ICC T20 World Cup
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<p>I know you guys are all back into your Super Rugby now but we have the...</p>
<p><img src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/b/be/2016_ICC_World_Twenty20_logo.png/200px-2016_ICC_World_Twenty20_logo.png" alt="200px-2016_ICC_World_Twenty20_logo.png"></p>
<p>...kicking off on 8th March before cricket fades away into the background again.</p>
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<p>The tournament starts with a whole bunch of minnow teams playing each other for a spot in the business end of the comp, so we have:</p>
<p> </p>
<p><strong>Group A</strong></p>
<p>Bangladesh</p>
<p>Ireland</p>
<p>Netherlands</p>
<p>Oman</p>
<p> </p>
<p><strong>Group B</strong></p>
<p>Afghanistan</p>
<p>Hong Kong</p>
<p>Scotland</p>
<p>Zimbabwe</p>
<p> </p>
<p>One from each pool goes through to the Super 10:</p>
<p> </p>
<p><strong>Group 1</strong></p>
<p>England</p>
<p>South Africa</p>
<p>Sri Lanka</p>
<p>West Indies</p>
<p><em>Afghanistan</em></p>
<p> </p>
<p><b>Group 2</b></p>
<p>Australia</p>
<p>India</p>
<p>Black Caps</p>
<p>Pakistan</p>
<p><em>Bangladesh</em></p>
<p> </p>
<p>Link to all fixtures here --> <a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://www.icc-cricket.com/world-t20/fixtures/men'>http://www.icc-cricket.com/world-t20/fixtures/men</a></p>
<p> </p>
<p>The Black Caps have warm up games vs Sri Lanka (10th) and England (12th), then it's:</p>
<p> </p>
<div><strong>BLACKCAPS v India</strong></div>
<div>Wednesday, 16 March 2016 3:00am – Vidarbha Cricket Association Ground, Nagpur</div>
<div> </div>
<div><strong>BLACKCAPS v Australia</strong></div>
<div>Friday, 18 March 2016 10:30pm – Himachal Pradesh Cricket Association Stadium, Dharamsala</div>
<div> </div>
<div><strong>BLACKCAPS v Pakistan</strong></div>
<div>Wednesday, 23 March 2016 3:00am - Punjab Cricket Association Stadium, Mohali</div>
<div> </div>
<div>
<div><strong>BLACKCAPS v Bangladesh</strong></div>
<div>Saturday, 26 March 2016 10:30pm–Eden Gardens, Kolkata</div>
<div> </div>
<div> </div>
</div>
<div><strong>BLACKCAPS WT20 squad</strong></div>
<div>Kane Williamson (capt), Martin Guptill, Ross Taylor, Henry Nicholls, Grant Elliott, Corey Anderson, Colin Munro, Luke Ronchi (wk), Mitchell Santner, Nathan McCullum, Tim Southee, Trent Boult, Mitchell McClenaghan, Adam Milne, Ish Sodhi.</div> -
<p>You'd back the Bangies and the Zimbots to get in out of that bunch but the oirish are in with a shot.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>If this was based on tests I think the Windies would be in the special needs group though.....are all their good T20 guys actually available ? Gayle, Russell, Sammy, Pollard etc are world class in this form of the game.</p> -
<p>India by the length of the straight. </p>
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<blockquote class="ipsBlockquote" data-author="MN5" data-cid="561875" data-time="1456878740">
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<p>You'd back the Bangies and the Zimbots to get in out of that bunch but the oirish are in with a shot.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>If this was based on tests I think the Windies would be in the special needs group though.....are all their good T20 guys actually available ? Gayle, Russell, Sammy, Pollard etc are world class in this form of the game.</p>
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</blockquote>
<p>And Afganistan have recently beaten Zim</p> -
<p><span style="color:rgb(40,40,40);font-family:helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">Afganistan are surprisingly ranked 9th in the world of T20 cricket ahead of Bangladesh, so I guess they would be favourites to get out of the Minnow stages.</span></p>
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<blockquote class="ipsBlockquote" data-author="No Quarter" data-cid="561884" data-time="1456879671">
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<p><span style="color:rgb(40,40,40);font-family:helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">Afganistan are surprisingly ranked 9th in the world of T20 cricket ahead of Bangladesh, so I guess they would be favourites to get out of the Minnow stages.</span></p>
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</blockquote>
<p> </p>
<p>They beat the Scots by one wicket in the 50 over WC last year too. fluffybunnies.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Still, the Scots can take consolation that their country is merely rather cold, not crap like Afghanistan.</p> -
<blockquote class="ipsBlockquote" data-author="MN5" data-cid="561875" data-time="1456878740">
<div>
<p>You'd back the Bangies and the Zimbots to get in out of that bunch but the oirish are in with a shot.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>If this was based on tests I think the Windies would be in the special needs group though.....are all their good T20 guys actually available ? Gayle, Russell, Sammy, Pollard etc are world class in this form of the game.</p>
</div>
</blockquote>
<p> </p>
<p><strong>West Indies</strong> <strong>squad</strong>: Darren Sammy (capt), Samuel Badree, Sulieman Benn, Darren Bravo, Dwayne Bravo, Andre Fletcher, Chris Gayle, Jason Holder, Sunil Narine, Kieron Pollard, Denesh Ramdin, Andre Russell, Marlon Samuels, Lendl Simmons, Jerome Taylor</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Looks strong...</p> -
<blockquote class="ipsBlockquote" data-author="No Quarter" data-cid="561889" data-time="1456881023"><p><strong>West Indies</strong> <strong>squad</strong>: Darren Sammy (capt), Samuel Badree, Sulieman Benn, Darren Bravo, Dwayne Bravo, Andre Fletcher, Chris Gayle, Jason Holder, Sunil Narine, Kieron Pollard, Denesh Ramdin, Andre Russell, Marlon Samuels, Lendl Simmons, Jerome Taylor<br><br>
Looks strong...</p></blockquote>
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Don't blush baby... -
<blockquote class="ipsBlockquote" data-author="No Quarter" data-cid="561889" data-time="1456881023">
<div>
<p><strong>West Indies</strong> <strong>squad</strong>: Darren Sammy (capt), Samuel Badree, Sulieman Benn, Darren Bravo, Dwayne Bravo, Andre Fletcher, Chris Gayle, Jason Holder, Sunil Narine, Kieron Pollard, Denesh Ramdin, Andre Russell, Marlon Samuels, Lendl Simmons, Jerome Taylor</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Looks strong...</p>
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</blockquote>
<p> </p>
<p>Extremely. The gap between their teams for the short versions of the game and their test teams makes ours look tiny. You could picture that bunch taking the title easily yet if there was a "test" World Cup them managing to not lose every match by an innings would be remarkable.</p> -
<blockquote class="ipsBlockquote" data-author="Virgil" data-cid="561867" data-time="1456877982">
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<p>So Can we label our group as the Group of Death??</p>
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<p>If we go by rankings we have teams 1, 5, 7 and 8 in our group. The other group is probably stronger. I suppose that the rankings do mean a lot less for T20 cricket given the sporadic nature of series and the amount of resting that takes place.</p> -
<blockquote class="ipsBlockquote" data-author="hydro11" data-cid="561918" data-time="1456897826">
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<p>If we go by rankings we have teams 1, 5, 7 and 8 in our group. The other group is probably stronger. I suppose that the rankings do mean a lot less for T20 cricket given the sporadic nature of series and the amount of resting that takes place.</p>
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<p> </p>
<p>You're ignoring the part where India are the hosts.</p> -
<blockquote class="ipsBlockquote" data-author="Unco" data-cid="561922" data-time="1456898892">
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<p>You're ignoring the part where India are the hosts.</p>
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<p> </p>
<blockquote class="ipsBlockquote" data-author="Unco" data-cid="561922" data-time="1456898892">
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<p>You're ignoring the part where India are the hosts.</p>
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<p> </p>
<p>India are ranked number one anyway. Probably helps Pakistan a lot as well though.</p> -
<blockquote class="ipsBlockquote" data-author="hydro11" data-cid="561929" data-time="1456900994">
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<p>India are ranked number one anyway. Probably helps Pakistan a lot as well though.</p>
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<p>Sure but it makes that number one ranked team even harder to beat.</p> -
<blockquote class="ipsBlockquote" data-author="Unco" data-cid="561934" data-time="1456902002">
<div>
<p>Sure but it makes that number one ranked team even harder to beat.</p>
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<p> </p>
<p>Don't have to beat them, just have to get through the group & rely on someone else beating them. Group of death usually means its hard to get out of. The other group as Hydro notes is actually harder to get out of.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>T20 is such a lottery, its really a case of looking at those sides & going "how many guys in that side can score 80 of 40 balls? And do it in India". So Gayle, Taylor, Bultler, Morgan, Warner, Maxwell, Kohlli, Dhoni, Chandimal etc</p>
<p> </p>
<p>I'd still have England as my dark horses on this, if only their bowling wasn't pigshit.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Curent rankings -</p>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>1 India 23 2897 126 2 South Africa 27 3210 119 3 West Indies 19 2249 118 4 New Zealand 24 2787 116 5 England 22 2462 112 6 Pakistan 32 3568 112 7 Sri Lanka 25 2775 111 8 <strong>Australia</strong> 20 2197 110 9 Afghanistan 22 1692 77 10 Bangladesh 19 1333 70 11 Scotland 14 876 63 12 Netherlands 16 939 59 13 Zimbabwe 22 1190 54 14 Hong Kong 16 793 50 15 Ireland 15 680 45 16 United Arab Emirates 16 696 44 17 Oman 10 321 32 -
<blockquote class="ipsBlockquote" data-author="Unco" data-cid="561922" data-time="1456898892">
<div>
<p>You're ignoring the part where India are the hosts.</p>
</div>
</blockquote>
<p> </p>
<p>In related, and deliciously ironic news, Dhoni had a crack at the Asia Cup pitches</p>
<p> </p>
<p><a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://www.espncricinfo.com/asia-cup-2015-16/content/story/977077.html'>http://www.espncricinfo.com/asia-cup-2015-16/content/story/977077.html</a></p>
<p> </p>
<p>Ultimately he was pointing out that the pitches in India are going to be roads, but the "not good for batsmen" tone of the comments is chuckle worthy.</p> -
<blockquote class="ipsBlockquote" data-author="NTA" data-cid="561962" data-time="1456912914">
<div>
<p>In related, and deliciously ironic news, Dhoni had a crack at the Asia Cup pitches</p>
<p> </p>
<p><a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://www.espncricinfo.com/asia-cup-2015-16/content/story/977077.html'>http://www.espncricinfo.com/asia-cup-2015-16/content/story/977077.html</a></p>
<p> </p>
<p>Ultimately he was pointing out that the pitches in India are going to be roads, but the "not good for batsmen" tone of the comments is chuckle worthy.</p>
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</blockquote>
<p> </p>
<p>I like this bit -</p>
<p> </p>
<p>"What happened in Australia, we knew the wickets were good, which is not the case here."</p>
