Zaheer leads India to easy win

India Vs Ireland ( ICC World Twenty20 2009 ) - Indian seamer Zaheer Khan took four for 19 to set up a comfortable eight-wicket victory over Ireland in the final group match of the Twenty20 World Cup on Wednesday.

Both teams had already qualified for the second round of the tournament.

Left-arm swing bowler Zaheer helped restrict Ireland to just 112 for eight after the match was was reduced to 18-overs a side following a rain delay.

Man-of-the-match Zaheer was well supported by spinner Pragyan Ojha, who completed figures of two for 18 from four overs.

Rohit Sharma (52 not out) and Gautam Gambhir (37) put on 77 for the first wicket for defending champions India who reached 113 for two with 15 deliveries remaining under the Trent Bridge floodlights.

Sehwag offered to play with painkillers

While confusion has reigned in England over the last five days over the status and exact nature of the shoulder injury suffered by Virender Sehwag, who was on Tuesday, ruled out of the World 20 championships, some clarity was provided on Wednesday by some of the his Delhi and Team India colleagues.

Sehwag's team mates in the IPL confirmed that the opener had suffered the injury during the tournament's semi-final match against Deccan Chargers in Centurion on May 22. "He dived to stop a shot from Adam Gilchrist off Ashish Nehra's bowling when he strained his shoulder," a Daredevils team mate, who did not wish to be identified, told The Indian Express on Wednesday.

Sehwag, he added, bowled an over after that but experienced slight pain once his body had cooled down after the match.

Another player close to Sehwag said he was advised rest so that his shoulder could heal in the two weeks leading up to the World T20 championships. Sehwag then proceeded to England with the Indian team, still in slight pain, and it was only after an MRI scan in England that a Grade I tear was revealed, the player said.

An Indian team source added: "Viru could still bat with pain-killer injections but there was a problem while throwing and bowling. He offered to get through this tournament if the team needed. But because he would've been a liability in the field, the management decided to ask for a replacement."

Zaheer Khan went through a similar injury in the days leading up to the World T20. He was initially ruled out until he Super 8s but recovered quicker than expected, in time for India's first match against Bangladesh.

Sehwag will now consult Dr Andrew Wallace, who had treated Sachin Tendulkar in the past, in London to decide his next course of treatment.

Dinesh Karthik, named as replacement for Virender Sehwag, will have to wait a little longer before officially joining his team in England.

Bad Time But Not Affect Ashes confidence: Ponting

Sri Lanka became the second team to beat Australia in three days with a six-wicket triumph at Trent Bridge and Ponting's side have now lost 13 of their 23 Twenty20 clashes.

They must now start preparing for a five-Test series against England starting in Cardiff on July 8.

"It's my job to make sure we get over this pretty quickly and start focusing on the red balls and white clothing over the next couple of months," Ponting told reporters.

"I certainly won't be focusing on the negative stuff that has happened over the last couple of days.

"It's about looking at the positives we have created with our test team over the last few months. I like to think that none of this will linger around.

"Being in England there is no better place to be as the excitement and atmosphere at the start of an Ashes is going to be tremendous and if we can get caught up in that there won't be any negatives hanging around from the last few days."

UNEXPECTED PRACTICE

The Australians' next match is on June 24 against Sussex, so they have 15 days, based mainly in Leicester, to prepare and Ponting said the practice time may yet be an advantage.

"I guess it can't hinder us to have more time with the red balls out and preparing for the longer form of the game, while England play Twenty20 for at least another week so maybe that is one thing we can take from our time at Leicester," Ponting said.

"I've never been a big believer in taking one series to another, particularly when it's different forms of the game. We have a vast changeover of players coming over for the Ashes and when they get here we will build on from the very good stuff we did in South Africa."

Despite his attempts to put a positive spin on Australia's elimination from cricket's premier 20-over event, Ponting did not try to hide from his team's vulnerabilities in that format of the game.

"I would love to be able to tell you what's going wrong as that's five international Twenty20 games we have lost in a row and that's a worrying trend for our team," he added. "We've got some thinking to do there's no doubt about that.

"We will have a chat about where our Twenty20 cricket is at tonight and then we have got to move on from it pretty quickly because we've got some test matches just around the corner and our test team has been our shining light recently."

England Keep Hopes alive in World Cup T20 By beating Pakistan

England Vs Pakistan ( ICC World Twenty20 2009 ) - England kept its World Twenty20 hopes alive after beating Pakistan by 48 runs at The Oval on Sunday. Kevin Pietersen struck 58 and Stuart Broad took 3-17 as England qualified for the Super 8 stage thanks to its superior run rate.

Chasing 186 to win, Pakistan lost early wickets and fell well behind the required run rate.

England struck an early blow when Ahmed Shehzad was caught for four by a tumbling England captain Paul Collingwood off Dimitri Mascarenhas in the third over.

Pakistan must beat Netherlands convincingly at Lord's, on Tuesday, to avoid elimination.

Collingwood graceful in defeat

LONDON (ICC T20 WC, 2009): The Netherlands stole England’s thunder with a four-wicket win in the opening match of the ICC World Twenty20 at Lord’s on Friday.

England’s captain Paul Collingwood gave the Netherlands credit for the sensational win, saying that they chased down a total England thought was defendabel. "They played exceptionally well. We could have defended the total. Whenever we got a wicket we assumed that we could stop them but every Dutch batsman just came out and hit boundaries. They played better than us today,” he said.

Collingwood said that that they were looking at a total between 170 and 180 but the Netherlands put up a fine performance. Asked if it was tough for his players to control the ball when it got wet because of the rain, the skipper was candid, “We didn’t perform in pressure situations; there are no excuses for this loss. We have to pick up our chins and get ready for a better performance against Pakistan,” he said.

The Netherlands captain, Jeroen Smith was a pleased man, calling the win ‘unbelievable’. The minnows took a victory lap at Lord’s after the game, thanking supporters who came to the ground to cheer for them. “It is something very special. We believed that we could win after the first 10 overs. We knew we were right in the game”, he said.

The 36-year-old admitted that they had their share of luck as England missed a lot of run out chances but said they deserved to win. Smith said his team wanted to show what they were capable of. “We were total control of the match right from the beginning,” he said, dismissing that he was worried when two tailenders were at the crease in the last two overs.

Tom de Grooth, man of the match for his knock of 49 runs off 30 balls, said that the event was big for the players but he knew that they had to play to the best of their abilities and not let themselves crumble under pressure.

Having hit six fours in his match winning knock, he said, “Nothing was playing on my mind. I was taking up the challenge at each moment. A few months back we planned to upset a major (cricket-playing) nation and we have done just that,” he said.

ICC World Twenty20 2009 - Match Schedule

ICC World Twenty20 2009 - Match Schedule

Based on groupings as follows:

Group Matches:

Super Eight - Groups

GROUP E	GROUP F
A1	B1
B2	A2
C1	C2
D2	D1

The top two ranked teams in each group are seeded 1 and 2. They will retain this seeding for the Super Eights stage, irrespective of whether they finish first or second in their group, unless they are knocked out by team 3 in their group. In this instance, team 3 replaces the position of the team they knock out.

For example, if Bangladesh wins Group A and India comes second, for the purposes of the Super Eights, India will still be A1 and Bangladesh will be A2. If for example, Ireland qualifies instead of India, Ireland will become A1.

This formula provides spectators with certainty as to the location of team matches.

Semi Finals & Final