'We're ready for Harbhajan's aggression' - Hussey

No Australian Twenty20 team has been as aggressive in word or deed as the one about to face India in a critical Super Eights match at the World T20. So there is understandable anticipation about the rejoining of an old battle with Harbhajan Singh, famously provocative in the past but so far this tournament doing more with the ball than with his choice of words.

Australia showed plenty of intent in the field in their opening match against Ireland, David Warner and Shane Watson particularly active in their efforts to rile the opposition. Watson later said this was part of how the team "gets up" for a serious contest. Any attempts at a similar approach against the West Indies were momentarily silenced by the blazing bats of Chris Gayle and Marlon Samuels before George Bailey's team notched a rain-assisted victory.

Harbhajan's recall was always likely to tempt another encounter with Australia, a team with which he has a history of confrontation and controversy, not least the 2008 Sydney Test match and its aftermath. While his striking display against England suggested a Harbhajan more focused on his bowling than anything else, the sight of the green and gold may stir that old familiar feeling.

Michael Hussey, a witness to much of the aforementioned history, said he expected Harbhajan to resume his famously provocative ways, and counselled his younger teammates to remain true to themselves in dealing with any verbal confrontations.

"I prefer to walk away and not worry about it," Hussey said. "If he [Harbhajan] wants to use his energy up sledging and carrying on, that's fine. Some other guys really thrive on it. Davey Warner, he likes a little bit of interaction out there and it gets him going.

"So I don't think there is a right way or wrong way to handle it but I think it's up to the individual to know he's going to try these tactics so you've got to be ready for it, and be sure it doesn't affect your concentration but handle it in your own way. I just think let him [Warner] go, let him play his way. That's what has given him success so far."

The match against India is the first of a testy trio that also features South Africa and Pakistan, leaving Hussey to reason that a first-up victory would ease a great deal of pressure from the team's shoulders.

"If we can win that first one in the Super Eights, it does give you that confidence and that little buffer that you know you just need one out of the last two to get through," Hussey said. "It's pretty much an early grand final really in the context of the tournament. But that relaxed attitude is important as well. We need to make sure we're not too tense.

"All the [batsmen] are playing well in the nets and they've got a lot of confidence, and that's a big part of Twenty20. You need to have no doubts in your mind or fears, you've got to trust yourself and let your instincts take over."

The coach Mickey Arthur treated Australia's player to two days off after their qualification for the next phase, though he then extracted a measure of recompense by pushing the players through a decidedly rigorous Tuesday training session.

"We have had a few relaxing days but I expect that's all about to end," Hussey said. "Training yesterday [Tuesday] was very long and pretty intense and a welcome back to reality really. The pressure and tension are only going to rise as we get closer to that India match because it's a huge game."

West Indies target England spin problem

England will face another examination against spin in their first World Twenty20 Super Eights tie against West Indies in Pallakele on Thursday. Destroyed by India's Harbhajan Singh and Piyush Chawla at the group stage, they must now combat West Indies' Sunil Narine and a potential unknown accomplice, Samuel Badree.

Narine is West Indies' "trump card" according to their captain, Darren Sammy, but perhaps it is possible to exaggerate the likely extent of the ordeal after England's batting horrors against India. The most danger to England is more likely to emanate from the usual place: West Indies' long list of destructive batsmen.

Narine had a bowling average of 199 in England last summer in all competitions - his only wicket came when he dismissed Jonathan Trott in an ODI at the Rose Bowl and Trott is not even here. After his success in the IPL, England played Narine rather well. If he is to prove a trump card, it will have needed a change of suit since the sides last met.

As for Badree, he is a 31-year-old legspinner from Trinidad whose international exposure amounts to two T20I matches against New Zealand in the United States. He claimed Tim Southee as his only wicket and is the only international player who can fairly claim to be bigger in Florida than the rest of the cricketing world. There again, he is an unknown quantity and, in England's current state, that is a good thing to be.

It is not that the Pallakele pitch is expected to favour the spinners, not this early in the tournament anyway, just that West Indies have unsurprisingly taken a view. It was hard not to after the way England capitulated to India, bowled out for 80, their lowest Twenty20 score.

But even if you add in the offspin of Chris Gayle and Marlon Samuels, who are both most notable for the expenditure of a minimal number of calories in delivery, England will be telling themselves that their fallibility against spin is in danger of being overplayed.

England's T20I captain, Stuart Broad, is doing his best to shrug it off. "We are ready for that," he said. "It is not as if we have found out yesterday that people are going to bowl spin at us. Coming to Sri Lanka, we sort of knew that because those are the conditions we will face. It is important as individuals we try to counteract it."

Broad refuses to accept that England have technical issues against spin bowling. Even if he harbours doubts, it is far too late to do much about it now. The only option is to try to restore self-belief and trust that England somehow brazen it through.

"The challenge is all mental," he claimed. "It is all about getting yourself back into a positive frame of mind and reminding the guys in the team that they are good players. They have performed well to get into this England team and we have match-winners in this side.


Stuart Broad believes England's batsmen must "learn from mistakes but don't dwell on them" © AFP
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"We just talked about our strengths. Learn from the mistakes you make but don't dwell on them. We have players who have played spin well. We have talked about how we've done that."

But Sammy looked particularly perky as he presented Narine as a potential matchwinner. "We will definitely look to bowl spin against them," he said. "I think everyone who comes on to bowl has a big part to play but Sunil is our trump card. He has done well for us in international matches and hopefully he'll have a big impact on the English batting line-up.

"England are the defending world champions. I don't think they will allow the last game India to play on their minds. We have our plans and just have to go out and execute them."

Sammy excused Narine's poor show in England on the grounds of miserable weather, which did not make the pitches conducive to spin and pointed out, accurately enough, that England's senior spin bowler, Graeme Swann, also survived on meagre returns.

Broad is not the first person to extol the attractions of Pallakele. Contrast that with Sri Lanka's unveiling of the jerry-built, and unfinished, Dambulla Stadium to unsuspecting England tourists about a decade ago and it is a huge stride forward.

"It's my first time to the ground, it looks fantastic," Broad said. "It reminds me a bit of Caribbean grounds actually."

Another reason, perhaps, why Sammy was feeling so content.

World T20: Super Eights means serious cricket

With Pakistan having thrashed Bangladesh in their last encounter in the ICC World Twenty20 group stage, the tournament takes proper shape as the best teams line up for the Super Eights. Many, in fact, will tell you that the tournament begins on Thursday when Sri Lanka play New Zealand.
After nine lukewarm days of cricket, fans of Twenty20 cricket are in line for some mouth-watering cricket now that Afghanistan, Zimbabwe, Ireland and Bangladesh have been ousted from the World Twenty20. Four groups have been narrowed down two: West Indies, New Zealand, Sri Lanka and defending champions make up the first and in the next are India, Pakistan, Australia and South Africa. That second one is a very tight one, with India up against arguably the best three sides in the tournament.

Let’s have a look at the two groups.
Group 1: West Indies, Sri Lanka, New Zealand, England
West Indies and Sri Lanka will start off as favourites for the semi-finals but England and New Zealand will definitely give them a tough fight. West Indies have yet to win a game – they progressed due to a rain-hit match against Ireland – but are being seen as contenders for the title due to the presence of Chris Gayle, Marlon Samuels, Dwayne Bravo, Kieron Pollard, skipper Darren Sammy, Fidel Edwards and Sunil Narine.
At home, Sri Lanka remain a formidable side. Tillakaratne Dilshan, Mahela Jayawardene and Kumar Sangakkara lend solidity and plenty of experience to the batting, and in Lasith Malinga, Ajantha Mendis and Nuwan Kulasekara the hosts have three match-winning bowlers. Add in allrounders such as Angelo Mathews and Thisara Perera, and Sri Lanka stand to pose a threat to all opposing teams.
New Zealand are highly dependent on Brendon McCullum, who is the leading run-scorer in Twenty20 internationals and the only batsman to score two centuries in the format, one of them being the fastest ever. After McCullum, the main man is captain Ross Taylor who can be equally destructive on his day. After that, the batting line-up is weighed down by inexperience and inconsistency. With the ball, the biggest asset is Daniel Vettori. Kyle Mills and Tim Southee are the leading fast men, followed by the allrounders Jacob Oram and James Franklin. Not a very strong team, but a capable one.
Defending champions England are not looking as strong as they were last time around. The
absence of Kevin Pirtersen and Paul Collingwood has weakened the batting, and as displayed in their 90-run thrashing by India the younger crop of batsmen have plenty of issues against spin. Their bowling, however, is one of the best in the tournament.
Group 2: India, Pakistan, Australia, South Africa
South Africa look the strongest in this group owing to an amazingly balanced side. In both the main departments they have a number of match-winners. With Richard Levi and Hashim Amla opening the innings you can always expect a blistering start and in Jacques Kallis at No. 3 South Africa have a batsman capable of holding an innings together. AB de Villiers, JP Duminy, Faf du Plessis and Albie Morkel after that makes for a very formidable batting order. Leading the bowling attack is Dale Steyn, ranked No. 1, followed by Morne Morkel, Lonwabo Tsotsobe, Robin Peterson, Albie Morkel and Kallis. Definitely the team to beat.
India are highly dependent on their batting since the bowling is a area of concern, regardless of the way Harbhajan Singh and Piyush Chawla had England in a spin. The lack of form of Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir at the top is causing India trouble, and leaving too much on Virat Kohli’s shoulders. Rohit Sharma, Suresh Raina, Yuvraj Singh and MS Dhoni are all Twenty20 match-winners, but their efforts must be backed up by good bowling. Zaheer Khan is finding it tough to get his rhythm correct, Irfan Pathan is too inconsistent and L Balaji is making a comeback so that leaves Dhoni to rely on R Ashwin – especially at the death. Whether India go in with five bowlers against Australia is a matter of huge interest at the moment.
That leaves Australia and Pakistan, both of whom have an edge over India in the bowling. For Pakistan, spin is the strength with Mohammad Hafeez, Shahid Afridi and Umar Gul carrying the attack. Umar Gul adds control and Sohail Tanvir unpredictability, but currently the fast-bowling is pair is a bit off-key. Australia have a pace battery comprising Mitchell Starc, Pat Cummins, Shane Watson and Daniel Christian which has contributed to victory in two matches. The concern is in the spin department, where a 41-year-old Brad Hogg and a rookie in Glenn Maxwell have to do anything of note.
The Super Eights stand to offer much more action than the group stage, so fans can sit back and enjoy the action at last.

India climb to 3rd spot in ICC T20 Championship table

Colombo: Riding on their huge win over England in the group stages of the ongoing ICC World Twenty20 in Sri Lanka, India jumped four places to claim the third position in the ICC T20 Championship table, which was released on Wednesday.

India spanked defending champions England by 90 runs in a Group A match, which propelled Mahendra Singh Dhoni`s men to 116 rating points.

The crushing defeat meant England slipped a position to second spot with 124 ratings points.

South Africa head into the Super Eight stage as the number-one ranked team.

Meanwhile, Suresh Raina is the lone Indian to feature in the top 10 list for the T20I Player Rankings for batsmen.

Even though Raina dropped two places in the recently-released chart, the left-hander still occupied the fifth position with 730 points in his kitty.

Another Indian to rise in the chart is opener Gautam Gambhir who is 13th (up by three places).

New Zealand`s wicket-keeper batsman Brendon McCullum retained his number-one batting spot with Chris Gayle in second place.

McCullum`s knock of 123 against Bangladesh, the highest in the history of Twenty20 International cricket to date, also helped him achieve a career-best rating of 849.

Australia`s Shane Watson jumped four places to a career-high third position. Watson, who won successive Player of the Match awards against Ireland and West Indies, also garnered his career-best rating of 758.

The batsmen from Asia have made the most impressive movements in the batting table ahead of the Super Eight stage, which starts in Pallekele from Thursday.

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Sri Lanka`s Kumar Sangakkara broke back into the top 10 and now sits in eighth position (up by three places). Others to make upward movements are Virat Kohli in 19th (up by 10 places), Rohit Sharma in 26th (up by 12 places), Nasir Jamshed in 32nd (up by 51 places), Shakib Al Hasan in 37th (up by 29 places) and Imran Nazir in 43rd (up by 42 places).

No Indian, however, found a place in the top-10 bowlers ranking, which is being headed by the spin trio of Saeed Ajmal (Pakistan), Graeme Swann of England and Sri Lankan mystery spinner Ajantha Mendis.

Comeback man Harbhajan Singh, who claimed four for 12 against England, India`s best figures in a Twenty20 International, broke into the top 20 and is now at 17th place (up by five).

By virtue of his all-round performances in the two group matches, Watson continued to retain his number one position among all-rounders.

Pakistan captain Mohammad Hafeez also maintained his second spot in the all-rounders chart, but compatriot Shahid Afridi dropped a place to third.

Bangladesh`s Shakib Al Hasan vaulted four places to fifth in the list.

World T20: Darren Sammy expects Sunil Narine to shine against England

Pallekele: West Indian captain Darren Sammy admitted offspinner Sunil Narine will be his trump card to exploit England's weakness against slow bowlers in the Super Eights match here on Thursday.
England, defending the World Twenty20 title they won in the Caribbean two years ago, crashed to their heaviest T20 defeat of 90 runs in their first round match against India, with offspinner Harbhajan Singh grabbing 4 for 12.

And that prompted Sammy to raise more hopes with Narine. "Sunil is our trump card, he's done well for us in that format, hopefully he could have a big impact on the English batting line-up," said Sammy of the 24-year-old spinner who has made a big impact at Twenty20 level.
Besides Narine, West Indies have the option of bringing in legspinner Samuel Badree to add to the guile of Chris Gayle and Marlon Samuels, who can also bowl handy spin. "We'll definitely look to bowl spin against them, but we have quality seam bowlers upfront also. We have Badree who is another spinner in the line-up so hopefully we will bowl well against England and have a good game," said Sammy.
The top eight teams compete in the Super Eights round beginning with the group one clashes between hosts Sri Lanka and New Zealand, followed by England and the West Indies. Pakistan play South Africa while India meet Australia in group two in Colombo on Friday. The top two teams from each group will qualify for the semi-final with the final on October 7.

Sammy said the West Indies - who have not won a major event since winning the ICC Champions trophy in 2004 - have the self-belief to finally win a trophy. "The biggest strength for us is the belief in the dressing room that we could win this tournament and we left home thinking that. We have quality in the dressing room, it's up to us to go out and display that quality out there," said Sammy.
England captain Stuart Broad admitted the West Indies team posed a challenge. "We've played against the West Indies this summer [in England], we know they are a dangerous side and they had success in the Twenty20 format with some players who have done well but we are focused for the match," said Broad.
"It's important that you learn from the mistakes you make, so with that you need to talk about them, but you don't need to dwell on them. We have guys who have played spin really well at times so we just build on that."

World T20: Sehwag practices hard ahead of Aussie clash

Colombo: The doubts regarding Virender Sehwag's thumb injury were put to rest as the opener batted for about half-an-hour in the nets on Wednesday ahead of India's Super Eight encounter at the World T20 against Australia on Friday.
Sehwag, who didn't bat at the nets on Tuesday, was intent personified on Wednesday as he raced into the nets when his team-mates were dumping kit bags at the P Sara Oval dressing room.

Sehwag first entered the spinners' net and lofted Piyush Chawla repeatedly over the long-off. There weren't any signs of discomfort during his 25-minute stint at the nets.
For the Indian team, most of the batsmen were tested against short-pitched deliveries by their bowlers as well as by the net bowlers.
Right from Sehwag, Gambhir to Raina everyone was seen perfecting the horizontal bat shots. "The Indian coach was telling us to hit the deck consistently and try to get it up at the ribs. At times, we were told to bowl yorkers," Anjana, one of the net bowlers informed.
With Sehwag's comeback, there are clear indications that India will go back to their 'seven-batsman, four-bowlers' theory and either Lakshmipathy Balaji or Zaheer Khan will get the axe as Ravichandran Ashwin, Harbhajan Singh and Irfan Pathan are automatic choices for this match.
While Zaheer has been in disappointing form for the past couple of months, Balaji has just made a comeback.
Manoj Tiwary is the only member of the squad who hasn't got a go-ahead so far in this tournament. While the other 14 have got a chance to play at least one game, the Bengal youngster - who has scored a century, a half- century and taken four wickets in his last three international matches - has not been drafted into playing XI for a single game.

Rod Tucker-Richard Kettleborough to officiate at Ind-Pak tie

Colombo: Rod Tucker and Richard Kettleborough will be the on-field umpires for Sunday's high-profile match between India and Pakistan in the Super Eight stage of the ICC World Twenty20 here.
The ICC Wednesday announced the list of umpires and match referees for the Super Eight stage of the tournament, with former Sri Lankan spinner Kumar Dharmasena set to officiate in two of India's three matches.
In the match between the two sub-continental rivals, Dharmasena will be the third umpire, with Jeff Crowe doing duty as the match referee.
The Super Eights will get underway with a doubleheader that will see the hosts take on New Zealand followed by a clash between holders England and the West Indies in Pallekele Thursday.
Dharmasena will have England's Kettleborough for company in India's first Super Eight match, against Australia on Friday.
New Zealander Ian Gould will be the third umpire while Sri Lanka's Madugalle of Sri Lanka will be the match referee.
In the inaugural edition champions' final game against South Africa on October 2, Dharmasena will be joined by Australia's Tucker.
Ian Gould will be the third umpire while Crowe will be the match referee.
Former India pacer Javagal Srinath will be doing duty as match referee in six of the 12 Super Eight matches.
Appointments for men's and women's semi-finals will be made in due course.