Daily Sports News

T20 is a known to throw surprises and as the pundits of the game have said that the shorter the game, the more the chances of an upset and it happened with the underdogs Netherlands beating England in the opening match of the T20 World Cup on Friday at the Lords.

The English gods were to against their own team with the match starting late due to rain and then it was the toss, Paul Collingwood lost the toss and the English team was sent to bat. England got a dream start to the game with Ravi Bopara and Luke Wright providing a 102 run stand for the first wicket. Once Bopara was out in the 12th over after scoring an impressive 46 of 34 balls the English team fell and could just manage to score 162 runs in the 20 overs. Luke Wright scored an impressive 71 of 49 deliveries. Owais Shah, Eoin Morgan and Paul Collingwood were disappointing and were out in just a single digit.

The misery for the English did not end with there batting, but continued in there bowling too. Missed run outs, dropped catches and some exhibition of lousy fielding made sure that the English were digging their own grave. Netherlands got to off to a disastrous start and lost both their openers in the first four over’s with just a score of 23 runs.  Tom de Grooth kept the Dutch hopes alive with an excellent innings and scored a magnificent 40 of just 30 deliveries. Peter Borren contributed with 30 runs of 25 deliveries and it was left to Ryan ten Doeschate to finish for the Dutch. The match was decided on the last delivery of the match and Stuart Broad gifted the Dutch a victory with an over throws. In the same over he all missed a run out and also dropped a catch.

English batsman’s failed to exploit the final over’s as they could just manage to score 60 runs of the last 52 balls and that is where I think England lost the game. Tom de Grooth was given the Man-of-the-Match for his dazzling display with bat that made sure Netherlands had an unforgettable win against home side.

The most smashing and deadly batsman of Australian Team, Andrew Symonds is no more in Cricket Australia (at least for the t20 World Cup). This was the shocking news for all the Cricket fans of the world when read on the front page headlines.

Andrew Symonds is a total versatile personality. He is one of the best record holders of Australia and the worst record holder for the discipline and manner records. Since four to five years he is continuously in and out of the team. You must not have forgotten these incidents:

• The drinking issue before a match against Bangladesh which cost him too dear and was sent back from the 2005 Australian Tour to England.
• The world famous issue of abusing language and racism with Harbhajan Singh in the Perth Test.
• The 2008 Bangladesh Series, when he was sent back as he preferred Fishing rather than attending the compulsory Team meeting.
• November 2008, when he was found drunk with the members of the Australian rugby league side and the controversial incident of Hotel in Brisbane.
• January 2009, when he used some problematic language for the Kiwis Wicket Keeper batsman Brendon McCullum in a radio interview.
• Recently, just 2 days back he found guilty of alcoholic issues and other disciplinary violation. The team management sent him back to Australia and he is out from the T20 World Cup, England.

All these and many more incidents show that Symonds actually is a nick name of Controversies. He was continuously in and out since four years. Even though the entire team backed him up in the entire incidence and brought him back in the team, he made disappointed to them all the time.

The person who stood beside him in all the problems and backed him falling against the whole Cricketing nations, the Captain Ricky Ponting also said with a very low voice that, “Symonds has let the team down.”

He is a wonderful stroke player and the whole world was eager to see the blasting batting of Symonds after he performed tremendously in the recent IPL T20. He was the champ even in the finals for the Deccan Chargers whom he joined in later half of IPL. He was the real Key player to lead his team from the last position in 2008 to the top position in 2009.

Ricky is not the only person who is let down, the former Australian bowler, Geoff Lawson utters in an interview to BBC Radio 5 Live, “Nobody’s perfect, but he’s been given lots of opportunities and there’s a limit to how many mistakes you can make in the context of professional sport.

“There was lots of criticism anyway that he wasn’t playing well enough to be selected for the tour.

“I don’t think he’ll play international cricket again.”

The last sentence can really be a hurting statement for all his fans, but even the Cricket Australia Chief James Sutherland seemed to be of the same opinion last night.

“In isolation the breaches are not serious, but in the scheme of history, they are enough to be the final straw. We will take the offer of a Cricket Australia contract we made to him off the table and reconsider our decision over the coming days,” he said.

“In the last 24-48 hours he has broken a number of team rules.

“In the context of commitments Andrew has made to his team-mates and to Cricket Australia in the last six months, it’s the last straw. Unfortunately, it’s a constant balancing act and it’s just tipped too far.”

Thus Sutherland indicated that the last incident may prove the dead end for the glorious Cricketing career of Andrew Symonds.

Ricky Ponting was also found upset with the incident when he addressed the press conference soon after the removal.

“Andrew is very disappointed and understandably upset. I’m disappointed in Andrew and I’m disappointed for Andrew. I’m quite sad about it.”

“We’re a little disappointed with the events of the last 24 hours and losing one of the best Twenty20 players in the world is disappointing, but he broke a number of commitments that he made to himself and the team. They were not commitments forced upon him by us. He’s let himself down and the team down.

But we’re moving on and preparing as well as we can for Saturday’s game.

“It throws the balance of the side a bit and we’re going to have to re-jig it a bit, but we’ve got the flexibility in the squad to do that.” he added.

The Queenslander has a marvelous record of Cricket and people used to say that he could see the ball much faster than the speed of the ball. He was the player who could swing the ball wherever he wanted to loaf. He was a key member of Australian Cricket team as he is having a nice record of bowling also. He was a partnership breaker for his team.

Symonds, was born in Birmingham, England but in the very childhood was taken to Australia. He has played 26 Tests, 198 one-day internationals and 14 Twenty20 matches for Australia.

He has 1,462 Test runs at an average of 40.61, with a best score of 162 not out and taken 24 wickets at 37.33, with a best return of 3-50in his pocket.

In the 50-over format of the game, he has scored 5,088 runs at 39.75 with a top score of 156. His 133 wickets have come at 37.25 apiece with 5-18 his best showing.

In Twenty20 internationals he has smashed 337 runs off 199 balls with his average of 48.14 bolstered by his highest score of 85 not out. He has taken just eight wickets in his 14 games at 34.62.

Thus, he has a great career and everyone believed that he will bounce back heavily after the come back in the team.

But, the incidents happened were quite unlucky. He attended a dinner at a London hotel on Wednesday night with the rest of the squad but was absent from training at The Oval on Thursday, then caught for the alcoholic consumption.

The 25-year-old Cameron White will replace Symonds, he has an experience of seven Twenty20 internationals, scoring a total of 152 runs with a highest score of 40 not out.

Cricket Australia has already approached ICC about the replacement and most probably White will replace Symonds.

Australia start their World Twenty20 campaign against West Indies at The Oval on Saturday.