Group B of the 2010 World Twenty20 in the Caribbean was a tricky one - you had last year's finalists Sri Lanka, you had New Zealand, one of the most experienced teams in Twenty20 cricket, and the wild card team, Zimbabwe, who have made significant strides towards re-establishing themselves as a world-class cricket team. Adding to the mix was that in the warm-up games, Zimbabwe had defeated last year's winners Pakistan and the best team in the world, Australia. With all bets taken off the table, this group had the potential to be the trickiest.
Group B
Sri Lanka - The team of the tournament last year, Sri Lanka found it difficult to live up to the pressure this time around. The batting sparked, sometimes brilliantly, but more often than not simply fizzed out. Tillekeratne Dilshan and Kumar Sangakkara were inconsistent, Mahela Jayawardene was sublime but failed to give Sri Lanka a winning score in the semi-final, and Sanath Jayasuria was a shadow of his former self. The new crop looked good, but the team on the whole failed to deal with the pressure exerted by opposition bowling attacks, or their own frail batting.
New Zealand - Given New Zealand's experience in Twenty20 cricket, and that they have a powerful lineup, they will be disappointed that they didn't make the semi-finals for the second year running. Brendon McCullum failed to fire, but his brother Nathan impressed on many occasions. New Zealand played well, but not well enough - the victories against Sri Lanka and Pakistan were too small to help their net run rate, and losses to England and South Africa condemned them. Worse was to come, as their star bowler Shane Bond retired from all forms of cricket following his team's unsuccessful World Cup campaign. Being knocked out of the tournament hurt New Zealand, but losing Bond hurt even more.
Zimbabwe - Zimbabwe found themselves in the unfamiliar position of being expected to deliver positive results. They had tested the West Indies in the Twenty20 and 50-over series that preceded the World Cup, and had beat Pakistan and Australia in the warm-up games. There was talk about making a case to return to top-level international cricket, but Zimbabwe failed to deliver: an impressive bowling performance against Sri Lanka came to naught in a rain-affected game, and the batting against New Zealand collapsed to the hapless total of 84 all out. Zimbabwe, like Bangladesh, are a long way from (re-)asserting themselves with performances like these.