7 Unforgettable T20 World Cup Moments
In between Ms Dhoni lifting the T20 World Cup trophy for the first time back in 2007 and Aaron Finch doing the same against all odds last year in the UAE, there have been plenty of wonderful World Cup moments to savour.
Here are seven of the best moments in the history of the T20 World Cup!
Yuvraj’s Six Sixes
To hit six sixes in one over is the ultimate achievement for any batsman; you just can’t do any better than that.
The vast majority of batsmen won’t ever come close to doing it and most wouldn’t even think of attempting it, let alone at a World Cup.
Then again, most batsmen aren’t Yuvraj Singh.
In the crucial Super 8s game against England at the 2007 World Cup, Yuvraj was about to face Stuart Broad in the 19th over.
India were already on for a big score when Andrew Flintoff appeared to have words with Yuvraj, presumably in a bid to unsettle him.
First Yuvraj responded verbally, then he responded with the bat.
He hit the hapless Broad for six consecutive sixes to all parts of the ground, becoming at the time just the fourth man ever to do so in international cricket.
Those 36 runs cost England the match, they failed to make the semis and as we all know, India went on to win it - online cricket betting fans in the Union surely won big that day!
Afridi in a Sea of Tranquillity
You don’t get to be nicknamed Boom Boom if there isn’t something a little explosive about your game. And your personality, for that matter.
With Shahid Afridi, it was both.
One of the most explosive six-hitters the game has ever seen, he was an aggressive leg spinner with the ball and possessed a combustible, competitive and at times confrontational manner to go with it all.
But at the 2009 World Cup in England, Afridi was positively in Zen mode.
Quite what skipper Younus Khan and the Pakistan management told him ahead of the semi and consequent final, we don’t know. But presumably, it was something like "we’re going to bat you at three and we want you to see the job through."
So he did.
In the semi against South Africa, he curbed his aggression, scoring 51 off 34 without hitting a single six.
In the final against Sri Lanka he batted at three again (a promotion given he generally came in at seven) and repeated the trick, playing a controlled innings using years and years of experience of being at the crease in international cricket.
This time he remained unbeaten on 54 as Pakistan won the World Cup.
Job done, he quickly reverted to Boom Boom mode as soon as the World Cup was over.
Simmons Parachuted into Mumbai
He wasn’t even meant to be playing. He wasn’t even meant to be in India that week.
But when Andre Fletcher, the top-order West Indian batsman got injured in the lead up to the semi-final against India, the West Indies management asked Lendl Simmons if he could fly into Mumbai straight away and play in the semi-final.
He said he could.
Simmons was a stand-by player after getting injured himself just before the World Cup.
He’d actually played a fair few times at the Wankhede Stadium because he’d represented the Mumbai Indians in the IPL for the two previous seasons.
Chasing a stiff-looking 193 and after a poor start, Simmons came out to bat at four.
An hour or so later he’d scored 82 off 51 when Andre Russell hit the winning runs, with two balls to spare, to send the Windies into the final.
Along the way, he was reprieved on three occasions.
Twice caught off what was then called a ‘no ball’, the third time a superb ‘catch’ on the boundary from Ravindra Jadeja who was then adjudged to have stepped on the boundary rope.
‘Six’ instead of ‘out’.
‘Every cricketer has his day. And today was my day’ he said philosophically.
Devon’s Disgust
Devon Conway was having a good tournament for New Zealand as a middle-order batsman in a successful side, who were facing England in the semi-finals of the 2021 World Cup.
Chasing 167 at Abu Dhabi, he was going well on 46 off 38 with opener Daryl Mitchell also in good touch.
The run rate was under control, they had wickets in hand and chasing was a big advantage the whole tournament.
But when he was out stumped off a Liam Livingstone delivery, Conway let his emotions get the better of him.
As he walked off, disgusted at his dismissal, he punched his bat with his right hand, something hundreds of cricketers had done before him in a moment of frustration.
But this time, it was to prove costly.
Though Mitchell saw the Black Caps home safely in that semi-final, Conway had fractured his fifth metacarpal on his right hand,
The next day Conway was ruled out of the final against Australia. New Zealand lost it.
Marlon’s Revenge
A couple of years previously, Marlon Samuels had had an on-field altercation with the (late) great Shane Warne in a Big Bash match and they’d never made peace after that.
There had also been a few comments in the build-up to the World Cup from English commentator Mark Nicholas, who had given just about every team a chance except the West Indies, who he said they didn’t always play the smartest cricket.
And for good measure, Samuels had major issues with England all-rounder Ben Stokes after there had also been an on-field altercation between Samuels and Stokes in a Test match in the Caribbean.
Warne hadn’t been at his most professional when during ‘on air’ commentary of the semi-final against India, Warne was scathing of Samuels’ dismissal, letting his own dislike of Samuels cloud his judgement somewhat.
So when in the final against England, Samuels was man-of-the-match for his backs-against-the-wall 85 not out, he wasn’t going to mince his words in the post-match interview.
Especially after Stokes had bowled the fateful last over that Carlos Brathwaite famously hit for four sixes.
‘Stokes is a nervous lad. He’s always going to bowl a few full tosses. Stokes…he never learns….Warne, he disrespected me, I don’t know what his problem is with me. Maybe because my face is real and his is not (reference to rumors Warne had undergone plastic surgery).”
Ouch.
Skipper Daren Sammy then went on to make the point that Nicholas’ comments had only served to fuel the West Indies’ fire.
And with that, the revenge was fully complete.
Bowl-out in Durban
You would have thought that international bowlers hitting the stumps from a distance of 20 metres with no batsman in the way, would be something of a given.
Think again.
In the final Group match of the first stage of the 2007 World Cup, India and Pakistan faced off in Durban.
For Pakistan a chance to knock out their bitter rivals, for India a must-win match where defeat would see them crash out.
But where victory would see them through to the next stage.
After 40 overs of play, it was neither.
The match ended in a tie when Misbah Ul-Haq was run out off the last ball of Pakistan’s 20th over.
These were the days before the Super Over existed so with a winner needed to be found after the tie, they proceeded to a ‘bowl out’.
Similar to a penalty shootout in football, three bowlers from each side had to try to hit the stumps with a normal cricket delivery action.
The first thing that was bizarre was that India nominated two non-bowlers among the three they chose to go first: Virender Sehwag and Robin Uthappa.
The second thing that was odd was that those two both hit the stumps despite their lack of bowling practice, as did champion off-spinner Harbhajan Singh.
But Pakistan’s three selected players- Umar Gul, Shahid Afridi and Yasir Afarat- all missed.
India progressed to the next stage and duly went on to beat Pakistan in the final.
Herath Spins a Web Around Black Caps
When T20 cricket was invented, the expectation was big hits, lots of sixes, teams getting to 180 plus runs every game, very much a batsman’s game with bowlers pretty much just making up the numbers.
But when Sri Lanka played New Zealand in a crucial Group match at the 2014 World Cup, it was a very different sort of game to what we were used to.
On a turning, wearing, two-paced pitch in Chattogram in Bangladesh, Brendon McCullum won the toss and decided to bowl first, wanting to know what he had to chase.
Sri Lanka’s uber-experienced Mahela Jayawardene ground his way to 25, while Lahiru Thrimmane managed a useful 20.
But Sri Lanka were all out for 119 and an early exit was on the cards in a tournament where they’d been fancied to go far.
But as the famous saying goes’ don’t judge a pitch until both teams have batted on it’,
New Zealand found batting just as tough and before long, panic set in.
Openers Martin Guptil and Kane Williamson were both run out as frustration set in at how tough the pitch was playing.
McCullum had a rush of blood to the head, charged Rangana Herath and was duly stumped.
Herath was hardly your typical T20 player.
Hair already greying, a few kilos above his fighting weight, he was mostly known for bowling in the final innings of Test matches at home where his nagging accuracy claimed dozens and dozens of wickets.
On a spinning wicket in Chattogram, he was right at home and in the mood.
In the end, he didn’t even need to bowl his four overs because after bowling 3.3 of them, he’d taken 5 wickets for just three runs and New Zealand were all out for just 60.
Like Simmons two years later, this had been Herath’s day and he knew it.
Sri Lanka never looked back and went on to win their first, (and to this day, only) T20 World Cup just a few days later.
At Pure Win, we will be covering every World Cup game in our cricket betting tips so make sure to check back regularly for the hottest predictions and the best winner market odds in India!
