New format, old guard

They were supposed to be the hitmen specially grafted in for the ‘job’. All-rounders, young guys who can do a lot of running around, bowl a bit and whack the ball hard - that was the success formula before the Twenty20 World Cup was to start.
Seven days and midway past the competition, the myths and facts are starting to take a pattern and the points are connecting towards something.

It all started with a bang and providing the fireworks were not the all-rounders but Chris Gayle and Herschelle Gibbs. While the former was all slam bang (another myth that the game is all about big-hitting) during his six-studded 117, Gibbs’ more sedate 89 laced with 14 boundaries and two sixes won the day for South Africa. Ironically, West Indies were the first to exit also.

English September
As we read this, England is half way past the same exit door. For the most experienced side in this format of the game, the specialists and the experience combination does not seem to be working.

The England management had packed the side with a horses-for-courses approach with short-form stars like Darren Maddy, James Kirtley, Jeremy Snape, Vikram Solanki, Chris Schofield and Luke Wright in the squad.

Maddy finally came into his own with a 51 on Tuesday against New Zealand but even his steady opening partnership with Solanki was not enough in the losing cause. English fans may rue the Lady Luck for her bad timing with these guys’ form but the crux of the matter is can these specialists take on the combined might of the best of the world?

Old is gold
India faltered against the guile of Daniel Vettori, an injured Brett Lee still manages a hat-trick, Mahela Jayawardene and Sanath Jayasuriya still top the charts for Sri Lanka and Shahid Afridi is the only ‘good’ boy for Pakistan with the bat and bowl despite all the step-motherly treatment meted out to him.

And yes, the mighty Australians have once again proved that an odd loss to Zimbabwe is like the proverbial red herring to any big stage tournament like the World Cup, one that just helps put on the charm but nothing else.

The only specialists that the three-time ODI World Champions could boast about was Andrew Symonds and the lesser known Ben Hilfenhaus, who replaced the injured Shaun Tait at the last moment. Hilfenhaus is yet to play and looks unlikely to with the trio of Lee, Stuart Clark and Nathan Bracken proving to be a handful for the rivals. And Mathew Hayden and Adam Gilchrist are not suffering from bad patches either, much to the chagrin of other teams.

The bowl-out loss to India dispelled another notion that it is a bowlers’ graveyard. Every dot ball’s value gets magnified, suddenly increases the asking rate and the pressure to go over the top adds up. Among the three leading wicket takers are spinners and a medium pacer.

The only hit men to have risen from the jamboree are the Morkel brothers for South Africa and lesser known commodities like the 33-year-old Misbah-ul-Haq (Pakistan) and the on-and-off Brendon Taylor (Zimbabwe).

New Zealand, which is virtually into the semifinals, also went back on its plans to have Jeetan Patel (off-spinner) and Gareth Hopkins as specialist wicketkeeper and stuck to its experienced hands Mark Gillespie and Brendon McCullum.

Call it instinct, plain luck or gamble, Indian team skipper Mahendra Dhoni has so far not used the services of his specialists yet. For a side already without three of its heavyweights, the Indian think-tank also has not yet found the need for Yusuf Pathan, Rohit Sharma and Joginder Sharma.

With the trend unlikely to change from here, the team with the maximum experienced players who continue to adapt and retain the fire in their bellies, is most likely to win.