No, I was not talking only about the new flashy LED wickets called “Zings” which enhances the spectators experience and helps the umpires, but something more essential that will excite every cricketing enthusiast.
1) Drop Catches – The biggest change in the game of cricket in the last 2 decades is in the fielding department with the non subcontinent teams leading the way. In 1990s, there were only a handful of good fielders which can be easily counted on our fingers. But in the last 10 to 15 years, with the concept of a specialist fielding coach, things have changed and now the runs saved by a good fielding effort by the entire team can be equal to the runs scored by a batsmen. In this 5th ICC T20 tournament, till the end of the league matches of both the groups, 80 catches have been dropped!!
2) Low scoring matches – Since the inaugural T20 world cup, this tournament has seen the lowest average score of around 140. So if can be safely inferred that this tournament is turning out to be a bowler dominated series. Apart from only a handful of matches in which the scores have crossed the 175 mark, it mostly hovered around the range of 130-145. This is something very unique to this format of the game, as it is designed in a way that batsmen are supposed to take a hit at the bowlers right from the word “start” appears on the giant screen. Barring the SA vs England match where both the teams scored 180+, this tournament will not be remembered for hard hitting which is a trademark of
the T20 format. Not a single team has crossed the 200+ figure mark till now.
3) Spinners leading the way – I don’t remember seeing any T20 match in which the first ball is bowled by a spinner with a slip and a silly point in place. Spinner dominated matches is the best and the most exciting feature of this tournament. After the departure of legends like Shane Warne, Muralitharan, Anil Kumble, Daniel Vitori, Saqlain Mustaq, there was a dark talk of how spinners would be driven to extinction. But this edition has revived the hopes of all the youngsters who want to become spin bowlers. This tournament will surely be remembered as the spinner’s tournament. Sunil Narain, R. Ashwin, Saeed Ajmal, Amit Mishra, Ajantha Mendis, Hafeez, Samual Badree have performed brilliantly to take their teams into the semi finals (except for Pakistan – their batting department led to their downfall).
With SL already in the finals for the 3rd time in 5 editions and today one of the teams between SA and India will look forward to challenge SL in the finals, the fans will surely get to experience a crackling final. SA and SL will be looking forward to win their 1st T20 world cup and India would like to add another feather on their cap by winning it for the 2nd time.