Feb 15 2009
A Last Ball Six Not Enough
Well I was reminded of the last ball six off Chetan Sharma by the Pakistani batsman Javed Miandad which helped Pakistan ensure a win against arch rivals India way back in 1986. But today there was another last ball six that was just inconsequential as far as the New Zealand team was concerned. Had the same happened a ball earlier, things would have been different. And what a cricket T20 match had we got to make our Sunday had this happened. But, what can one do when things are not planned properly? There is hardly something that can really be done isn’t it?
The scorecard for New Zealand read “14 runs were required off 8 balls, which was later reduced to 14 off 6″. Still, things were well within the reach for New Zealand. And all that New Zealand could afford to was to lose a wicket in that crucial stage. That was OK for there were still five more wickets to go after the run out of Franklin. It looked like the New Zealand had forgotten that they were playing a T20 game and were in the test mood. For, they kept wickets intact and still never ended up winning the match. It was as though the New Zealand batsmen were to just draw a test match.
New Zealand were always well in the match. For, they never lost important wickets at regular intervals, which forms the key to any good run chase. And also the New Zealand bowlers did everything they could on the field to avoid the free flow of runs by the Aussie batsmen. A targetof 151 in a T20 game was decent I can say. And despite these efforts, if New Zealand could not grab a win, they have to have a re look at their game planning. There was hardly any big hitting by the batsmen of both the teams out there. Something strange indeed.
And after watching this match, I think Australia has got something to do regarding 1 run victories. As per my knowledge about Australian cricket goes, they have won three matches (two one day internationals and 1 T20 game) with a margin of 1 run. And whats more? They I think are the only team to have won a match by 0 runs, when they entered the finals of the world cup in 1999 after the semis against South Africa was tied. It was zero runs that made the difference for the teams out there. This happens in a crucial stage, when things really matter. They won the world cup in 1987 against England in the finals by just five runs. Something unnatural…
