My T20 World Cup team of the tournament
BARBADOS — After a month of fun, sun and captivating cricket in the USA and Caribbean, this year’s T20 World Cup is finally over.
India won a memorable, nerve-shredding final in Barbados on Saturday. But there was plenty more to this tournament than the men in blue breaking their 13-year World Cup duck and South Africa reaching a first final.
Here are i’s T20 World Cup awards and team of the tournament:
Best player: Jasprit Bumrah
The best T20 bowler of all-time and one of the greatest to ever play the game across formats. India don’t win the final without his haul of two for 18. Took 15 wickets in the tournament at 8.26 with a staggering economy rate of 4.17.
Best match: Pakistan v USA
This shock result lit a fire under the tournament as the co-hosts pulled off a Super Over win having tied Pakistan’s total of 159 in their chase in Dallas. A team who had only played their first T20 four years earlier had beaten the runners-up from the last World Cup. Monank Patel, with 50, and Saurabh Netravalkar, the Mumbai-born seamer who saw out the Super Over, were the heroes.
Best innings: Rohit Sharma, 92 v Australia
India’s captain had a relatively quiet World Cup before bursting into life with this incendiary 41-ball knock in St Lucia that sealed Australia’s Super Eight exit.
Best bowling spell: Gulbadin Naib, 4-20 v Australia
The Aussies were 71 for three and looking good to chase down 149 on a tricky St Vincent pitch before the medium-pacer, unused as a bowler in four of Afghanistan’s five matches before this, ripped out Marcus Stoinis, Tim David, Glenn Maxwell and Pat Cummins in the space of 19 balls.
Biggest flops: Australia
Having trolled England in the first round – Josh Hazlewood intimating they may go easy on Scotland in their final group match to knock Jos Buttler’s team out – Mother Cricket bit back with a vengeance in the Super Eights. Australia had looked strong, winning five from five before unravelling after a surprise defeat to Afghanistan.
Team of the tournament
Quinton De Kock (South Africa)
Brilliant at the top of the order. Scored 243 runs despite his team playing most of their early games on bowler-friendly pitches.
Rohit Sharma (India, captain)
Nerveless captaincy and set the example with the bat at the top of the order at the sharp end of the tournament.
Rahmanullah Gurbaz (Afghanistan)
Leading runscorer and essential to his team’s fast starts, with Gurbazball sparking wins against Uganda, New Zealand, Australia and Bangladesh.
Nicholas Pooran (West Indies, wicketkeeper)
His 98 in 53 balls against Afghanistan was one of the highlights of the tournament. Nobody hit more than the Trinidadian’s 17 sixes.
Suryarkumar Yadav (India)
Relay catch in the last over of the final was one of the greatest of all-time. Decent with bat, too, with 199 runs from 147 balls overall.
Hardik Pandya (India)
Underrated all-rounder key to India’s success, bowling the key overs and producing crucial cameos with the bat from No 7. Stood up again in the final, with three for 20.
Marcus Stoinis (Australia)
Got 169 runs at a strike-rate of 164 plus took 10 wickets at 15. His team went out early but the all-rounder had a fine tournament.
Rashid Khan (Afghanistan)
Took 14 wickets at 12 and an economy rate of six. The leg-spinner’s captaincy inspired his team to an historic semi-final.
Anrich Nortje (South Africa)
His 15 wickets and economy rate of 5.74 did so much to get his team to a first World Cup final.
Jasprit Bumrah (India)
World Cups become a lot easier when you have the best bowler on the planet. Proved time and again he was just that in this tournament.
Fazalhaq Farooqi (Afghanistan)
The left-armer’s four for 17 against New Zealand defined his team’s tournament.
