https://goo.gl/nwB8Ds
Watch LIVE From here
Some more stuff on the issue of who to support from you, dear readers:
Simon Gates: “Ian Copestake doesn’t need to worry as these teams are only playing for the honour of being obliterated by England in the final. Possibly.”
Robert Wolf Petersen (great name): “I’m with Ian Copestake. Is there any chance we can eliminate them both and organise a rematch between England and New Zealand for the final?”
Colm: “I know it’s a cliché but- only in the Guardian!!”
On who to support for moral reasons, here’s Ian Copestake: “I am still struggling to disassociate the West Indies from Chris Gayle’s unreconstructed interview techniques and figured I would support India on the basis of gender equality. But a look at the Gender Inequality Index has India down in 130th place (of 150 or so nations), forty below Jamaica. So I kind of want them both to lose.”
Team news
India
RG Sharma, A Rahane, V Kohli, S Raina, M Pandey, MS Dhoni (wk, c), H Pandya, R Jadeja, R Ashwin, A Nehra, J Bumrah.
West Indies
J Charles, CH Gayle, MN Samuels, LMP Simmons, D Ramdin, Dwayne Bravo, AD Russell, DJG Sammy, CR Brathwaite, S Badree, SJ Benn.
Umpires: Richard Kettleborough and Ian Gould (on-field), Marais Erasmus (third umpire), Michael Gough (fourth umpire), Chris Broad (match referee).
West Indies have won the toss
…and have chosen to bowl first.
Lovely bit of news from earlier – Mahela Jayawardene will play alongside Chris Gayle for Somerset in the T20 Blast this summer. Oh yes.
Preamble
So, sports fans, what do we want to see today? Would we like to see a close fought, squeaky tight game in which a run chase goes down to the very last ball, or are we all here just to see if Virat Kohli can do those Virat Kohli things again? Hopefully both, but let’s not get greedy. The other question is who would make a better final? The home team, with their cricket daft nation whooping it up around them, or the visitors, who can’t seem to find their collective bottom with both hands when it comes to Test matches, organisation or actually keeping any of their players happy, but when it comes to Twenty20 most definitely have their ish together?
Another thought it whether the last games of the two teams will have any impact. India of course roared back to beat Australia from an unlikely position, Kohli playing like the dreamiest dream and proving once and for all that – with apologies to all the very capable, erudite, talented people out there – he is almost certainly better than you. West Indies on the other hand stuck out a pseudo-reserve team that were torn a new one by Afghanistan, of all people, a result that might not mean a great deal since the reason for their second-string was that they had already qualified for the semis. But still, perhaps not the ideal way to prepare for such a supermassive game, neither might be an emotionally and physically draining encounter with Australia.
What seems rather more certain is that this should be a belter. Stay tuned.
Start: 14.30 BST
Hello. Nick will be here shortly for West Indies v India. Despite the Windies winning the group, hosts India are the favourites. West Indies captain Darren Sammy remains confident his team can book a rematch with England in Sunday’s final:
It is going to be 15 West Indian players versus thousands and how many billions here in India. It is a challenge we are ready to face. The guys who predict the results, I think they say it’s 80‑20 to India, so it feels like a David and Goliath – but people tend to forget that David won the fight. It is something similar to that.
The next T20 World Cup is in four years. The World Universe Boss [Gayle] will be 40. I will be 36, so yes, we really put our all into this tournament and the guys in the dressing room are aware of what’s at stake
It is six steps to the cup. We have taken four, we had a little pothole in the road [against Afghanistan] but we will brush ourselves off and the step tomorrow is against India and we are looking forward to it. I think this year could be the year for the West Indies.
guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010
Published via the Guardian News Feed plugin for WordPress.
West Indies v India: World Twenty20 semi-final – live!
Posts
0 comments:
Post a Comment