ICC World Twenty20 will kick off on June 5th. Warm up matches were organized as a launch pad for the teams participating in the tournament. In the warm up matches, Defending Champions India lost against New Zealand but thrashed Pakistan by 9 wickets. There poor form against New Zealand in this Twenty20 format will be a worrying factor for Team India as they might meet the same team again at a later stage in the tournament. Last year’s runner-up Pakistan had a bad time, losing both their warm up matches to South Africa and India. But more than the defeats, the way they lost their matches will hurt them more. They went down without a fight in both their matches. Australians kick started their campaign by batting Bangladesh out of the match, scoring 231 and then winning their next match against arch rivals New Zealand comfortably. New Zealand started on high by beating World Champions India but they couldn’t continue their good form, going down to Australia.
Hosts England won both their matches without sweating much. Sri Lanka’s recent poor form in limited overs format continued as they won a close game against Bangladesh but were beaten comprehensively by South Africa. South Africa played 3 warm up matches and won them all comfortably. They might be a serious contender for this World Twenty20 cup. But they always enter any ICC tournament as favorites but they crumble under pressure and will go out of the tournament. Let us see if this year’s tournament will be any different for them. West Indies thrashed Scotland by 9 wickets but were hammered by England by the same margin in their next match. Bangladesh lost both their matches but they really showed fighting spirit in both those matches indicating that they cannot be taken lightly. Of the minnows Ireland were the most impressive showing tough fight and beating Netherlands in a super over. Netherlands too won a match against Scotland. But Scotland were poor in both their warm up matches losing them both.
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