When it comes to T20, the word entertainment is synonymous with it. This format of cricket keeps everyone on the edge of their seat. No matter how one-sided a game looks, a team cannot be considered a winner or loser until it’s over. Yuvraj Singh smashed 6 sixes against England for India’s victory, when everybody believed India has already lost the game. What better example than this do you need? There are numerous unforgettable t20i matches and it wasn’t a simplified task to select one.
TopPiks brings you handpicked unforgettable T20i matches –
5) India Vs Pakistan Inaugural T20 World Cup Final
India Vs Pakistan’s first encounter in the world cup was an absolute thriller which had a bowl out to decide the winner. Eventually, India won that too. India & Pakistan met again in the final where Gautam Gambhir scored 75 runs and 20-year-old Rohit scored quick 30 runs off 16 balls to take the team’s total to 155.
Pakistan was quite steady throughout their chase but kept losing wickets at regular intervals. Yet, Mishabh-ul-Haq kept hold of his nerves to take the match to the final over and equation 12 runs off 6 balls. Joginder Sharma bowled the climax over to concede a six on the 2nd ball. Mishabh now went for a scoop shot only to find a fielder at short fine leg. India became the champions of the inaugural T20i World Cup.
4) West Indies Vs England 2016 Final
Carlos Braithwaite- Remember the name! The iconic 2016 T20 world cup or a roller coaster ride if we can call that to a match that has numerous ups & downs. To start with, England was batting first and lost 3 early wickets but Joe Root took the team, with his heroic knock of 54 off 36 balls, to a respectable 155 total.
Joe Root didn’t limit himself to batting as he took two West Indies wickets on his bowling. But Marlon Samuels stood tall with his finest T20i knock of 85 runs, however, 19 runs were still required in the final over which seemed difficult against Ben Stokes. Carlos Braithwaite took West Indies home with their 2 T20i WC trophy by scoring 4 consecutive off Ben Stokes. Ah! simply an unbelievable West Indies player.
3) Australia Vs Pakistan 2010 Semi-Final
The fifties from duo Umran Akmal & Kamran had put Pakistan in a solid position with 191 runs on board. Australia was never in the chase as they couldn’t catch the required run rate. Michael Hussey walked out to bat when Australia required 87runs off 45 balls. Cameron White fired 43 runs but got dismissed later. Hussey smashed every bowler all around the park but the run rate was marginally high.
Australia had to score 19 runs off the final over to enter their first T20 world cup final but Mitchel Johnson was on strike. He did his job brilliantly to rotate the strike on the first ball. Michael Hussey took the driving seat directly to 5th gear and scored 6,6,4,6 to defeat Pakistan with a ball to spare. He scored 60 runs off merely 24 deliveries.
2) England Vs South Africa 2016 Group Stage
After a bizarre 2015 World Cup, England decided to accept a different approach to white-ball cricket. Everyone did witness this approach against South Africa as England went on to chase the highest t20i World Cup total ever. Credits to Jason Roy’s 43 in 16 balls and Root’s 83 off 44. England did lose two wickets in the final over but that didn’t bother them as they required only 1 run from the final over and no drama was created due to those two wickets in the climax over.
1) India Vs Bangladesh 2016 Group Stage
The final ICC tournament India played under the leadership of MS Dhoni. Unfortunately, the tournament result didn’t go Mahi’s way this time. But the clash between India & Bangladesh will be remembered for the coming decades. This surely has to be on top of the best unforgettable T20i matches ever list.
Bangladesh who had never won against India in the T20 world cup was so close to their first win before they threw away all their effort in vain. Bangladesh required 10 runs off the final over and Hardik Pandya came to bowl the crucial over only to concede two consecutive boundaries and boil the situation to 2 runs off 3 balls.
Mushfiqur Rahim started celebrating the victory even before finishing the game. The next things to unfold were unbelievable as Pandya took 2 wickets off the next two balls. On the final ball, we witnessed Dhoni’s quickest sprint to run out Bangladesh batsmen who tried to steal a run to tie the match. India won the match by 1 run.
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