Reverse Swing

Little wonder the World Twenty20 is dominated by spinners. Why not, if you go through the ICC Twenty20 rankings for bowlers, half of them in the top ten are spinners. A lot of people ask me why?
My answer to them is that batsmen take a chance against the spinners. You can hit fast bowers without taking much risk, you need to use your feet. You can use the pace of the fast bowlers but on spinners you have to use force and because of that spinners are successful.
Spin was the key word in Sri Lanka-NZ contest because it was slow pitch, being used for a successive fourth day in running and the wear and tear on it made it difficult for stroke play. But having said that it needed the experience and the guile of Rangana Herath who recorded an astonishing figures of five wickets for three runs. After Sri Lanka managed just 119, they needed wickets upfront and that were provided by Herath.
It was a master stroke by Sri Lanka to bring in Herath for the unimpressive Ajantha Mendis. Herath showed experience is the key. He proved the notion wrong that you only need youngsters in this shortest format of the game. I think what you need most is the experience and Herath gave that ideal experience to the Sri Lankans. One more experienced player Mahela Jayawardene stayed on the pitch for long to ensure Sri lanka get past 100-run mark and once again that was the key.
For me New Zealand were once again disappointing. They are the perennial under-achievers of the world cricket. Look at the talent they have, so many all-rounders who have been playing IPL and the BPL but they left me disappointed.
I said before the event started that Sri Lanka, Pakistan and India are my favourites. They are playing on the Asian wickets and Sri Lanka have the advantage of playing in Bangladesh for the last three months.
Now we are at the business end of the tournament. So keep fingers crossed for more interesting and hotly contested matches.
The writer is a former Pakistan cricket captain and one of the finest swing bowlers and currently a TV commentator and presenter