Shane Watson's allround brilliance powered Australia to an easy
seven-wicket victory over Ireland in their opening Group B match of the
Twenty20 World Cup on Wednesday.Opening the bowling, Watson claimed three wickets for 26 runs and
returned to hammer a 30-ball 51 as Australia chased down the 124-run
victory target with 29 balls to spare.Watson and his opening partner David Warner (26) put a brisk 60-run
stand in the first seven overs to set the tone for what turned out to be
a comfortable chase.Australia lost their third wicket when Kevin O'Brien trapped Michael
Hussey (10) in the 11th overs but Cameron White (22 not out) and captain
George Bailey (six not out) stayed put to ensure an easy victory for
the 2010 finalists.Watson removed Irish captain William Porterfield with the first ball
of the match and later broke a dangerous-looking fifth wicket
partnership between the O'Brien brothers - Niall (20) and Kevin - both
of whom fell to the blond Australian."It wasn't as much a wicket-ball I suppose," Watson said referring to
his first delivery that dismissed the Irish captain. "But it just
worked out luckily enough.""It was a blueprint for this game and I am not exactly sure that is
going to absolutely continue," he said on h is role as a new ball
bowler."Depending on the teams, we will play in the conditions I suppose that could potentially change."Watson was involved in the dismissal of the other Irish opener Paul
Stirling (seven), catching him off fast bowler Mitchell Starc in the
fourth over as Ireland lost their second wicket with 15 runs on the
board."Stirling is a quality hitter of the ball. So we knew that was a very
important wicket, as well as (the wicket of) Kevin O'Brien," Watson
said.Ireland, having elected to bat first, never really recovered after
losing their captain to the first ball and slumped to 33 for four
wickets in 7.2 overs. Irish skipper Porterfield said they lost too may
wickets in quick successions which denied them a bigger total."If we had come up with an extra 40-45 runs it would have given us a chance," he said.At one stage, even the 100-mark looked a distant possibility for
Ireland but they s till managed to post 123 for seven wickets largely
because of the 52-run fifth wicket stand between the O'Brien brothers.Kevin O'Brien was the top scorer for Ireland with 35 runs off 29
balls with five boundaries, while Niall scored 20 runs off 24 balls.Starc took two wickets for 20 runs.
Comeback man Yuvraj Singh provided three crucial breakthroughs but
India were far from convincing as they launched their ICC World Twenty20
campaign with a scrappy 23-run victory over minnows Afghanistan in on
Wednesday.Put into bat, it was man of the match Virat Kohli`s
half-century and an useful contribution of 38 from Suresh Raina which
helped India reach a decent target of 159 for five in 20 overs.In
reply, Afghanistan batsmen showed patches of brilliance in their
strokemaking but their sheer inexperience saw them get all out for 136
in 19.3 overs.The bravehearts from Afghanistan can hold their
heads high as they only went down after putting up a stiff resistance
against a scratchy Indian team.After getting a wicket with his
very first delivery, Yuvraj in his second spell provided back-to-back
breakthroughs dismissing dangerous looking Karim Sadiq (26) and Asghar
Stanikzai as Afghans, from a comfortable 75 for two, were suddenly left
tottering at 75 for four and never really were in the match after that.Yuvraj`s final figures read three for 24 partly due to the couple of sixes he was hit in his final over.It
was Yuvraj and Ravichandran Ashwin with figures of two for 20 who
applied pressure under which the opposition batsmen finally gave in.Laxmipathy Balaji finished it in the end with figures of three for 19 but he was also not at his best.But what should worry the Indians is the ease with which some of the Afghan batsmen played the Indian trio of seamers.Mohammed
Shahzad hit a helicopter shot of Zaheer Khan while Mohammed Nabi lifted
him straight over long-off. The veteran medium pacer has looked
completely out of sorts of late, leaking away 32 runs in three overs.Earlier,
it was Kohli`s dream run in international cricket that enabled India
reach 159 for five despite poor show from senior pros like Gautam
Gambhir, Virender Sehwag and Yuvraj Singh. The trio missed out on an
opportunity to put up a big score under their belt before the marquee
game against England.It was mainly due to Kohli`s 39-ball 50 and
some lusty blows from Raina that helped India set a decent if not an
impressive target against the minnows.Skipper Mahendra Singh
Dhoni provided the final flourish ending the innings with a four and six
of the last two deliveries to remain unbeaten on 18 from nine balls.The
Indians were also helped by some poor effort on the field by
Afghanistan as they dropped as many as four catches with Raina being
dropped on two occasions.With this innings, Kohli has now
completed a hat-trick of T20 international half centuries having crossed
50 against Sri Lanka and New Zealand in the two earlier international
matches.His standout shot remains the six he hit off medium
pacer Gulbodin Naib. With minimum feet movement, Kohli just lifted the
bowler straight and the ball traveled a distance of 93 metres.Kohli`s
partnerships of 46 runs each with Yuvraj and Raina for the third and
fourth wicket respectively helped India cross the 150-run mark.But
it all started with Gambhir`s old habit of playing away from his body
and it cost him dearly as he dragged back an innocuous delivery from
Shapoor Zadran onto his middle stump. The left-hander made 10.Sehwag
was dismissed by a peach of delivery from Shapoor. The ball pitched on
the off-stump and moved a shade as the batsmen tentatively played at it
and the resultant nick was gleefully accepted by wicketkeeper Mohammed
Shahzad. He managed only eight.Yuvraj`s first shot was a
splendid one as he lifted Shapoor in a copybook manner over straight
boundary. However the comeback man was not in his element today.Once
the two spinners, offie Karin Sadiq and left-arm spinner Mohamed Nabi
-- were introduced into the attack, Yuvraj found it difficult to score
runs.On his personal score of 17 and team`s total of 62, Yuvraj
tried to scoop an overpitched delivery from Nabi but offered a return
catch which the bowler failed to latch onto.However he failed to
cash in on this gift as he was soon caught by Shapoor at short
third-man trying to cut a Sadiq off-break. He scored a painstaking 18 of
20 balls.Kohli, on the otherhand, was stroking freely but did get the benefit due to profligate Afghanistan fielders.On 33, he lifted Sadiq towards widish long-on and to his delight found Shamiuallah Shenwari drop the easiest of chances.Kohli
was finally holed out in the deep immediately after he completed his 50
but Raina along with Dhoni hit some lusty blows to prop up India`s
total.
