Expectations of New Zealand at next month’s Twenty20 world championship? Semifinalists.

Think of International Cricket Council-run tournaments and New Zealand “do” last four finishes.

Five times they have made the semifinals at the World Cup; in the Champions Trophy they have their solitary ICC-run tournament victory, in Kenya nine years ago, and a semifinal finish three years ago.

At the inaugural Twenty20 world event in South Africa two years ago, they were at it again, stumbling on the final step.

“It’s an interesting one,” captain Dan Vettori said of New Zealand’s record. “It has positive and negative connotations.

“I think it’s great people perceive us as a team who can make the top four. The negative side is people perceive we can’t get past that. So we’re trying to fight that in this tournament.”

New Zealand assembled in England this week and are working through a series of warmup matches. There have been wins over Bangladesh and Ireland and they play India and Australia in “official” practice games this week before kicking off against Scotland at The Oval next weekend.

New Zealand will make the second stage if they beat the Scots. From that point it gets tougher, as it should. But they have every chance of at least making the semifinals provided they settle on the right formula, pick the right players and take their opportunities.

“If we do get there we have to treat it as another day, get a little excited about it but realise we’ve still got to play the game that got us there,” Vettori said yesterday. The leadup is a chance for players to push their case. However, Vettori reckons he has his first choice XI in mind, with one position still open.

The candidates for that No 7 batting spot include Neil Broom, Peter McGlashan, James Franklin, Nathan McCullum and Brendon Diamanti, all batsmen capable of pushing the pace.

Vettori is excited by the possibilities out of the top four batting lineup - a settled quartet of Brendon McCullum, Jesse Ryder, Martin Guptill and Ross Taylor - and with the expectation that Kyle Mills gets over a dicky back, expects his bowlers to do a solid job.

Mills and allrounder Jacob Oram are the players who spring to mind when thinking of injuries. However, while Mills didn’t get to roll his arm at all for the Mumbai Indians, Oram played 11 games in the Indian Premier League for the semifinalists Chennai.

This week, Australian coach Tim Nielsen said it was time Twenty20 was treated seriously rather than the frivolous wild-child younger sister of the more established versions of the game.

Vettori reckons that happened a while ago. “For most international players, during that [first] Twenty20 World Cup there was a realisation of how big a tournament it was and also how much fun it was.”

ROAD TO GLORY

New Zealand at the Twenty20 world championship: (NZT)

Warmups

* Tuesday: v India, Lord’s
* Wednesday: v Australia, The Oval

Pool play
(in group D, top two qualify for Super 8):

* Saturday: v Scotland, The Oval
* June 10: v South Africa, Lord’s

Super 8 round
(if NZ qualify)

* June 12: v Bangladesh (probable), Trent Bridge
* June 14: v Pakistan (probable), The Oval
* June 17: v Sri Lanka, The Oval
* June 18-21: Semifinals, final
* New Zealand squad: Dan Vettori (c), Brendon McCullum, Martin Guptill, Jesse Ryder, Ross Taylor, Scott Styris, Neil Broom, Jacob Oram, Nathan McCullum, Brendon Diamanti, Kyle Mills, James Franklin, Peter McGlashan, Ian Butler, Iain O’Brien.

Asian pay-broadcaster ESPN Star Sports (ESS) India has sold Rs2.2 billion of television advertising time for the upcoming Twenty20 Cricket World Cup.

The Asian Sponsorship News website reports that Advertisers who have bought time on ESPN’s Star Cricket channel include Reliance ADA Group, Pepsi, Reebok, Hewlett Packard, Maruti Suzuki, Perfetti, Nokia, Adani Group, Visa, and Max New York Life.

ESS India said starting its advertising sales early had greatly contributed to the positive outcome.

Luke Wright is determined to put Sussex on course for the Twenty20 Cup quarter-finals before switching his attentions to World Twenty20 glory.

The Sussex all-rounder was in superb form with bat and ball as the Sharks bounced back from their opening day defeat at Hampshire to beat Surrey at the Oval on Tuesday.

The 24-year-old smashed 58 and then took 1-18 from his four overs to press his claims for a place in the England side when they take on Scotland in a warm-up game on Tuesday. His hopes of forcing his way into the starting 11 were boosted by the news that all-rounder Andrew Flintoff has been ruled out of the World Twenty20 due to a knee injury.

Wright said: “I’m really excited about the World Cup. It is going to be an amazing experience but I want to help get Sussex in a great position when I leave to join up with England. That would be the ideal scenario and I know that if I play well for Sussex it will also help my chances of being in the England side.”

Yuvraj Singh hitting six sixes in an over, Zimbabwe’s shock victory over Australia, the bowl-out between India and Pakistan, Chris Gayle’s blistering 117 off 57 balls and Misbah-ul-Haq’s dramatic last-over dismissal in the final - just a few of the highlights from the hugely successful inaugural ICC World Twenty20 held two years ago in South Africa.

Now the tournament is back and its happening right here! The most exciting cricketers in the world are arriving in the UK ready to compete in the second World Twenty20 - and you will be able to follow all the action on the BBC.

We will be providing ball-by-ball commentary on every match in the competition on BBC Radio, with games shared between Five Live, Five Live Sports Extra and Radio Four Long Wave (Ed’s note: there will be live text commentaries on all the major matches on the BBC Sport website) - and every evening of the competition there will also be highlights on BBC Television.

This year, the world’s top female cricketers will also be part of the action as theyu take part in the first ICC Women’s World Twenty20, which runs alongside the men’s event.

After their impressive World Cup victory in Australia earlier this year, Charlotte Edwards and her England team will start the tournament as firm favourites in what could be the second part of a amazing treble, with the Ashes to come later in the summer.

BBC Radio will have commentary on the semi-finals and final of the women’s Twenty20 as well as coverage of England’s group matches in Taunton.

Our team covering both competitions will be led by our cricket correspondent Jonathan Agnew, who will be joined by the likes of Simon Hughes, Arlo White, Simon Mann, Mark Pougatch, Alison Mitchell and Kevin Howells, plus Tony Cozier, Glen Mitchell from ABC Radio and John Kenny for matches involving West Indies, Australia and Ireland.

Providing expert analysis will be a varied team from all over the world.

Former Australia fast bowler Geoff Lawson, who coached Pakistan to the final of the 2007 World Twenty20, will be with us throughout the tournament along with Indian legend Sunil Gavaskar, former West Indies Test star Ian Bishop and ex-New Zealand captain and TMS favourite Jeremy Coney.

One of cricket’s great one-day innovators, Dermot Reeve, will be also be part of our team. Reeve was a member of the last England side to reach a world final in 1992 and has recently been working as a specialist Twenty20 coach for the New Zealand team.

We’ll also be joined by England’s most capped player Alec Stewart, the ever popular Phil Tufnell and the former England and Scotland all-rounder Dougie Brown.

Our coverage of the tournament gets under way with commentary on the warm-up matches between England and Scotland on 2 June and England and West Indies the following day. Both matches will be on Five Live Sports Extra from 1730.

Then on Friday 5 June make sure you join Jonathan Agnew and the team on Radio Four Long Wave and Five Live Sports Extra from 5.00pm for the opening ceremony and the first game of the tournament between England and the Netherlands - and watch the highlights on BBC 2 from 11.35pm

The West Indies enjoyed a brief spot of joy in their hitherto dismal series against England where they won nothing; either their tests or ODIs, the English giving them a sound drubbing in each match. Now however the West Indies team has managed to make a positive start to their pre T20 World Cup campaign with a win over Scotland.
Now after the IPL international cricket has turned its focus on to the upcoming T20 World Cup to start next month in England. The subject matter of interest in the cricket news are the results of the warm up matches of the World Cup that is due to start in a matter of days.

For the West Indians, it was a faceoff with Scotland that resulted in a win starring Dwayne Bravo, who continued his good form from the DLF IPL 2009. Bravo made 52 off just 30 balls and set the stage for his team’s win over the Scottish team. Darren Sammy took 3 wickets in his three overs to squash any dreams that Scotland may have had of winning their warm up tie.

Meanwhile Bangladesh were victorious in their game against Netherlands after having earlier lost to New Zealand and would have been reassured by their win. Thanks to some match winning knocks of 69 from Mohammed Ashraful and Mahmudullah’s 54, Bangladesh managed a to get to a 206 for the loss of 6 wickets which proved to be too much for the Netherlands by far, who were all out for 142 with more than three overs to go. The fact that Bangladesh managed to get to such an impressive score would itself be a very encouraging factor for the team.

Meanwhile Ireland took on the PCA Master’s XI which is made up of former English cricket players such as Philip DeFreitas and Darren Gough. Keiron Pollard who is a current player of international cricket for the West Indies also is part of the PCA team and managed to make a good impact with bat as well as ball. He made 43 runs from 26 balls and took two wickets as well. Among the Irish it was John Mooney who impressed with his 57 off 43 balls.

All the international cricket playing nations are currently busy preparing for the upcoming T20 World Cup. A cheerful Indian team was seen posing for their squad photos today and the Australian team also arrived in England yesterday on a rather low key note considering that they will be in England for some considerable amount of time for the T20 World Cup as well as the subsequent Ashes series.

Pakistan captain Younus Khan is confident his team can go one better in the World Twenty20 after finishing runners-up last time to bitter rivals India.

Two years ago, Pakistan lost a nailbiting final against India by five runs in Johannesburg, a loss that Younus insists his team is eager to put behind them.

“We want to win the title,” said Younus. “We have the talent, but it’s a tough competition where other eleven teams will do their best to finish at the top.”

Pakistan are in Group B, along with hosts England and the Netherlands, in first round of the competition which runs from June 5-21.

They take on England June 7 before facing the Netherlands two days later.

The second round Super Eight stages should give Pakistan an easy draw with likely rivals being New Zealand, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.

But Younus is not taking any team lightly.

“We need to be at our best even against the Netherlands because no team is small or big,” said Younus who was referring to Pakistan’s defeat to Ireland at the 2007 World Cup in the Caribbean which sent them packing from the tournament.

That defeat was the start of a dark chapter in Pakistan’s cricket history.

Coach Bob Woolmer died at the tournament while captain Inzamam-ul-Haq retired.

Shoaib Malik, who was handed the captaincy after Younus refused to lead the team, restored some normalcy by taking Pakistan to the runners-up spot at the inaugural World Twenty20.

Malik then lost the captaincy after Pakistan’s one-day defeat against Sri Lanka earlier this year. That led to Younus taking over the hot seat.

Under Younus, Pakistan lost 3-2 to Australia in a recent one-day series in the United Arab Emirates, but won the one-off Twenty20 match.

Younus said Pakistan’s preparations have been satisfactory.

“We beat Australia in the Twenty20 match which was a good morale booster and then had a good conditioning camp and some practice matches which tuned us well for England,” said Younus, whose team has the best win ratio in all Twenty20.

Pakistan have won eight of their 11 internationals with two defeats and one tied match.

Pakistan will heavily rely on paceman Umar Gul who has taken the most wickets (24 in 14 matches) in this newest form of the game and with injury-prone Shoaib Akhtar pulled out of the team, his responsibility has increased.

Rao Iftikhar, who replaced Akhtar in the squad, Sohail Tanvir, Yasir Arafat and rookie paceman Mohammad Aamir complete the fast bowling line-up.

The 17-year-old Aamir is tipped to surprise with his speed and swing in English conditions.

Shahid Afridi, Saeed Ajmal and Shoaib Malik lead the the spin department which has the ability to stop runs and take wickets.

Off-spinner Ajmal received a boost ahead of the event when his action was cleared by the International Cricket Council.

Younus hoped his own batting form improves to help lift an otherwise inconsistent line-up which also has opener Salman Butt, Misbah-ul-Haq, Malik Afridi and in-form Kamran Akmal..

Southall Travel will sponsor Sky Sport’s exclusive live coverage of the International Cricket Council’s Twenty20 World Cup in June.

Sales director Jaymin Borkhatria hopes the travel agency will benefit from extensive coverage due to the anticipated popularity of the competition.

Borkhatria said: “This sponsorship is a major investment in building our brand as we continue to expand our business. We expect Sky Sports to have a huge audience.

“Twenty20 is hugely popular and with many international cricket stars taking part I’m sure this tournament will be a classic.”

The competition will see 12 international teams converge on England, with matches taking place at Lord’s and The Brit Oval in London, and Trent Bridge in Nottingham.

Kumar Sangakkara said his team would make a “very strong impact” on the Twenty20 World Cup with less pressure on it to perform in this format. The tournament, which begins next week in England, marks Sangakkara’s maiden tour as captain since taking over from Mahela Jayawardene, and the team’s return to cricket following the Lahore attack in March.

“I don’t think there is as much pressure on us in the T20 format as an international side as when we play Test cricket and one-day cricket. It is still a format that we are exploring but I think with the side we have, we have a great opportunity to make a very strong impact,” Sangakkara said before his team’s departure for London on Thursday.

Sri Lanka are with Australia and West Indies in Group C, which Sangakkara described as the group of death but also pointed to the opportunities it presented. “You’ve got to win at least one game. But at the end of the day you have to beat the best sides in the world to qualify in a tournament. We’ve just got to take our chances,” he said. In the inaugural Twenty20 World Cup in South Africa in 2007, Sri Lanka came through unbeaten in their group and qualified for the Super Eight before being eliminated.

Sangakkara said he believed the side had the right balance for the tournament and was confident his sometimes inconsistent batting line-up would play its part in their success. “I am definitely confident of the batting we have. You take Tillakaratne Dilshan, Sanath Jayasuriya, Mahela Jayawardene, Jehan Mubarak, Chamara Silva and myself – we’ve got great batting talent to represent the country in a World Cup. “A hundred and twenty balls is a long time. Even though Twenty20 cricket seems short it is not really that short when you are batting. If you plan your innings right and hopefully execute it on that day any score over 150 would be a very competitive one.”

Sri Lanka’s bowling line-up, he said, was one of the best in the tournament. “There is Nuwan Kulasekera, who is number one in the world, Murali, Ajantha Mendis, Thilan Thushara and Lasith Malinga who has come back so strongly. It’s a great mix but at the end of the day it doesn’t matter what you have, you’ve got to walk the walk basically to really get on the field and perform well,” he said. Sri Lanka have included Angelo Mathews and Farveez Maharoof in the squad, and Sangakkara feels one of them could fill the vacant all-rounder spot. “Angelo is a batting all-rounder and Maharoof, a bowling all-rounder. One of them has got the ability to put their hands up and become that all-rounder that all sides are looking for and one we haven’t had for a long time.”

Indika de Saram comes into the side after a long time on the back of some very good domestic performances and Sangakkara described Isuru Udana as an exciting prospect with his change-up. “He was the best performing bowler in the domestic tournament from what I have seen”, he said. Sri Lanka begin their campaign on June 8 against Australia at Trent Bridge and take on West Indies two days later at the same venue in Group C. agencies

 Former Proteas coach Eric Simons believes that South Africa will walk away with this year’’s ICC World Twenty20 trophy.

South Africa’’s first match of the tournament is against Scotland to be played at the Oval in London on June 7, and Simons feels the balance of the squad makes them a dangerous opponent.

“I think we have a very good chance in the tournament. One of South Africa’’s strengths, in all cricket, has been the good balance in the team, with good batting, bowling and all rounders and that carries through to the T20 squad,” Simons told SuperCricket.

Not surprisingly Simons feels that South Africa’’s biggest challenge will come from defending champions India and the always-competitive Australia. He feels if South Africa has a weakness, it is the lack of genuine death bowlers in the squad.

“You have to find ways of bowling at the death. The bowlers from overs 17 to 20 have to take responsibility.

“(Dale) Steyn, if he is firing, could probably bowl two of those overs and I think the spinners, someone like Roelof van der Merwe, will play an important role but the death bowling is a concern. You don”t have someone like Charl Langeveldt to do the job,” Sports 24 quoted Simons, as saying.

Simon was the bowling coach of the Bangalore Royal Challengers, the beaten finalists in the recently concluded Indian Premier League (IPL).

Simons feels that playing in the IPL helped South African players to realise what their role in T20 cricket is.

“Individuals have grown tremendously. People are still confused about players” roles in T20, but playing in the IPL, helped a lot of guys realise that they could play their own game.

“Someone like Jacques Kallis realised that he has a role to play in T20 cricket but obviously that applies to all the other countries (players) as well.”

What would you do, if your team needed 21 runs of the last over? Well sometime back Yusuf Pathan would have been an instant solution for such a situation. But Team India now has another finisher in their ranks, and this significant quality makes Rohit Gurunath Sharma Dhoni’s trump card for this year’s T20 World Cup.

One shouldn’t have been surprised of Rohit’s finishing act, as it was in this very format the Mumbaikar shot into prominence.

Rohit’s unbeaten 40 ball 50 against South Africa in the 2007 T20 World Cup came before his IPL blitzkriegs. The 22 year old who took on the mantle at 61/4 powered India into the semi-finals with his match-winning innings.

A gifted player, conventional in style but contemporary in approach, Rohit’s highlight in this year’s IPL has been his adaptability and the manner in which he has shouldered responsibility.

Rohit has shifted gears depending on the situation and the one fifty in his 16 matches elaborates the manner in which he has paced his innings.

So when he hit 32 runs in 13 balls, Rohit pulled off an improbable victory hitting 22 runs of the last over of the match. Kolkata fell victim to another annihilation act, but such has been this maverick’s domination in the death that it has shifted momentum in the space of one over.

362 runs at a strike rate of over hundred with a healthy average of close to 28 only magnifies on the role the vice-captain has played coming at No.5.

While the purists believe this 22 year old has the extra half a second when he plays his shots, they would now admit that in Rohit’s armory there also exists the horizontal shots as well as the long handle which he uses at will.

At 22, one can expect Rohit to be a little moody and rash at the best of times and despite his match winning capability this free spirit does get carried away.

Soon after his heroics against Kolkata, Rohit was confronted with a similar situation against Kings XI Punjab, but needlessly fell to an irresponsible shot as Chargers lost from a winning position.

This tendency has annoyed his coaches over the years, and Rohit will need to curb his aggression and approach the situation with a thinking cap as India look to defend their crown in England.

But even if Rohit has a bad outing with the bat, don’t discount him out of the match. The Mumbai all-rounder is building a reputation as a bowler even as he chipped in with 11 wickets in the IPL.

A hat-trick against Mumbai Indians only means that this talent takes his bowling seriously, and he could well play the role of a game breaker as Dhoni will look to utilise the handy tweakers of Rohit and Raina in this T20 World Cup.

One area which is turning out to be Rohit’s domain is the cover region within the 30 yards circle. And what’s been a delight to watch is that it’s a fitter Rohit Sharma, who’s shown more agility adding to his lightening fast reflexes in the field.

IPL has brought to fore this impact players’ hidden talent, strengths and capabilities. And every Indian would only hope that India’s latest match winning sensation carries on the good work and the form into the T20 World Cup.

So watch out for Rohit who has now become an indispensable commodity in Dhoni’s scheme of things for T20 world cup; and expect the Indian captain to make optimum use of his new and ever improving utility player, the phenomenon called Rohit Sharma.