second semifinal tomorrow between unbeaten India and South Africa could also boil down to a spinners’ showdown between Tahir and Indian pair Amit Mishra and Ravichandran Ashwin.
Leg-spinner Mishra’s nine-wicket haul in four games has been matched by off-break bowler Ashwin’s seven wickets, helping India to become the only team to win all four Super-10 matches.
“The stats speak for themselves,” said West Indies all-rounder Dwayne Bravo. “It’s good to have two of the best in our team, but all the other sides too have good spinners.”
The West Indies start with the advantage of having played all their matches at the Sher-e-Bangla stadium in Dhaka, the venue for the knockout rounds, while Sri Lanka come in from Chittagong.
Sri Lanka will be wary of two destructive finishers in Bravo and skipper Darren Sammy, who flattened Australia and Pakistan with massive big hits late in the innings.
“It’s a game we were born to play,” said Bravo. “We just want to go there and entertain cricket fans and give them their money’s worth. We play hard, but play fair.”
South Africa, branded chokers for their inability to win major titles, seem to have put the past behind them by scripting three narrow wins in Chittagong after losing their opening game to Sri Lanka by five runs.
The Proteas beat New Zealand by two runs, the Netherlands by six runs and England by three runs, giving allrounder JP Duminy added confidence going into the second semifinal against India. “We can take a lot of confidence from those wins. India will be a huge challenge, but we are ready. It’s a big game, a semifinal of a world event. It does not get bigger than this,” he said.
Indian captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni said his team was peaking at the right time, but stressed nothing could be taken for granted. “We have to bat and bowl well again. In T20, a couple of overs can change the game so it is hard to predict.” — AFP