da dobrowin： The real match-winners have come from numbers four, five and even six and not the top order at the ICC World Twenty20 World Cup
Andrew McGlashan in Cape Town21-Sep-2007
Misbah-ul-Haq is one of the middle-order batsmen to excel at the ICC World Twenty20 © AFP
One of the myths that the World Twenty20 has dispelled is that thereis no time for a team to recover from a poor start. India sent SouthAfrica tumbling out despite being 33 for 3 against the new ball andEngland left the tournament early even though they reduced SouthAfrica to 94 for 6 and New Zealand to 31 for 4 during the SuperEights.Pakistan’s top-order woes have perhaps been the most severe andconsistent – twice they have been four down for less than 50 – yetthey are in the semi-finals. Early wickets have not always meanta decisive advantage and momentum has changed in the blink of an eye.Given 20 overs to face, the expectation had been that the best placeto bat would have been in the top three. The tournament’s leadingrun-scorer being an opener, Matthew Hayden, suggests this holds true but he helped himself to two unbeaten half-centuries against England and Sri Lanka when theopposition have long-since been beaten. Kevin Pietersen, still thesecond-highest scorer, only belatedly moved up to No. 3 in England’sline-up and made his highest score batting at four.The real match-winners have come from numbers four, five and even six.New Zealand’s leading run-maker is Craig McMillan, heading into thesemi-final with 151 at a strike-rate of 179, while Pakistan’s top two- Shoaib Malik and Misbah-ul-Haq – have made 310 runs between them andagainst Australia added 119 to seal victory.At Cape Town and Durban the conditions have played a significant partin the early struggles with the ball nipping around so the timing ofthe first semi-final at Newlands – a 1pm start – is the idealsituation to try and level the playing field. “The wickets perhapshaven’t been quite as conducive to Twenty20 as you’d like sometimes,”said Daniel Vettori. “They have been a bit fresh and the 10am startsand games under lights and contributed to that.”In a 50-over match if a side loses its top order cheaply, for example40 for 4, eight times out of ten they won’t recover. But in Twenty20 cricketteams have turned games around in the space of a few overs. Unlikeone-day internationals, when early wickets have fallen in thistournament the pressure hasn’t been maintained. Against Australia,Malik and Misbah exploited the overs from Andrew Symonds and MichaelClarke, while New Zealand’s fightback against England was largely downto 73 off seven overs between Dimitri Mascarenhas and PaulCollingwood.”I think it’s probably one of the big things, that guys do have timeto build an innings,” said Vettori. “It’s the sort of mantra we havebeen trying to preach, that guys have got time to get themselves in,and then they can hit during the end. You can make up so much timewith a few really big overs and that’s really what Craig McMillan hasdone throughout the tournament. He has got us out of [tough]situations because he has built an innings.”With the game changing so quickly, captains have had to come up withnew ways to try and keep control. One tactic employed has been to usethe full allotment of a strike-bowler’s overs in the second half ofthe innings when a recovery can take shape. Lasith Malinga was held byback by Mahela Jayawardene, while Umar Gul has performed a similarrole for Pakistan. It has meant that whereas most teams have had aweak link in their attack, Pakistan’s contains wicket-takersthroughout the 20 overs.Gul’s match-up with the New Zealand middle order will be a keyconfrontation at Newlands. His yorkers have been on target bringinghim seven wickets at 16, plus an economy rate of 5.69. For NewZealand, Vettori will perform a similar role although Pakistan’smiddle order – Misbah, Malik and Younis Khan – will provide one of histoughest challenges.For a side to have the belief that they can drag themselves out of ahole is a huge advantage going into the pressurised environment of asemi-final. But the top orders of both Pakistan and New Zealand owetheir colleagues something for keeping them in the tournament. This isthe time to perform.