We all knew the roaring success of group games was a teaser. The wait for the main movie was over with the start of Super 12 games.
Pain
The shock was the verdict of arch rivals clash. The New Zealanders opera deafened the Aussies at Sydney. This was followed by a choir from the audience at MCG to the tune of Virat. The come back knock of Team India showed their intent and King Kohli is hungry for runs. Australia and Pakistan suffered a painful start with shock induced and they need to kick start the resilience engine. They have the potential to script an anti climax and so good is their resilience.
Zimbabwe took the game to a boil and pressure mounted on Pakistan and they missed to get over line marginally once again.
The pain from shock makes a team numb and it impacts the momentum further in the tournament. Momentum is key in T20. India was in receiving end last year.
Brain
Two countries know the wet weather conditions very well. A popular joke in England is “it rains from July-June”. We never step out without a brolly 😀. The game was much open until the end of Ireland’s innings. Ireland did foresee bad weather coming and short pitch bowling was the mantra. They proved brainy putting pressure on England just like “hook the duck” game picking DLS to their side.
How important it is for the players to know the rules from the book? Rohit Sharma was puzzled as to what was happening in the middle. The batter Virat was guilt free and ran like Laal Singh Chadda/ Forest Gump 😀 after getting bowled on a free hit ball. Hats off to Virat for being cognizant of the rules. This was another brainy act from the week one.
Ashwin is a proper Engineering graduate from India as he knew the question which he can skip and still pass the exam. 😄
Vain
The villain of game Cricket is the bad weather. The Mother Nature had a skewed effect on Group 1 washing out many games. The preparation of teams and groundskeeper was in vain. The vain run deep into the standings of Group 1 to put top four on par with three points as they near the close of week one.
The competition is wide open. The festival of Cricket has lot to offer for the fans in the coming weeks.
Bring it on!