Rampant Gayle and Yuvraj set the standards

(Group C, The Oval):
West Indies 172-3 beat Australia 169-7 by seven wickets

(Group A, Trent Bridge:)
India 180-5 beat Bangladesh 155-8 by 25 runs

You don’t need Twenty20 vision to see the difference between Chris Gayle and others, and the same could be said about Yuvraj Singh as both helped thier respective teams to what was some rather comprehensive victory.

David Warner hit a well constucted innings of 63 to help Australia put 170 on the board, after they were 15-3 at one point, but the target was not a daunting one, especially for Chris Gayle. In the Windies reply, Gayle hit the first and third ball for four as some poor Australian bowling was punished, as both Brett Lee and Mitchell Johnson were far too expensive.

Gayle hit a match winning 88 of 50 balls, and was well backed up by opening partner Andre Fletcher (53 off 32). Gayle smashed six fours and six sixes including one blow hich went back 105 metres. West Indies won the game with more than four overs to spare.

Yuvraj hit a rapid 41 off 18 to give India a comfortble win as his bludgeoning innings included three fours and four sixes. Guatam Gambhir hit a watchful, but important 50 as India posted 180 in their 20 overs.

Bangladesh’s reply was tame as they finished 25 runs short, only Junaid Siddique offering some resistance with a quickfire 41 of 22 balls.

At the end of the day, it was the innings of both Gayle and Yuvraj Singh which almost certainly won the game for both teams.