 The final of the ICC World T20 will be played between Australia and England on Sunday at Barbados. Both the sides took out the previous year's finalists from
the tournament to qualify for the final of the tournament.
In a way it was a surprise that both the teams were able to make it the finals
after playing their semi-finals in St. Lucia. The track at St. Lucia was spinner
friendly, and against them there were a couple of Asian teams, who had the fire-power
to exploit the same. However, a lot of credit must be given to the manner in
which both the sides played not only in the semi-final, but through the entire
length of the tournament.
Click for Live Score Card of England Vs Australia
In the first semi-final, England had virtually steam-rolled over Sri
Lanka by first allocating them only 128 and then chasing down the total as if
it was a walk in the park. Kevin Pietersen return back to UK did not change
things for him and he smacked another match-winning innings for the side. In
the second semi-final, the Aussies looked all set to be going out of the tournament,
and it looked evident from their faces, before Michael Hussey came to
bat. Hussey played a blinder, a whirlwind, and an innings that can well be described
as the best innings of T20I cricket so far.
Now, these two sides meet each other in the finals on a pitch that will spit
fire. There will be bounce, there will be pace and there will undoubtedly be
some sort of swing or seam earlier on for the pace bowlers and that will be
the interesting bit. How the batsmen handle it, will be interesting, but it
is clearly advantage Australia.
With a pace attack comprising of Dirk Nannes, Shaun Tait and Mitchell
Johnson, there can hardly be any doubt that the Aussies will test them with
bowling that will be on the shorter side and on their rib-cage, and thus make
them smell the leather. However, how the batsmen will handle this will, go a
long way, in deciding who wins the Aussie bowler v English batsmen battle, something
that will also go a long way in deciding who will be the winner.
Some of the key players for England are Kevin Pietersen and Eoin Morgan,
both of whom are in supreme touch and will look forward to performing against
the big boys, Australia. For Australia, every batsman, bar Michael Clarke,
has played at least one innings of substance and that should be the difference
between the two sides.
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