Brush up on your World Twenty20 gyaan as it hits its second edition
Brush up on your World Twenty20 gyaan as it hits its second edition
1. This is the second World Twenty20, after India won the inaugural edition played in South Africa from September 11 to 24, 2007.
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2. Though the official name of the tournament is ICC World Twenty20, which implies that it's a World Championship, the tournament's popularly known as Twenty20 World Cup. So please don't call it a World Cup.
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3. The tournament will see 12 teams, divided into four groups of three teams each, vying for the trophy.
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4. Group A has India, Bangladesh and Ireland; Group B has England, Pakistan and Netherlands; Group C, billed as the group of death, has Australia, Sri Lanka and West Indies; while Group D has New Zealand, South Africa and Scotland.
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5. Top two teams from each group qualify for the Super Eight stage. The eight teams will be divided into two groups of four teams each.
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6. Top two teams from each of the Super Eight groups qualify for the knockout phase, comprising semi-finals and the final.
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7. A total of 21 matches will be played during the 17-day event across three stadiums,Lord's, The Oval (both in London) and Trent Bridge (Nottingham).u00a0u00a0
8. The tournament will have two rest days. While the first, June 17, will be between the Super Eights and the first semi-final, the other will be on June 20, between the semi-finals and the final.
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9. Of the 12 teams in the fray, Netherlands and Ireland will mark their World Twenty20 debut. The two teams will come in for Kenya and Zimbabwe, who featured in the first edition.
10. You may have gotten used to the mid-innings strategy breaks, seven-and-half-minute interval after 10 overs of an innings, during the IPL, but there will be no such interval in World Twenty20.
11. Interestingly, the Women's World Twenty20 is also being staged simultaneously in England.
12. Though Twenty20 is very difficult to predict, India, along with South Africa and Australia, enter the tournament with the favourite's tag.
13. India, who played their first match against Bangladesh in Nottingham on Saturday, now play their next game against Ireland on Wednesday.u00a0
14. India are being led by Mahendra Singh Dhoni, whose first assignment as captain was the inaugural World Twenty20 in South Africa two years ago.
15. Nine of India's 15 squad members featured in their World Twenty20 triumph two years ago.u00a0
16. The six players who missed the first edition are: Zaheer Khan, Praveen Kumar, Ishant Sharma, Pragyan Ojha, Suresh Raina and Ravindra Jadeja.u00a0
17. And the six who featured in the first but missed out on the ongoing World Twenty20 are: Ajit Agarkar, Joginder Sharma, Robin Uthappa, Piyush Chawla, Dinesh Karthik and S Sreesanth.
18. India opener Gautam Gambhir, who was the second-highest scorer in the inaugural edition with 227 runs, entered the tournament 39 runs shy of overtaking Matthew Hayden's tally of 265 runs and become the highest run-getter in World Twenty20 history.u00a0
19. India's Yuvraj Singh (12), West Indies skipper Chris Gayle (10) and Pakistan's Misbah-ul-Haq are in contention of overhauling Kiwi Craig McMillan's 13 sixes u00e2u20ac" the most by a batsman in World Twenty20.
20. India's Rudra Pratap Singh, with 12 wickets, entered the tournament joint second in the list of highest wicket-taking bowlers behind Pakistan's Umar Gul (13). >> Like alcohol and smoking, T20 can be injurious to health especially during the 20th over of the innings. >> Go out and get yourself a stress ball.u00a0 >> Don't count on the Gods answering your prayers in tight matches. They too may be busy watching and could have their favourite teams >> Sourav Ganguly and Anil Kumble will make maiden appearance as television experts. Be kind and pardon the odd slip-up.u00a0 >> The World Twenty20 will have no Mandira Bedi so admire the attire of the cricketers instead.u00a0 >> Unlike the IPL, television commentators will not be yelling out brand names while describing sixes. Hurray, hurray!
Beyond20
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