champions trophy hero shane watson

Ricky Ponting led the Australian team to victory in the ICC Champions Trophy in South Africa, beating New Zealand by six wickets as they continued the imperious form that started with the seven day ODI series against England after the Ashes defeat.

Ponting singled out the excellent Shane Watson who scored his second successive century for Australia, reaching an unbeaten 105 against the New Zealander’s, following his Man of the Match performance against England in the semi final.

After their innings New Zealand had left the Australians needing only 201 runs to win the final, but a rocky start to the Aussie batting quickly saw the dismissal of both Paine and most suprisingly Ponting with just one run apiece at 6 for 2.

Australia dug in and despite a slow build up of runs eventually took the game by the scruff of the neck, losing only two more wickets during the day with White going for 62 and Hussey for 11.

The victory was achieved during the 46th over thanks largely to Watson’s stand of 134 with Cameron White. A great and deserved victory for the Australians who picked up the ICC Champions Trophy for their remarkable accomplishment in the tournament.

The four contenders will now have to wait until the sixth annual LG ICC awards on October 1st in Johannesburg, to see who picks up the Sir Garfield Sobers trophy for cricketer of the year.

Strauss is also still in the running for the Test player of the year award as are Gambhir and Johnson along with Sri Lanka’s Thilan Samaraweera. England’s Graham Onions makes the shortlist for ‘emerging player of the year’ and will fight it out with Ben Hilfenhaus and Peter Siddle from the Australian team and Jesse Ryder from New Zealand.

Strauss played a captain’s innings in each of the Ashes Test matches, leading from the front with the bat and setting an example that his charges were generally unable to maintain. He has performed better than any other England player with the bat in the current ODI series and I believe he deserves his place on the shortlist.

Pakistan 139-2 (18.3 overs) beat Sri Lanka 138-6 (20 overs) by eight wickets.

Pakistan were the surprise winners of the ICC World Twenty20 cricket competition.  They convincingly beat Sri Lanka in the final at Lords yesterday, and in a post match interview, Pakistan captain Younus Khan, draped in a Pakistan flag dedicated the famous victory to his former coach Bob Woolmer who died suddenly in Jamaica during the 2007 World Cup.

Khan took the opportunity to announce his retirement from Twenty20 cricket, and also pleaded for countries to reconsider the current boycott of playing cricket in Pakistan following the terrorist attack on the Sri Lanka team bus in March, while on thier way to play in Lahore.

Following the attack, Pakistan were also stripped of holding the cricket World Cup in 2011.

England Women win the ICC World Twenty20

Meanwhile, England won the Women’s ICC World Twenty20 in style by bowling New Zealand all out for 85 and win by six wickets, also at Lords yesterday.

England Women’s cricket captain, Charlotte Edwards said it was the “proudest day of her life.”

The England Women’s cricket team add the World Twenty20 trophy to the Ashes and the World Cup.

Australia are currently 1-0 down against New Zealand and this follows a test series and ODI series defeat to South Africa. In total, they have lost five of their last six ODIs and each of their last two test series. Whether this has something to do with Ricky Ponting’s ‘rest’ remains to be seen.

Elsewhere, opening batsman Shaun Marsh also misses out on the final two games against New Zealand because of a hamstring injury. This means that Adam Voges and Callum Ferguson come in.

The major talking point was Ricky Ponting’s omission though; something Australia chairman of selectors Andrew Hilditch says has ‘always been planned’.

He did admit that the recent performances of the team have played their part though because it is ‘essential’ that Ricky Ponting has an opportunity to prepare for the South Africa tour. The Australian captain has had a very heavy workload after in the last year of so, after all.

As for the men that have come into the squad, Hilditch says that Adam Voges and Callum Ferguson are both ‘exciting young players’ that have the ability to succeed at international level.

Whether they can fill the void left by Ricky Ponting though is another matter. In fact, because of the captain’s absence, the cricket odds may now expect Australia to suffer yet another series defeat. This time, at the hands of Daniel Vettori’s New Zealand.

The game has been fairly well established in the domestic game but perhaps we haven’t seen the best of it in international cricket as yet. Well, that is about to change as we look ahead to the ICC World Twenty20 that is being held in England next year. It should be quite an occasion and with these ICC cricket tickets on sale now, it is advised to snap them up as soon as you can.

There is no doubt in my mind that these ICC World Twenty20 tickets are some of the hottest tickets in town. It is a stage for all of the best cricketers in the world to shine in one of the most entertaining ways possible.

Twenty20 cricket may have received its criticisms in the past, but how can anyone say that this event will be anything other than a joy to be part of? I just hope England improve on their showing in the last tournament back in 2007. Any England fan that brought Twenty20 tickets for this particular Twenty20 tournament certainly wouldn’t have been in South Africa as long as they would have hoped!

Nest year’s tournament is to be held in June 2009 and will be spread across three venues – Lords, Trent Bridge and The Oval. There will also be a women’s tournament which will make the event all the more special.

With Kevin Pietersen at the helm and with home advantage, I would say England certainly have a good chance of success. They have started looking like an excellent 50 over side and hopefully this can be reflected in their Twenty20 performances. It would be a great confidence booster ahead of the Ashes if England could win it.

However, no matter how well the home nation does there is going to be some amazing cricket on show. The likes of India, Australia and South Africa have come wonderful limited over players and I’m sure there will be many memorable innings. So, my advice to you is to buy World Twenty20 tickets as soon as you can!

With just one game left to be played, the best England can hope for is a draw. Considering the start they made, this would be disappointing, but a drawn series is better than a lost one I suppose. England still have a lot to do to prove they can perform consistently in the one-day format and these games against the Kiwis have highlighted just that.

If England were to perform as well as they did in the first match consistently, they can beat anyone in this form of the game – and I mean anyone. A perfect batting performance was followed by a convincing bowling display and it looked as if England would continue their dominance over Daniel Vettori’s men. As we know, this has been far from the case.

To say that it has been an eventful couple of weeks for Paul Collingwood would be an understatement.  He has taken wickets and scored some much needed runs but this has been overshadowed by controversy. First up, there was the ‘bad light stopped play’ incident in the second match. Then in the most recent game, it all kicked off for the England captain. He refused to overrule the Elliot run-out after the batsmen had collided with Ryan Sidebottom – something he has been widely criticised for.

Then, since the game, he has been banned from four one-day internationals for a slow over rate in New Zealand’s innings. This for me seems ludicrous, a four game ban for being two overs behind the rate? I would say that’s a bit harsh.

Now it is up to Kevin Pietersen to lead England to a victory in the final game against New Zealand this summer. It is a great chance for KP to show that he has what it takes to captain the side and if he does well then Collingwood – who is likely to be replaced by Dimi Mascarenhas in Saturday’s game – will start to feel under pressure.

After everything that has happened this week, a look at some cricket odds will probably tell you that New Zealand are slight favourites for this one. Their confidence is up after two victories and they will want to finish the tour well. As for England and Pietersen, it is vital that they finish the series on a high to carry some momentum into the South Africa series that starts next month.

The ban, rather than the usual fine or suspended ban, was imposed because it was Collingwood’s second offence in a year. England were also more than two overs short of the required rate against India at Bristol on August 24th last year. The only good news is that he won’t be fined a hefty whack of his match fee – the ban is deemed punishment enough.

Kevin Pietersen will lead the side in Collingwood’s absence. His first task will be to rally the troops after the poor showing at the Oval. New Zealand are 2-1 up with one to play and England will be looking to quickly re-establish the dominance they have held over the visitors for most of this year. The test match odds always back England v New Zealand, but this isn’t the case during limited over matches.

One thing is for sure, Pietersen will lead from the front – I just wonder whether he has the nous and man-management skills to really take the job on.

Steyn has taken an impressive 78 wickets in the 12 Tests South Africa played this year,  For a while he was  number one in the bowling rankings, finishing the year with only the awesome Muralitharan ahead of him.

Skipper Graeme Smith was named one-day international cricketer of the year, Albie Morkel international Pro20 cricketer of the year.  Smith is currently the top-ranked one-day batsman in the world.

Steyn bowls fast and swings the ball.  He also has experience of English conditions – playing the first half of last season for Warwickshire and taking 23 wickets at 25.86.  Those England batsmen who struggled against the Kiwis are going to have to sharpen up pretty quick before the South Africans arrive.

There has been much debate about the shot’s fairness – the bowler cannot change his delivery style at the last moment, captains can’t set fields to cover the shot, which is the leg side for lbw’s etc. etc. It all sounded like a load of whinging nonsense to me. What Pietersen did was fantastic, innovative and wild – three words the cricket world usually recoils at, so hats off to the MCC for their positive stance.

Playing the shot is so full of risk that it is just foolish to say it gives the batsman some sort of unfair advantage. What Pietersen did took skill, courage and a bit of stupidity. Watch all the imitators try it and throw away their wickets, then tell me it’s unfair.

Well done K.P. for the fun, and well done to the MCC for their swift decision on it.

On the eve of Sunday’s first one-day international between England and New Zealand, Kevin Pietersen claimed that the 50-over format wasn’t going to be around for much longer. After playing so beautifully to record his 6th one-day hundred and helping England to a huge 114-run victory, he might now be hoping that this isn’t the case.

Let’s talk about the game first. It was an almost flawless performance from Paul Collingwood’s men. After much debate surrounding the negativity of the England one-day side, this team looks much more postitive and aggressive.  Despite Luke Wright and Ravi Bopara failing to make an impact, the top order looks a lot better. Kevin Pietersen responded to batting at three well as did Ian Bell who was asked to open the batting. He made a fluent 46 to follow up his unbeaten 60 in Friday’s Twenty20 international.

Paul Collingwood even managed to get some runs. He made a run-a-ball 64 and seems to suit batting at five in this form of the game very well indeed. In a very honest post match interview with Michael Atherton, Collingwood stated that he ‘hadn’t scored a run yet this season’ and hopefully this one-day series can help the Durham batsmen get himself back into form. He also, unlike Michael Vaughan in the test series, backed his own bowling. A decision which proved worthwhile – he picked up 4 wickets in just 17 balls to polish off the Kiwi innings.

I have spoken about England’s bowlers a lot recently. They were impressive once again in this game. James Anderson and Ryan Sidebottom were solid enough and Stuart Broad was very economical in picking up 2 wickets. I will single out Graham Swann though. He bowled beautifully and is starting to cement his place in this team. He dismissed Scott Styris and Daniel Flynn and only conceded 45 runs in 10 overs.

Now – the future of one-day cricket. I think the potential development of Twenty20 cricket will threaten the 50-over game much more than it will the five-day game.  Kevin Pietersen even believes that one-day internationals will be a ‘thing of the past’ in a couple of years. I would bet on Twenty20 cricket being around for a long time, but I’m not so convinced it will effect the one-day game quite as drastically as KP thinks.

Just look at Sunday’s game between England and New Zealand. Chester-le-Street was packed out, the sun was shining (most of the time), exactly 500 runs were scored and 15 wickets were taken. The crowd even got to see a marvellous hundred from one of the world’s most exciting batsmen – hardly a bad day out was it?