After 28 days of some breathtaking and heartstopping action, England walked out with the silverware of World T20 for a second time after beating Pakistan in the grand finale. This T20 world cup will go down as one of the most memorable editions as 15 nations out of participating 16 won at least a single game. We saw tremendous knocks, fabulous spells of bowling, gritty fightbacks and unreal upsets during the four weeks of the tournament. So let’s find out what are the most memorable or the most shocking games of the tournament which took place down under.
Eagles hand Sri Lanka a shock loss to begin the tournament
The reigning Asian Champions Sri Lanka came into this tournament hoping to better their last year’s performance with all the momentum in the world. But the eagles had other ideas, they completely demolished Sri Lanka’s momentum on the first day of the tournament by beating them not by just a whisker, but by a comprehensive margin of 55 runs. When the Namibian skipper took that final catch to dismiss Dushmantha Chameera and the celebration that followed with a lot of emotions on display was certainly a moment to remember for a long time for the Namibian fans and cricket fans all around the globe.
Two time Champions bids adieu early
When it comes to T20 cricket, the West Indian cricket team has created a lasting legacy. Not only because they are two time world champions or because they had some legendary t20 players like Chris Gayle, Marlon Samuels, Andre Russell, Keiron Pollard but also because of their charismatic presence, the colourful celebrations and dances. But this time around, we didn’t see any of that. The giants of the format were eliminated early in the tournament after losing to Scotland and Ireland in the very first round. All we saw from the West Indies were the dejected faces of Jason Holder, Nicholas Pooran and Rovman Powell. How the former two time champions bounce back from this downfall will be an interesting story for the future !
● Curran sets the tone with ball, Stokes takes England to title
● Sri Lankan spin wizard becomes world’s top-ranked T20I bowler
● Sri Lanka Cricket investigating ‘various alleged incidents’ during T20 World Cup
● Notes on Sri Lanka’s disappointing World Cup campaign
Zimbabwe stun Pakistan in a last over thriller
Zimbabwe, a force to be reckoned with in the yesteryear is slowly finding their footing once again. This got further proved when they went on to beat Pakistan by 1 run to rattle the campaign of the eventual runner ups. In a low scoring affair, Zimbabwe had to defend 131 and at the halfway mark it looked like an impossible task but their bowlers were consistent in their approach and took crucial wickets whenever Pakistan tried to breakaway. With 11 runs needed in the final over, Brad Evans bowled an exception over and their fielding did the rest as Regis Chakabva although fumbled the ball, managed to dislodge the stumps to prevent Shaheen Shah Afridi from making his ground to make it a tied encounter in the last ball. With this win Zimbabwe looked well on their way to book a semi final spot, but unfortunately lost a close game to Bangladesh and to the lower ranked Dutch team.
Ireland and rain spoils the English party
Ireland whenever going head to head against the England team seems to be just levelling up for that day only. Maybe it’s the need to beat the neighbours, to show they have a better team than people think they have, or simply they are still not happy about poaching their best white ball cricketer Eoin Morgan some years back. Anyway this year, once again the Irishman came out all guns blazing against the eventual champions England and walked out with a win with some assistance from the rain. Some may say, Moeen Ali and Liam Livingstone would’ve taken them over the line but from the game time we saw live, Ireland played the better brand of cricket hands down. Ireland who were in a group filled with former champions and finalists were dubbed as the giant killers and they did exactly that by beating England which is why this is one of the best moments of the whole tournament.
The Dutch went home, but not alone
Whenever a lower ranked side is facing a higher ranked side, there’s always a certain vibe surrounding that match isn’t it ? Maybe because I’m a fan of underdog stories but it’s always nice to see an associate nation winning against a test nation. The Dutch did that this year not once but twice. Earlier they beat Zimbabwe and then the big one was their win against the Proteas which ended their journey in the tournament. Coming into their final group encounter, a win against the Dutch would’ve booked their spot in the semi finals of the tournament, but as always South Africa faltered when it mattered the most as they lost to Netherlands by 13 runs. This is one of the most famous wins for the Dutch which is ranked right on top with their wins against England at the global tournament in 2009 and 2014. With this win Netherlands also managed to book their spot as an automatic qualifier for the 2024 edition of the T20 world cup which makes this win even more special.
