Sports Pundit
Cricket

Australia v West Indies live World T20 2012

Australia v West Indies live World T20 2012

Two teams with rich history will take on each other in the second match to be played on Saturday.

Two teams with rich history will take on each other in the second match to be played on Saturday.

Australia, having secured a win over Ireland, will be confident playing against West Indies who enter the tournament as favorites, an unfamiliar achievement for them in recent times.

West Indies have a barren history of successes in the past decade or so but this time they enter a tournament with significantly realistic hopes.

Their squad consists of numerous players capable of changing the game single handedly. Chris Gayle, Kieron Pollard, Sunil Narine, Samuel Badree and Dwayne Bravo are just a few of those names.

With such a combination of players, any opposition would be intimidated at first look. Yet it is the poor record of the Caribbean team that gives the opposition a sniff.

Nevertheless, Narine and Badree will look to trouble the Australian batsmen having seen the batsmen’s vulnerability to quality spin in the recent Australia-Pakistan series.

With the bat, the tall and burly Gayle and Pollard can make the pace battery look ordinary but it is their tendency to fall in heaps that they need to overcome.

Australia have constantly reiterated their desire to excel at the format but the results have not always been reflective of that.

Placed just one place above Ireland, their crushing win against the team was ample proof of the flaws in the ICC rankings.

One area where the rankings work perfectly though is the all-rounders rankings. Currently led by Shane Watson by a mile, it is a clear assertion of the dominating form the player has been in.

He imposed himself against Ireland in tremendous style to pick up three wickets before racing his way to a quick half century. But the team will need more than just him to get the better of West Indies.

The match starts at 7.30pm local time.