A continent of discontent
Dileep Premachandran writes in the National that the World Twenty20 has exposed the weaknesses in the Asian bloc, despite Pakistan and Sri Lanka featuring in the semi-finals.
Nitin Sundar
25-Feb-2013
Dileep Premachandran writes in the National that the World Twenty20 has exposed the weaknesses in the Asian bloc, despite Pakistan and Sri Lanka featuring in the semi-finals.
Both previous World T20 finals were all-Asian affairs, with Pakistan the common factor. Since last June though, Australia have cottoned on to what makes a T20 side tick, while England have also been strengthened by the emergence of a couple of impact players who have transformed a middle-of-the-road outfit into one with a genuine chance of ending their title drought in the international arena.
It is not hard to identify where the Asians have stumbled. Sri Lanka have been decent in the field, but both India and Pakistan were woeful. Ravindra Jadeja, of India, and Pakistan’s Saeed Ajmal took turns to show off their butter-fingered prowess, while the ground-fielding was a mish-mash of awkward dives, poor stops and weak throws back to the wicketkeeper.
Nitin Sundar is a sub-editor at ESPNcricinfo