World Twenty20 2012

What is so surprising: Just a few weeks ago, South Africa were ranked the #1 team in the world. Yet, they somehow managed to lose all three matches in the group stage of the current global tournament. The South Africans have yet to make it to a World Cup final. For a team that has an awesome win-loss ratio in the last two decades, that's quite disappointing.

Not-so-surprising: Pakistan proving my prediction wrong by winning against Australia. Pakistan have now managed to make it to the semi-finals of all four World Twenty20 tournaments. They are not even close to having the best team in the Test arena but in the shorter game, they have been quite impressive.

Strange: India won the first tournament in 2007 but they haven't managed even a semi-final spot since then. They've got big hitters but, it seems, their bowlers can't contain the opposition. That extremely heavy defeat against Australia a few days ago hurt their chances.

Anyway, a paragraph describing the cluelessness of the Australians:

Australia had secret camps, brought in spinners from across their country, ventured into the desert and took on the beast of Ajmal, all so that they could be ready for this tournament and the wily mystery spinners they would have to handle. They handled the 18 overs of Pakistan spin (it would have been 20 if not for Shoaib Malik getting Mike Hussey treatment) much the same way you would a chest bursting alien popping out.

Ouch.