Cricket World Cup T20 2009: Tournament of Upsets

Second Edition of T20 Cricket World Cup begins on 5th June,2009 in England with total twelve team taking part and they are divided into four groups –

Group A
• Bangladesh
• India
• Ireland

Group B
• England
• Pakistan
• Netherlands

Group C
• Australia
• Sri Lanka
• West Indies

Group D
• New Zealand
• Scotland
• South Africa

In the preliminary group matches first every team have to play against other teams of their group once and top two teams from each group will proceed further to second round name as Super Eight and preliminary round was treated as warm up games for the top eight teams and it was predictable before start of T20 tournament that from each group teams which will move to Super Eight surely be

1. India
2. Bangladesh
3. England
4. Pakistan
5. Australia
6. Sri Lanka
7. New Zealand
8. South Africa

but as till 9th of June, 2009 total eight matches played so far and out of eight matches below coded games produce upsets –

1st Match: Group B: England v Netherlands at Lord's - Jun 5, 2009
Netherlands won by 4 wickets (with 0 balls remaining)
England 162/5 (20/20 overs); Netherlands 163/6 (20/20 overs)

3rd Match: Group C: Australia v West Indies at The Oval - Jun 6, 2009
West Indies won by 7 wickets (with 25 balls remaining)
Australia 169/7 (20/20 overs); West Indies 172/3 (15.5/20 overs)

8th Match: Group C: Australia v Sri Lanka at Nottingham - Jun 8, 2009
Sri Lanka won by 6 wickets (with 6 balls remaining)
Australia 159/9 (20/20 overs); Sri Lanka 160/4 (19/20 overs)

7th Match : Group A: Bangladesh v Ireland at Nottingham - Jun 8, 2009
Ireland won by 6 wickets (with 10 balls remaining)
Bangladesh 137/8 (20/20 overs); Ireland 138/4 (18.2/20 overs)

In the short span of four days it knockout the two teams from the tournament who were sure for next round and they were Australia and Bangladesh and no experts ever predicted especially for Australia that they will be fail to clear preliminary round and knocked out of tournament considering their past records in One Day International and Test Matches ,even Australia was strong team to won this years T20 Cricket World Cup alongwith defending Champion India, South Africa and New Zealand.
With full strength team Australia first badly defeated by West Indies and in the match West Indies Captain Chris Gayle hit unbeaten 88 in 50 balls and this 88 contains 6 sixes and 6 fours and his partner who ADS Fletcher hit 53, both played mercilessly of Australian pride bowlers like Brett lee, MG Johnson, NW Bracken, JR Hopes ; then they faced in their second match of preliminary game against Sri Lanka ,which was game for Australia do or die and Australia must had to win to remain in the tournament on 8th June,2009 but this game also proves disaster to Australians as they made 159 for the loss of nine wickets in their allotted twenty overs while batting first and Sri Lanka while chasing the target they reached 160 in nineteenth over and lost only four wickets. With the end of this match Australia exits from T20 World Cup 2009.
Then it was Bangladesh probable for Super Eight as second team after India from group A because third team in the group was Ireland which not played many matches and less known team in International arena, after playing against India on 6th June at Nottingham India won the match with 25 runs, then on 8th June for Bangladesh it was must win game as it was their second and last match of group while batting first Bangladesh made 137 runs in 20 overs and lost eight wickets, Ireland chasing the score made 138 for the loss of four wickets in 18.2 overs and thus Bangladesh also out of the tournament.
That’s not all even very first match played of the tournament England beaten by Netherlands in the last ball, So nobody knows how many such results this tournament store in the future games also but one can easily name considering the tournament progress that this time second edition of world cup cricket T20 is tournament of upsets.