A curious feeling: win, England, T20, world [reshuffle as appropriate]

It's how all tournaments should be, and not just because England, you know... won [still seems strange to be writing those words]. It was succinct, sharp and progressive on and off the field. T20 is a subtly different to time last year, more understood by players and coaches and driven ever forwards by some quite extraordinary skills.

If you want to obscure brilliance, hide it in plain sight. In 1979, as a young pup, I went the England v West Indies world cup final at Lord's with my dad. We watched from under the clock in the old Compton Stand as West Indies, led by King Viv's 138 and Collis King's brutal, forgotten 86, got the total to 286 in 60 overs. Back then, a score like that looked like the sheer ice cliffs of Everest [England lost by 92 runs].

That's how much the game has changed. It was fitting, as this new hurricane of power settled in to stay, that the man who kick-started the modern one day game, Sanath Jayasuriya, most likely took his leave. The old fella's an MP now, a venerable man, yet - as Joe Frazier's trainer said to Joe after the 14th round in Manila - 'it's over, but no-one will ever forget what you did'. In the golden glow of hindsight, Sri Lanka in '96 lit the way.

So as the game speeds ever on - England start a Test match next week - we should sit for a minute and reflect on the pace of change, demonstrated as much by England's development as by anything else. Here's the player-by-player:

Michael Lumb
137 runs at 19.57, SR 141.23, HS 33
If ever you need an example of stats meaning everything and nothing, look at Lumb. He didn't score heavily, but he was all about intent. A Hayden-sized unit, brutal straight and square, his mindset never altered. He places the correct value on his wicket. Some newspaper writers do not fully understand this yet, but they will... England's tone setter.

Craig Kieswetter
222 runs at 31.71, SR 116.84, HS 63
When KP went home for the birth of little KP, he watched a bit of England's third super-eight game on TV. He noted how still Kieswetter kept his head - the true mark of batsmanship. His hitting is thrilling, and he hits in complimentary areas to Lumb, making bowling plans a nightmare. All he needs to do is learn how to knock a single.

Kevin Pietersen
248 runs at 62.00, SR 137.77, HS 73*
Anyone watching the IPL would have been unsurprised by Pietersen's resurrection. Yes, he's recaptured his game, as he said in every interview. But he now understands absolutely what it is to bat at three in T20 cricket. The position is his. Indelibly, he confronted and destroyed the tournament's two fastest bowlers, Shaun Tait and Dale Steyn - mental disintegration in practice.

Paul Collingwood
61 runs at 10.16, SR 103.38, HS 16
Forget the form, what he gave and gained is priceless. Earned that MBE now, hasn't he...

Eion Morgan
183 runs at 36.60, SR 128.87, HS 55
The freak. Witness the joy of the new. Has ice in his blood too. When people ask if he can play Test cricket or not, just remember that they didn't believe KP could, either. It's peculiarly English to be suspicious of a] talent and b] change. Morgan embodies both.

Luke Wright
90 runs at 30.00, SR 123.28; 1 over, BB 1-5, Econ 5.00
That over is worth a mention - Wright showed nerve, and got Cameron White with a thoughtful wider ball. There's a case for having a full-on batter at six. Wright needs to accept the challenge and become one.

Michael Yardy
20 overs, BB 2-19, Econ 6.80; 8 runs at 4.00, SR 114.28, HS 8*
An inspired selection. Just goes to show that there is something endlessly weird about a bloke who runs up slow and bowls faster than you'd think. It's been working forever.

Tim Bresnan
22 overs, BB 1-20, Econ 7.18; 41 runs at 21.50, SR 136.66, HS 23*
The Michael Lumb of our bowlers - set the tone. He's a million miles from Botham but he has something of Beefy's clarity of approach.

Graeme Swann
22 overs, BB 3-24, Econ 6.54; 9 runs at --, SR 112.50, HS 7*
Well he won't shut up now, will he? Nor should he. There's wonderful skill to what he does, and bravery too. England's outstanding bowler.

Stuart Broad
20.5 overs, BB 2-21, Econ 6.72
Ian Chappell slaughtered Broad on commentary in the final, and you could kind of see his point. Plenty of teams would not tolerate the attitude, whatever he delivers. But the flip side of his moaning is the ballsy nature that had him catching Cameron White after making an arse of himself under a skier a few balls before.

Ryan Sidebottom
21.3 overs, BB 3-23, Econ 7.44
It would be churlish to cavil - Sidders pulled it round - but he still looks England's most collarable bowler. Hard to see him keeping Jimmy Anderson out for much longer, especially in the sub-continent at the 50-over world cup, but Ryan, we'll always have Barbados...

Best story of the tournament: Afghanistan

The OB All-star XI:

1. Mahela Jayawardene [SL]
2. Craig Kieswetter [Eng]
3. KP [Eng]
4. Umar Akmal [Pak]
5. Eion Morgan [Eng]
6. Cameron White [Aus]
7. Daniel Vettori [NZ]
8. Mitchell Johnson [Aus]
9. Graeme Swann [Eng]
10. Stuart Broad [Eng]
11. Dirk Nannes [Aus]

The enemy that will not die

England's equipment checklist for sunday:

Bats

Balls

Pads/Helmets

Protective gear

Boots

Clothing

Silver bullets

Stakes [to be driven through hearts]

Garlic

Ensure the Kensington Oval is a] consecrated ground b] built on a crossroads

Juggernauts

As anyone who works out or knows anything about bodybuilding understands, there is one immutable law of muscle. To make it grow, you must break it down, destroy its fibres. Stressed to failure, it responds by getting stronger.

If you get it right, if you're genetically blessed and chemically enhanced and fed and watered just so, if you're prepared to let a single goal consume your life, you might end up something like this fella. This is Ronnie Coleman, an eight time winner of the Mr Olympia title, winning in 2003. It was a year when Coleman's mighty rule had come under challenge, and he responded by hiding away at his gym in Arlington, Texas for 12 months before reappearing on stage in Vegas carrying more muscle than perhaps any human being ever has. In 2003, Ronnie Coleman was intergalactically huge. He blew the rest of the world away.

The Australian T20 side put me in mind of Ronnie Coleman the other day. Stressed to failure, they have responded by growing stronger. They've reappeared in the West Indies juiced up, oiled and loaded, formidably freakish at the top of the order in both batting and bowling. They're carrying some serious muscle and they're blowing the world away.

T20 cricket is slowly being ramped to extremes. Who knows where it will end. At the outer limits of speed and power, probably. Can anyone stop Australia this time? Oddly, maybe Pakistan, with their left-field, out there wildcards, stand a better chance than those who would fight fire with fire. One thing's for sure: the rest will respond to muscle with more muscle next time. There's no going back from here.

Many a true word...

David Lloyd during commentary on England v South Africa:

'That was the slow bouncer again. Or the long hop, as it used to be called.'

The freaky future: a sneak preview

A while ago, I blogged that one of the coming developments in T20 would be a bloke who runs up, bowls four overs at 150kph and goes home. Doesn't play ODIs, doesn't play Tests.

Yesterday, it began. Tait and Nannes gave India more than they could handle. On a quickish pitch, they were brutal. Now, where can we find a few more like them?

Sidders and England, sitting in a tree...

According to Nick Knight on TV last night, the England management have got 'a soft spot' for Ryan Sidebottom. You don't say.

Sidebottom exerts a mysterious hold upon their imaginations. In the nets, he's the bowling equivalent of Michael Vaughan. On the pitch, he's been creamed by Chris Gayle and Niall O'Brien. He's only bowled a couple of overs. He's keeping Jimmy Anderson out of the side, having recently displaced Graham Onions from the Test team.

What is the secret of Sidders' selection success? Answers on a postcard...

2 + 2 = 30 off 3.4 overs

Chris Gayle doesn't seem like the kind of bloke who's spent too much of his spare time hunched at the kitchen table chewing on his pencil and trying to calibrate the perfect system for calculating revised targets in cricket matches affected by rain.

Yet he and the rest of the world have worked out that Duckworth Lewis doesn't cut it in T20. The reason for that is because they're still using the 50 over calculations sheet in an entirely different format.

Still, the ICC have only had a year to ask D-L to re-work things, and it's not as if there's much T20 cricket being played around the world, so it's probably something they can leave for a while longer...