2009 - Gone Bys and Good Byes! 3rd QTR

Despite the second season of the Indian Premier League mugging TV rights and commercial endorsements in the second QTR of 2009, the third QTR had all the excitement and more. The second world T20 championships were held in England. The Pakistani players may have been kept away from the IPL action in South Africa but, this only came as a blessing in disguise as Pakistan went on to become the world champions in T20 cricket. Despite starting poorly Pakistan showed what top quality cricket they can play. The finals of the world cup again saw two sub-continental teams fighting it out for the championship glory. This time it was Sri Lanka to join Pakistan in the finals. The tournament had a lot of cherished moments, like Netherlands beating England, Ireland moving into the 2nd round, Shahid Afridi’s magic, Gayle’s destruction, Dilshan’s err.. Dilscoop. Even Angelo Mathews’ wonderful catch in the deep also regarded as volleyball-catch or wateva!



The tournament lived up to millions of expectations; Pakistan defeated SAF in the semis thanks to an Afridi special and the Proteas re-living the “Chockers” tag. Sri Lanka on the other hand defeated West Indies in the other semi-finals courtesy a magical 1st over by Mathews reducing W.I. to 3/1 claiming Marshal, Simmons and Bravo. Md. Aamer did the same but, not exactly. In the final he removed the dangerous Dilshan in the opening over. There by, stealing momentum away from the Islanders. It was a memorable tournament where Pakistan justified their love for the shortest version of the game.

Following the T20 world championship, other cricket was played in the 3rd quarter of 2009. Where SL avenged for their T20 finals loss against Pak winning the ODI’s 3-2 and 2-0 in tests, West Indies lost too many, first against India then the minnows Bangladesh. The West Indies’ cricket board and players had a long tussle which resulted in a second string Windies team taking on the visiting Bangladeshis. This helped the Deshi’s create history winning the tests and ODI series in West Indies. Kiwis toured Sri Lanka only to lose 2-0.



But, it was the mother of all cricketing ties “The Ashes” which stole the thunder. Once again Ricky Ponting failed to win the Ashes in England. This time against Andy Strauss’s side 1-2. The statistics showed a completely different story. Australia over powered England in every aspect of the game. But, the end result was that Ricky Ponting became the second captain of Australia to lose the Ashes twice. Which just made the drawn test at Cardiff very hard to digest, where Monty Panesar the last man in survived 40 mins denying Australia a win. The find of the series were Swann and Broad, for their brilliant work with the ball and some crucial knocks with the bat.

So, that’s that in the third and most entertaining quarter of 2009. In the final quarter we saw the NatWest series, Champions Trophy, Champions League and more. All that until, we bring you on sloshedcricket keep chanting “WAH”.