Over the years, the ICC T20 World Cup has produced some great contests - dominating the landscape with some entertaining, exciting cricket played by some of the best players of the modern era.
There have been moments of individual brilliance, extraordinary displays of team dynamics in matches that have defied the odds. Upsets, huge totals being chased and low scoring thrillers.
However, these 5 matches will forever remain in the fans' memory, just like the Axe Signature range of perfumes that don't fade away. Let's take a look:
Trending
1. England vs Netherlands, 2009
The game involving the European neighbours was always meant to be a straightforward one, at least on paper. There was seemingly no way in which the young inexperienced Dutch side could overpower England in their home turf.
Underestimating the Dutch team’s talent was perhaps England's biggest folly as they were made to pay for it under the lights in the home of cricket.
England came out to bat first and put on board, an authoritative 162 led by Luke Wright’s batting exploits. The chase was always going to be difficult as England had decent bowlers in their ranks that included Stuart Broad, James Anderson and Ryan Sidebottom.
While Anderson caused the maximum damage with the ball, taking three wickets, the other bowlers failed to control the steady flow of the runs that propped up the Dutch reply.
The match came down to the final over where England’s Stuart Broad was left to defend seven runs in order to save his side a defeat at the hands of a team that was playing a senior competition in England for the very first time.
What followed was chaos. Three missed opportunities, in the form of 2 failed run out attempts and a dropped catch, off the first three deliveries resulted in tremendous pressure for Broad and his teams. A scrambled bye later, the equation came down to 2 off the last delivery.
A mistimed shot fielded by the bowler on follow through. The batsmen run irrespective. An aggressive bowler tries to attack, aiming at the stumps and missing. A fourth run out attempt going nowhere. And then, an overthrow. Batsmen getting two runs when there wasn't even one.
The nerve-wracking climax was watched by millions across the globe, but what it did was that it exposed England's limited overs frailties yet again.
2. India vs Pakistan, 2007
Before the two teams faced each other in a memorable inaugural final of the World T20, they squared off in the league phase of the same competition, not knowing that the game will go down as one of the closest ever played in T20 history.
Winning the toss, Pakistan put India to bat and attacked straight away. Gautam Gambhir was the first to go, off the third delivery of the match. Virender Sehwag and Yuvraj Singh soon followed – and with Dinesh Karthik gone, the score read 36/4. India was on ventilator support.
However, MS Dhoni, Irfan Pathan and some clean striking from Robin Uthappa helped India post an average total of 141 runs on the board, something that looked impossible at one stage of the innings.
Pakistan too got off to a wobbly start and found itself on 47/4 in the first nine overs of the reply. With the top four batsmen back in the dug-out, the game tilted back into the favour of the Indians.
With 29 needed from the last 12 deliveries, Pakistan looked down and out. A lesser known Misbah-ul-Haq was batting fluently and alongside him was fast-bowler Yasir Arafat, but very few would have believed that the duo could pull off something from that stage.
It was Arafat first, swatting Ajit Agarkar for two boundaries in the space of the first three deliveries of the 19th over. A ball later, Misbah chipped the fast bowler over short fine-leg for a boundary. 17 runs came off that over.
Sreesanth came on to bowl the final over of the innings and got off to a good start, conceding just one run off the first delivery. But Misbah was too clever for him. A couple of strong hits in the next three deliveries took the equation to one needed from two balls. Pakistan had sealed a tie at least.
A dot ball followed. One needed from one. And then, like in most close contests, a frantic need to close a botched up chase led to a run-out. The game ended in a tie. India eventually went on to win the 2-points with the help of a bowl out, but the game was registered as a tie.
3. India vs Bangladesh, 2016
India and Bangladesh registered the most compelling game of the ongoing edition of the World T20 – a game which eventually saw India snatch a victory from the jaws of defeat.
Coming out to bat first, India’s superstar batting line-up was expected to set the field on fire with some explosive strokeplay, but that was not to be as constant dismissals aided by a wicket on the slower side allowed the Men in Blue to only post 146 on the board.
Bangladesh started off their chase with intent and dominated the middle orders much thanks to some decisive stroke play from the blades of Shakib-al-Hasan.
At no point of time did it seem that Bangladesh was going to lose the match, even though a few of the Indian bowlers managed to cut the flow of runs towards the end of the innings. What eventually lost Bangladesh the contest was brain freeze when after managing to make eight off the first three deliveries of the final over, the batsmen pressed the self-destruct button.
It was Mushfiqur Rahim, who first after getting the required equation down to 2 off 3 starting celebrating. He was caught at long-on off the very next ball. 2 needed from 2 balls. Mahmadullah, the other set batsman in the middle tried smashing a high full toss over deep midwicket and held out to Ravindra Jadeja in the deep. Two balls, two wickets, the score hadn’t moved.
The final delivery saw the batsman playing and missing, and Dhoni doing a dash to the stumps – doing a Johnty and breaking the bails before the non-striker could manage to complete the bye. India kept their semi-final hopes alive with this win knocking Bangladesh out of the tournament.
4. South Africa vs Sri Lanka, 2014
The final over of this memorable contest saw one of the game’s best finishers, David Miller square off against one of the game’s best death bowlers, Lasith Malinga. 15 runs needed from the final over.
The usual tight finish template followed even though the batting team was expected to hold the advantage in a chase like this. Twin run outs off the first two deliveries made sure that the South African tailenders could do very little for their team in order to pull out a victory.
The game was mostly in Sri Lanka’s grasp after they put on 165 runs on the board batting first. In response, South Africa came out aggressively, but none of the top-4 could hang in there to take the team till the end. So it came down to some serious six hitting by Albie Morkel that made the difference between runs needed and balls left narrower.
Although the Man of the Match award went to opener Kusal Perera, the real hero for Sri Lanka was Sachitra Senanayake, who bowled his quota of four overs and stifled the chase – giving away just 22 runs and picking up two important wickets.
Sri Lanka went on to win the game by five runs and later saw themselves lift the trophy, defeating India in the finals of the competition.
5. India vs Sri Lanka, 2010
Hitting a six off the final delivery to seal a game is as close and as dramatic as it can get. Doing so to knock a strong opposition out is even better.
That’s exactly what Sri Lanka did when their final ball win against India ensured that the Men in Blue were knocked out before the semi-finals for the second time in a row.
When India put up 163 runs on the board, it seemed a shade short of par considering that they had scored 90 runs in the first ten overs, thanks to some lofty hitting by Suresh Raina; but the runs still needed to be scored and who better than veteran Kumar Sangakkara to lead the chase.
Sangakkara and Angelo Matthews helped Sri Lanka shrug off their poor start and stitched together a 56-run partnership.
With the chase equation coming down to 25 needed from the final 8 deliveries, some heavy power was the only thing that could save Sri Lanka. Chameera Kapugedara ruined Vinay Kumar’s T20 debut by hitting the final two deliveries of the penultimate over for maximums. With 13 needed from the final over, the total seemed far more gettable and the pressure was on India.
Ashish Nehra, given the duties to defend the 13, started the final over on a bad note as Matthews tonked him over for a six. Nehra redeemed himself when he ran Matthews out in the fifth ball, thereby bringing down Sri Lanka’s need to 3 runs off the last ball.
A good length outside off delivery saw Kapugedara dance down the track and loft it over sweeper cover to take Sri Lanka home in one of the closest contests in T20 history.
Looking for fast live cricket scores? Download CricRocket and get fast score updates, top-notch commentary in-depth match stats & much more! 🚀☄️
