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Cricket News: 6 things that happened for the 1st time in a T20 World Cup | A look at how history was made in the 2021 T20 World Cup
It was quite the wait between the sixth and seventh editions of the T20 World Cup. In this tournament, we saw some terrific and quite remarkable moments, and quite a few for the very first time.
This World Cup will be remembered at least partly for these unique events. In this article, I am going to mention six such events that occurred for the very first time in this T20 World Cup. Here we go.
Scotland became the first Associate nation to win all games in a group stage
There was a lot of hope for some strong performances from the Associate nations in this World Cup and Scotland didn’t disappoint us. Although they failed to win a single game in the Super 12s stage, they came with flying colours from the group stage, which they will remember for a long time.
They won all their three games in the group stage, including a magical victory over Bangladesh. It was the first instance of an Associate team proceeding to the Super 12s stage undefeated in the history of the mega event.
Pakistan beat India
The rivalry between India and Pakistan is well known to everyone. The atmosphere on the ground remains electric and the players from both sides remain under huge pressure whenever these two sides face each other. The expectations were sky-high for a breath-taking contest this time as well.
But, Pakistan proved to be too good for the Indian team and went on to win the game by 10 wickets, thanks to a brilliant new ball spell from Shaheen Afridi and an authoritative opening stand of 152 runs by Mohammed Rizwan and Babar Azam. Thus, Pakistan broke a five-match losing streak against India in T20 World Cups.
Chris Gayle had a strike rate of less than 100
Chris Gayle is regarded as the best ever batsman to play the shortest format of the game. The legend has smashed over 14,000 runs with more than 20 hundreds in T20 cricket, which is nothing but incredible.
Gayle had scored 920 runs at a strike rate of almost 147 in the six T20 World Cups he played in prior to this one. However, in this World Cup, he managed to score just 45 runs in five games with a highest score of just 15. His strike rate was just 91.84, which was less than 100 for the very first time in a T20 World Cup.
Namibia won a match a global ICC tournament
Apart from Scotland, the Associate nation that was extremely impressive in this World Cup was Namibia. The African country worked hard to reach the group stage of this World Cup, and managed to proceed to the Super 12s stage by defeating Netherlands and Ireland.
In the process, they won a game in an ICC event for the very first time. Further, they went on to beat Scotland in the Super 12s stage. This sort of a strong performance will definitely play a crucial role in the development of Namibian cricket and they will cherish these victories forever.
Virat Kohli was not India’s leading run-scorer
Virat Kohli has been the backbone of the Indian batting for a long time now. Kohli was the highest run-getter for India in all the three T20 World Cups he had played prior to this one.
However, the legend had a quiet World Cup this time as he managed to score just 68 runs. His average and strike rate were below 40 and 120 for the very first time in a T20 World Cup. We can’t really blame him for his overall runs as he batted just three times in five games. Also, he came into the middle against Scotland when India had almost sealed the game.
But anyhow, he wasn’t India’s leading run scorer in a T20 World Cup for the very first time. This also shows how prolific he has been in the previous editions of the mega event.
Either New Zealand or Australia will win the title for the first time
Before this tournament, New Zealand had never even reached a T20 World Cup Final. Australia had only reached the Final once previously, back in 2010 against England.
Australia were soundly beaten on that day, which meant the T20 World Cup is the major limited overs trophy that still eludes them. For New Zealand, they have the chance to build on their 2019 ODI World Cup Final appearance and World Test Championship triumph.
Written by Debashish Sarangi. Follow Debashish on Twitter today
