Twenty20 Pulse

Australia went into the ICC World Twenty20 2007 with the same line-up that had seen them effortlessly claim the ICC Cricket World Cup earlier in the year with a bowling attack bolstered by the addition of Brett Lee who had been injured for the Caribbean event. However, despite a side boasting Adam Gilchrist, Matthew Hayden, Andrew Symonds and Ricky Ponting, they struggled to carry their ODI form into the T20 format.

They got off to the worst possible start in the 2007 event, losing out in a nail-biting last ball thriller to Zimbabwe in what was undoubtedly in the biggest upset in the short history of Twenty20 Internationals. Rusty and underdone Australia was embarrassed by the so-called minnows by five wickets. The hero of the night, Brendon Taylor effected one stumping, took two catches, effected a run-out and scored an unbeaten 60 to guide his team to victory.

Taken aback by the defeat, the Australians had to scramble their way back into the tournament with victory over England. Nathan Bracken and Mitchell Johnson picked up three wickets apiece, which was followed by a hammering delivered to the English bowlers by Matthew Hayden and Adam Gilchrist. Australia won with conviction by eight wickets and sailed through to the next round.

Bangladesh was treated to some top quality Aussie fast bowling. Brett Lee was immaculate, peppering the inexperienced Bangladeshi batsmen with short pitch stuff and was rewarded with the first ever hat-trick in T20 Internationals setting the base from which his side was able to romp home with seven overs to spare.

The next Super Eights match saw Australia lose out to Pakistan whose stars on the day were young left-arm seamer Sohail Tanvir who took 3 for 31 from his four overs and Misbah-ul-Haq and captain Shoaib Malik who both scored unbeaten half-centuries to ensure Pakistan clinched a convincing six-wicket victory.

Australia had to defeat Sri Lanka in the next match to ensure a place in the semi-final and comfortably rose to the occasion restricting their opponents to 101 all out before Gilchrist and Hayden knocked off the runs in 10.2 overs.

But the good form from the Sri Lanka match deserted Australia in the semi-final as an India side bolstered by 70 off 30 balls from Yuvraj Singh set them a target of 189 and with none of the Australian bastmen able to make a match-winning contribution in reply they fell 15 runs short.

Australia had gone into the 2007 event as the holders of both the ICC Cricket World Cup and ICC Champions Trophy and were hoping to make it a hattrick in the ICC World Twenty20.

The disappointment of defeat to India and India’s subsequent victory hurt Ponting and his side and they will be fired up for success when the next event takes place in England in 2009.

Australia’s 15-men squad for ICC World Twenty20 2009 in England:

Ricky Ponting (captain), Michael Clarke (vice captian), Nathan Bracken, Brad Haddin (wk), Nathan Hauritz, Ben Hilfenhaus, James Hopes, David Hussey, Michael Hussey, Mitchell Johnson, Brett Lee, Peter Siddle, Andrew Symonds, David Warner, Shane Watson.

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