England lifts their first ever ICC trophy

I've never expected England to reach this far. I agree that they are a good team. They are the pioneers of cricket. But they've never managed to win a major ICC trophy. Even if they reached the final of this year's Twenty20 World cup, I still had some doubt if they can do it this time. They were against Australia and that made me feel that England might have to wait more. But......they made history by defeating Australia in ICC world Twenty 2010 final. This is a moment to cherish for england fans.

I still wonder if it was Australia against which England played this final. Australia never looked dominant right from the start of the match except for one over in which they got 21 runs. Full credit goes to England for their superb fielding and collective performances with bat and bowl. It's very rare to see Australia loosing a final. They came into the final unbeaten. They came out of nowhere in the semifinal against Pakistan to register an excellent win to reach the final thanks to an exceptional knock of 60 from 24 balls from Mr Cricket.

After loosing a final against England, Austrlia would definitely want to comeback hard at them in the Ashes. It'll be a good contest to enjoy.

PS: I congratulate one of my friends(An ardent fan of England) on England's victory.

India: T20 team to beat

The second edition of the ICC World Twenty20 is less than a month away and most of the squads have been announced. It has been a long time since a major global tournament has started without Australia being favorites, but that is certainly the scenario on this occasion.

India are the team to beat. They are the holders and are even stronger than they were in winning the inaugural tournament in South Africa in September 2007.

The two Indian Premier League tournaments that have taken place since that event have exposed India's players to Twenty20 cricket far more than their rivals and it would be no surprise if India commenced a stranglehold on what could become the most prized trophy in world cricket . Their younger generation of players are getting vital exposure to the format, alongside the world's best players.

Many of those players are India's own. Some overseas stars have lit up the IPL, notably Adam Gilchrist, Matthew Hayden and Lasith Malinga, but the quantity of Indian star performers stands out. It is telling that Australia's best Twenty20 players have retired from international cricket. Australia might be thinking of calling Hayden and Gilchrist into their side again.

India's T20 world cup squad is full of big hitters . MS Dhoni, Virender Sehwag, Yuvraj Singh and Yusuf Pathan and adaptable stroke makers like Suresh Raina, Rohit Sharma and Gautam Gambhir. Crucially they have bowlers experienced in the format, adept at out-thinking batsmen when the slog is on. Spin is vital in T20 and Pragyan Ojha could be the slow bowler of the tournament.

The short nature of Twenty20 matches means surprise cricket results are more likely and there are of course plenty of match-winners in other squads, but it would be a major surprise if India's all-star line-up did not retain the world Twenty20 trophy.