Stuart's 20/20 World Cup Series: 13 Group Match Report 7

Game One: Sri Lanka 124/9 v 125/8 Bangladesh - Bangladesh WIN
With two matches played Sri Lanka are pretty much out of this T20 World Cup.

Eager to make up for a dismal batting display against South Africa, Sri Lanka got off to a good start and were over fifty for the loss of only two wickets by the end of the power play. Then things slowed down and it took to the fourteenth over to get to the hundred mark.

Still, it was a solid foundation to launch an attack on the final six overs. Two wickets lost in the fifteenth over, one in the seventeenth, and another two in the nineteenth, destroyed hopes of a challenging total. Too defend 123 was going to require a solid spell of bowling.

Being three wickets down by the end of the power play and a run rate just over 6 per over was a poor start for Bangladesh. A six over sixty run spell stabilised things but only eight runs from the next three overs built pressure. Still, by the time Litton Das falling in the 15th over, they only required another twenty-five runs and, while another three wickets fell, the target was achieved with an over to spare.

Game Two: Afghanistan 159/6 v 75 all out New Zealand - Afghanistan WIN
Crushing a fellow associate nation is one thing, but New Zealand would provide a sterner test. Right?

When Afghanistan lost their first wicket in the fifteenth over they had already scored 103 runs. Not as many as against Uganda, but a fantastic foundation to build on. Another 55 runs were added, but two wickets lost in the 18th over and three in the 20th just kept the final total down.

Finn Allen falling to the first ball of the innings was the perfect portent of what was to come. Another two wickets were lost in the power play, one immediately it had ended, two in the 9th over and now there was little hope of survival. Dragging the game as far as the 16th over was, in terms of the innings, respectable.

The shock level is not quite as high as USA defeating Pakistan, but the manner of Afghanistan's demolition of a former tournament finalist is what to focus on here.

For a second match Gurbaz and Zadran have compiled over 100 runs before one of them being out. Farooqi has now taken 9 wickets in two matches and neither West Indies or Papua New Guinea will be relishing his overs in the matches to come.

Game Three: Netherlands 103/9 v 106/6 South Africa - South Africa WIN

Despite playing at the slowest wicket of the tournament Netherlands avoided the ignominy of failing to score a hundred runs in consecutive matches, just.

A wicket in the first over was joined by one in the fourth and fifth. When the 4th wicket went down in the tenth over Netherlands were moving at about 3 runs per over, par for an average day of Test cricket in these times.

South Africa kep up the pressure and took another two wickets in the 12th over. Netherlands rallied from here and between overs 12 and 19 added 50 runs without losing another wicket, but a commanding final over from South Africa's Ottneil Baartman took 3 wickets and conceded a single run.

South Africa would have been eyeing a commanding win and a huge boost to their run rate.

Things got off to a terrible start when De Kock was run out in the first over, from the first ball. By the end of the power play four wickets were down and only 16 runs had been scored.

But from there calm heads cooled things down and by the time Stubbs was out in the sixteenth over only another twenty-seven runs were required. The loss of Jansen in the 17th over wasn't enough to rock the boat and David Miller's 59 from 51 balls was the lynch-pin which secured the innings and South Africa's second victory.

Game Four:Australia 201/7 v England - Australia WIN
Finally a side in the tournament surpasses 200!

Without a player scoring more than as much as 40, Australia had 7 players get into double figures and four of them got 30 or more. Australia came out and went hard, hitting 70 runs in the first four overs. England did fight back and limiting the final two overs of the power play to 4 runs for two wickets was a good response.

Australia built steadily and when Maxwell was out in the 15th over they'd doubled their power play score. Some solid bowling and a wicket in the 17th over kept the scoring from going wild and, despite being penalised for a slow over rate, England took two wickets and limited Australia to 8 runs.

England, after the washout of their first game, finally got to bat in the tournament. They opened without the bang bang fireworks of Auststralia but, by the end of the power play were zero wickets down and only a little behind the run rate. Things continued in much the same way until England lost their second wicket in the 10th over. At that point England were 9 runs behind Australia's total at the time.

It was the closest they got. Some excellent bowling restricted England to 1's and 2's, and apart from the 14th over, they failed to match Australia's scores from the corresponding over. The life of England's innings was squeezed with the grim relentlesness of an anaconda dealing with its prey.

There are three matches in my time zone tomorrow: Hosts West Indies take on Uganda; Slow paced Nassau County ICS hosts the keenly anticipated India v Pakistan - with a loss for Pakistan almost certain to have them staring at being out in the Group stage; Lastly, Scotland v Oman and Scotland now know a strong win will put them on 5 points, and that's as many as England can get.

Check back tomorrow for reviews & updated boundary totals.

text by stuartcturnbull. graphic by Mir Rammez Raja & edited by stuartcturnbull via postermywall