Cricket - World T20 2016

The Game Room
1

It’s time for the IPL warm up tournament, sorry, World T20 Tournament. Don’t know how interested the cricketing Dopers are in this but here’s somewhere to talk about it just in case.

With the pre-qualifiers over, the tournament proper starts on Tuesday with India playing New Zealand in Nagpur. Groups are as follows:

Group 1:

Afghanistan
England
South Africa
Sri Lanka
West Indies

Group 2:

Australia
Bangladesh
India
New Zealand
Pakistan

Top 2 from each group go through to the semi finals.

India have won 10 of their last 11 matches in the format and look in pretty imperious form. In theory, their group looks reasonably tough but NZ are now in the post Brendon McCullum era so it will be interesting to see how the side reacts under new leadership, India just whitewashed Australia in Australia in this format and, as ever, God alone knows which Pakistan will turn up here. Bangladesh though…hmm. They’re definitely getting better. Tough group for them though.

In Group 1, England’s bowling looks comparatively weak in this format, though if the batsmen fire, they’ve got plenty of fire power. SA, with Steyn back and Rabada looking threatening, will be a good side, especially if ABDV runs into form, but they don’t have much in the way of a spinner, so interesting to see how conditions inform their performance. The West Indies and Sri Lanka, I must confess, I know much less about then the other nations - though WI’s team usually is better in T20 than in other formats, as their best players turn up for it.

It’s usually a pretty open tournament - I don’t think any side entering it as favourites has won it yet and there has been no two time winner of the tournament as yet either. Also, it’s mercifully short - this thing will be over by the 3rd April, unlike the ODI World Cup, which seems to last forever.

Pleased to see Afghanistan get through the preliminary group stages. They looked more the competent against sides in that part of the competition. Would be good if they could get more cricket (at least in this format, if not in ODIs) against the full ICC members to help them develop even further. Still, that’s in the hands of the cricket administrators, so I fully expect that to be ballsed up in some way or other.

Err…that’s it. Should be fun, in the opposite way Test Matches are fun (and in the way I now feel ODIs aren’t really much fun).

2

It’s a highly amusing crapshoot.

Can’t say I’ll follow closely but an Afghanistan v Bangladesh final after boil over semifinal wins vs India and South Africa would be a hoot. Australia & England vying to be on the first plane home would be a cherry on the top.

3

Yes. This. Well done, boiling down my several paragraphs into 5, on point, words. I don’t think I’d have got away with just writing that as an OP though…

4

It may be a crapshoot, but I’d be prepared to put a decent-sized wager on the semi-finalists being Eng, SA, Aus, Ind. Anyone know (or want to offer) odds on that? I’d probably want something like 2-1 against before I actually put my money where my mouth is, on the basis it relies on England performing at a decent level.

5

Pakistan’s bowling has to win a match before our batting can lose it. So no hopers.
England seem likely lads and I think the Aussies and the Indians will be shot having played the Group from hell.
South Africa will choke, amusing and predictably.
Sri Lanka are in transition.
The Kiwis…Maybe if they send Russell Crowe out. :smiley:

The next WT20 will be in 2020. As if the value of the World Cup had not been devalued enough.

Win one for Afridi lads.

6

I don’t have a gambling account with anyone, but thought I’d jump onto a couple and see what this might turn up as, just to find out. Can’t work out how to make it work on a couple of sites and, for the one I did work out, Bet 365 wouldn’t allow an accumulator on teams reaching the semi finals for some reason. Somebody far smarter than me with maths could probably work out the implied odds of those four all getting to the semis from these odds though:

India - 1/4
SA - 8/15
Australia - 4/5
England - 8/11

7

I’ll probably watch a few highlights, and forget about the whole thing by August.

I do hope Afghanistan’s Shahzad gets a century against a big side though. He’s ridiculously entertaining to watch.

8

Converting those odds to percentages gives:

India 80.0 %
South Africa 65.2%
Australia 55.6 %
England 57.9 %

All Four of the above 16.8% (or about 5/1)

I’m surprised that the odds of India reaching the semis are so short; they may be both the in-form team and the home team, but the fact that only 2 of 5 teams advance from each group could mean that it only takes one loss and one rainout to sink you.

9

Cool, thanks for this. Anyone want to offer me 4-1 against that being the semi-final line-up?

10

India currently in the process of imploding in this opening match against NZ. Having limited them to 126 on a sticky pitch offering not much pace onto the bat, they’ve subsided to 43-7. It’s basically up to MS Dhoni to dig them out of this hole - not for the first time in his limited overs career.

The crowd is dead silent over the TV.

11

Dhoni should be playing for run rate. This game is gone. Well done NZ. Horrible batting performance by India.

Why are banners in south Asia so ridiculous? One said something abt the game of cricket: invented by England, mastered by India. L.O.L.

12

79 all out. NZ give India an absolute arse kicking by 47 runs. That’s put the cat amongst the pigeons in Group 2. Not much room for error for India now.

13

NZ were ahead 4-0 in T20s. Meaning India had never beaten them in this format. Now it’s 5-0. India were in good form though, winning 10 out of last 11 T20s played.

Looking forward more to neighbours’ clash Pak Vs BD tomorrow. Eng should beat WI I feel.

14

India got a damn good rogering today.

On TV here, McGrath is saying that India have a brittle batting and an overrated attack.

15

Nof if NZ win the whole shebang I expect.

16

btw who’s the fav tomorrow in Pak vs BD?:stuck_out_tongue:

17

The time difference is brutal for me to watch to many games. But if the Blackcaps do win it all I will remember.

18

Back the favourites @ 4-1? You’re a burglar, probably can’t sleep at night because of a guilt complex. :eek:

OK, I’ll pay you 4-1 if India, South Africa, Australia & England and England are the semi-finalist
You pay me 7-1 if that is not the semi-final line up.

What’s your stake?

19

Is it possible some squads are a spinner short? I’ve heard suggestions that teams should be using spinners for 80% of their overs in T20s (in general, not necessarily in spin friendly conditions) but Australia and England, for example, only have three genuine spin options in the squad.

20

After NZ’s win, I’m no longer interested at any price! But your 7-1 doesn’t make any sense - it implies that will not be the SF line-up 1 time out of 8. My position was I thought it was slightly more likely than 1 time out of 5. And it was more than fair odds based on the individual odds for each - the reason it comes out as 4-1 is because they all have to live up to their status as favourites. How often do the four shortest-priced horses finish 1-4 (in any order) in a 10 horse race?