First time for South Africa

Well yesterday South Africa lost to India after a magnificent hundred by India's inform batsman Suresh Raina which is known to everyone whose attention right now is world T20 tournament. At the same time, I think it would be worth quoting the fact that this was South Africa's first loss in the initial round of the world T20 since its start in 2007. South Africa and Pakistan are the only two teams so far who have entered the semi finals of the tournament on two occasions. Of course, Pakistan has made it to the finals of the tournament on two occasions and stands apart from the rest.

In the earlier editions of the world T20 tournament, South Africa had never ever lost even a single match in the initial round of the tournament as said earlier. This had so far been enjoyed only by South Africa and no other team. Even India in 2007 though had not lost a single match in the initial round of the world cup, the match against Scotland was abandoned due to rain and had to be excluded from that list. Then, the West Indies had lost to Sri Lanka in the earlier edition of the same after losing both the games in the inaugural edition of the T20 tournament in 2007.

And then everyone is aware of the way Australia got defeated in both the matches that it played in last year's edition when it lost matches to both Sri Lanka and West Indies shockingly. Even in 2007, Australia had lost a match to Zimbabwe in the initial phase of the tournament before beating England to advance further to the super eights. And then Pakistan had lost a game to India in the inaugural edition after the match got tied and India emerged the better off Pakistan after the bowl out. As mentioned earlier, England had lost a game to Australia in 2007 and to Netherlands in 2009.

Sri Lanka had a similar record when it had wins in both the editions of the T20 world cup when they beat the Kiwis & Kenya in 2007 followed by Australia & West Indies in 2009 until they lost to New Zealand a couple of days back. And after South Africa's loss to India yesterday, even they had to be stripped off their tag of having been priceless in the initial stage of a T20 world cup. The only team that now stands apart from the rest is India who are yet to lose a game in the initial phase of a T20 world cup despite the fact that they had a tie against Pakistan in 2007 and a washout against Scotland the same year.