Champions League Twenty20 2009 - LIVE TV, PHOTOS,NEWS

How did teams get grouped for the Super Eights? Why is it that India, England and South Africa - who all topped their groups - are lumped together in the Super Eights? Read on to find out.

	Teams in the Super Eights were grouped based on their seedings, and not whether they finished first or second © Getty Images
Related Links Series/Tournaments: ICC World Twenty20

How the first round worked

For the first round, the 12 competing teams were divided into four groups based on their seeding, which depended on their standings in the inaugural World Twenty20 in 2007 (for the teams that took part in it). India, the champions, were seeded first; Pakistan, the runners-up, were seeded second, and the losing semi-finalists Australia and New Zealand third and fourth. The top four seeds were then put in different groups for this tournament.

How the groupings in the Super Eights came about

The teams in the Super Eights are designated A1, A2, B1, B2, C1, C2, D1 and D2; the names denote the group they qualified from and their pre-tournament seeding, NOT their position in the group. For example, Pakistan finished second in Group B but since they went into the tournament with a higher seed, they retain identification B1 while England remain B2 despite topping the group. When the third seeded team in the group knocks out a higher seed - as West Indies did to Australia in Group C - it will take the seeding of the knocked-out opponent. So West Indies are in the Super Eights as C1.

The Super Eights split the teams into two groups of four - A1, B2, C1 and D2 in Group E and A2, B1, C2 and D1 in Group F. Since this was based on the pre-tournament seeding, it has resulted in three group toppers - India, England and South Africa - from the first phase being together.

Each team will play the others in its pool with the top two from each group qualifying for the semi-finals. If teams are tied on points in a Super Eight group then the same parameters which were used to break a tie in the preliminary stage will be used, the difference being that only the Super Eight matches will be taken into consideration for most wins, net run-rate etc.

What if rain plays spoilsport?

If all of the matches of a Super Eight group are ruined by rain, the teams will be ranked on basis of most points, most wins, net run-rate during the group stage and the top two will go through. If the teams still cannot be separated the semi-finalists will be picked based on the original seeding for the tournament.

What if a game ends in a tie?

A one-over eliminator, or Super Over, will be used to break a tie in a semi-final, if one should occur. However, if weather prevents the Super Over from taking place after a tie, the team which progresses to the final will be determined by looking at who has the most wins, better net run-rate, higher number of wickets per balls, the only difference being that this time both group and Super Eight matches will be taken into consideration.

The final, however, has no such provisions. If the final is tied, the match will be decided by a one-over eliminator. If the eliminator cannot take place because of bad weather, then the two finalists will be declared joint winners.

New Zealand 198 for 5 (Redmond 63, Guptill 45*, Styris 42) beat Ireland 115 (Nathan McCullum 3-15) by 83 runs
Scorecard and ball-by-ball details
How they were out

	Aaron Redmond's early blitz gave New Zealand an advantage they never relinquished © Getty Images
Related Links Preview: Golden opportunity for Ireland Player/Officials: Brendon McCullum | Nathan McCullum | Aaron Redmond Matches: Ireland v New Zealand at Nottingham Series/Tournaments: ICC World Twenty20 Teams: Ireland | New Zealand

A spate of injuries forced New Zealand to call up Aaron Redmond to their World Twenty20 squad at short notice and throw him into action straightaway against Ireland in their Super Eights' opener at Trent Bridge. He answered their call with an astonishing innings, piercing gaps in the infield with pinpoint accuracy to blast 63 off 30. His half-century and cameos from Scott Styris and Martin Guptill ensured that a weakened New Zealand did not slip on a banana skin and completed a comfortable 83-run victory.

New Zealand were without three of their best players - Jesse Ryder was ruled out of the tournament with an infection while Ross Taylor and Daniel Vettori had hamstring and shoulder injuries - so they sent an SOS to Redmond, playing in the Bolton League in England. He'd never played a limited-overs international but opening in a World Twenty20 match was a seamless transition.

Wearing shirt No. 48 with the name blacked out, Redmond began by driving a full ball from Peter Connell to the cover boundary, the first in a glut of boundaries. He hit two more fours off Connell's first over towards backward point and third man before turning his attention to Trent Johnston, who was returning after missing the game against India. The first two balls raced to the point and straight boundaries and the last two were dispatched to square leg and midwicket. Redmond had hit seven fours off his first ten balls.

Johnston changed ends but to no avail. Redmond flicked the first ball of Johnston's second over to the midwicket boundary and lofted the second down the ground. Redmond had contributed 40 out of New Zealand's total of 44 when Brendon McCullum finally decided to make an appearance and pulled Kevin O'Brien to hit the tournament's 100th six. However, he failed to clear mid-off while stepping out to Kyle McCallan and holed out soon after.

The focus shifted back to Redmond who brought up his fifty, off 23 balls, by reverse-sweeping McCallan for consecutive fours. He had hit no sixes but had 13 fours. Those who watched him struggle during the Tests in England last year would have been surprised for Redmond managed only 54 runs in three matches on that tour. Those who watched him ransack 100 off 56 balls for Otago against Central Districts in the State Twenty20 in February would not.

Redmond was eventually lbw to Alex Cusack, playing across the line but had done more than enough to set up the innings. Styris made Ireland pay for Regan West's missed caught-and-bowled chance by hammering 42 off 25 balls and Guptill launched the ball into the stands four times during his 45 off 32. New Zealand didn't manage 200, but their total of 198 was beyond the range of Ireland's guns.

Ireland needed a combination of magnificent batting and luck to get near New Zealand and they got neither. Their opener William Porterfield was run out in the first over while backing up too far after Kyle Mills got his fingertips on to Gary Wilson's firm drive before the ball crashed into the stumps. Their best batsman in the win against Bangladesh, Niall O'Brien, dragged a length delivery straight to mid-on in Mills' second over.

A collapse from 15 for 2, though, was averted by a steady partnership between Wilson and Andre Botha but they were unable to match the asking-rate and had reached only 42 by the end of the Powerplay. The blows that sealed Ireland's fate, however, came in the space of four balls. Wilson's attempt to loft Styris over long-off was held by James Franklin and Botha was run out attempting a non-existent single, leaving Ireland on 58 for 4.

The ensuing slide was swift and Ireland lost wickets quickly even as the required run-rate soared to 15 an over and beyond. Nathan McCullum prospered, picking up 3 for 15, while his brother Brendon was outstanding in the infield. He scored direct hits to run out John Mooney and Johnston, and took a sharp catch to his right at midwicket to dismiss Cusack. New Zealand may have appeared weak on paper but their performance at Trent Bridge on the day was anything but.

South Africa 128 for 7 (Smith 33, Butler 2-13) beat New Zealand 127 for 5 (McCullum 57, van der Merwe 2-14) by one run
Scorecard and ball-by-ball details

	Roelof van der Merwe suffocated New Zealand's run-chase with 2 for 14 in four overs © Associated Press
Related Links News: Blow by blow News: South Africa send the right message Bulletin: New Zealand blast their way past Scotland Player/Officials: Ian Butler | Brendon McCullum | Nathan McCullum | Scott Styris | Roelof van der Merwe Matches: New Zealand v South Africa at Lord's Series/Tournaments: ICC World Twenty20 Teams: New Zealand | South Africa

South Africa's bowlers, led by the unhittable spin of Roelof van der Merwe, pulled an improbable victory out of the jaws of defeat as they successfully defended a meagre target of 129 and snuck home by a solitary run to secure the Group D bragging rights in a scrappy but compelling dead-rubber tussle at Lord's.

At the halfway mark of the match, it seemed there could be only one winner, after South Africa had squandered a platform of 47 for 0 after their Powerplay overs to dribble to a disappointing 20-over total of 128 for 7. But New Zealand's response never emerged from second gear. A 54-ball 57 from Brendon McCullum set the platform, but his team-mates failed to dive in, and bizarrely they ran out of steam with six wickets still standing.

The bulk of the credit belonged to van der Merwe, who put a momentum-squandering six-ball duck behind him to concede a mere 14 runs from his four overs, as well as capturing both of New Zealand's dangermen. McCullum was stumped by a distance as he gave the charge and missed, while Ross Taylor swished flat-footedly and was bowled for 22 from 31 balls, a peculiarly ponderous innings that was compounded by a tweaked hamstring that hampered his mobility in the second half of his knock.

McCullum had begun his innings with typical belligerence, cracking three fours from his first seven deliveries as New Zealand put 19 on the ball in just two overs. But at the other end, his support was in short supply. Martin Guptill miscued Dale Steyn to mid-on for 5 before Neil Broom was caught and bowled by a lunging Jacques Kallis for 1, and at the end of the Powerplays, New Zealand had slipped to a sluggish 35 for 2.

With the pitch slowing up, the run-rate went with it, and South Africa's spinners took full advantage. Taylor and McCullum added 56 for the third wicket in 11 overs, as van der Merwe and Johan Botha took the pace off the ball to tormenting effect, and by the time Jacob Oram arrived to reinject some urgency, the requirement was hovering around two runs a ball.

The final scoreline was misleadingly tight. New Zealand failed to hit a single six in their innings, and they would not have come close had it not been for a freakish yorker from Steyn that bounced out of a foothole and over the keeper's head for four byes in the penultimate over. With eight needed from two balls, Oram inside-edged through fine leg to keep the contest alive, but couldn't clear the field with his final baseball-style swing.

It was a disappointing denouement for New Zealand, as South Africa successfully defended the lowest winning total ever made in T20Is, but it was vital match practice nonetheless. Deprived of the services of their captain, Daniel Vettori, who has been struggling with a shoulder problem, New Zealand turned instead to the lanky seam of Ian Butler, and the spin and swing of Nathan McCullum and Scott Styris, who sent down a combined analysis that would have graced a 50-over game: 4 for 41 from ten overs.

Fresh from their 130-run dispatching of Scotland in their opening fixture at The Oval, South Africa seemed to have continued in the same vein when Graeme Smith and Kallis cruised to 47 for 0 in the six Powerplay overs. But as soon as Nathan McCullum was thrown the ball by his brother and captain, Brendon, New Zealand applied a tourniquet that the clinical South Africans were unable to remove.

McCullum's first over went for just two runs, and from the start of the very next over, the rot set in. Smith called Kallis through for a quick single as his brother hurtled round to short midwicket to field. The shy beat Kallis's lunch by a fraction of an inch, whereupon Butler denied the incoming Herschelle Gibbs any early momentum by completing an over in which only one run was possible.

Gibbs, in a hurry to impose himself, then mistimed a drive at Styris to be caught-and-bowled for 3 from 7, before Butler chimed in with the biggest wicket of the lot as Smith played all around a full-length delivery and was comprehensively bowled for 33 from 35. At 63 for 3 in the 12th over, their early momentum had well and truly evaporated.

Had the result not been immaterial, there's no way that AB de Villiers, the star against Scotland, would have been held back this long. But the shuffling of the batting card did South Africa no favours. van der Merwe creaked to a six-ball duck before McCullum yorked him with a quicker ball, and when de Villiers finally appeared to belt his second ball through midwicket for four, it was only South Africa's second boundary in seven overs.

It didn't, however, signal an upturn in their fortunes. A second boundary, this time through the covers, demonstrated that de Villiers' eye was most certainly in, but so was Guptill's in the outfield, as he pulled off a direct hit from mid-off to run the dangerman out for 15 from eight balls.

Mark Boucher failed for the second innings running when he mistimed a full-toss to give Butler a deserved second, and not even JP Duminy could inject any urgency. He did his best with a brace of sixes, but then holed out moments after the second of them, caught by Broom at mid-on. Albie Morkel, a serious striker when the mood takes him, was unable to keep the strike in the dying moments of the innings, as New Zealand completed a fine effort in the field. It was not, however, good enough.