What a Surprising Start!!!

T20 cricket is home for surprises.The opening match in T20 worldcup 2009, between England and Netherlands, once again proved this.

The Netherlands pulled of a stunning 4 wicket victory over a shell shocked England team to launch this years Twenty20 World Cup in spectacular fashion.

Thanks to contributions from de Grooth(49), Borren(30), whose brilliant knocks led their team to a very surprising victory over the hosts, England.

It doesn't seem that they have won just by luck. The scoreboard statistics of their innings reveal this. Except for the first couple of overs, they could achieve required runrate each and every over. They were also aware of the possibility of Duckworth-Lewis method, hence maintaining the required rate.

Earlier, England's middle order failed badly. The brilliant knocks of Luke Wright and Bopara, appeared to guide England to a huge total. But the next batsmen couldn't utilize their best opening partnership in T20 (102), contributing only 73 in the second half of their innings. This might have given confidence to Netherlands, who could achieve the target.

This game serves as a warning to all leading teams, not to take the opponent lightly. Especially India should not underestimate Bangladesh, who upset India in 2007 worldcup and Ireland, who upset pakistan in the same worldcup.

With teams like Netherlands performing well, this T20 should be very interesting.
Hope to see some thrilling matches.
Cheers :)