The year 2021 is over and it was a short year. There were many exciting T20I matches in 2021, including the ICC T20 World Cup. Australia won the T20 World Cup final for the first time.
We saw great performances from teams and players. Matches happened one after another, each as good as the last. Players like Mohammad Rizwan stood out with their excellent batting.
Wanindu Hasaranga and Tabraiz Shamsi had memorable years too. Some teams didn’t do as well as expected, while others surprised everyone. T20I cricket is demanding but very popular. Hopefully, it will keep growing in the future.
Here are the top T20I matches of 2021
10. Pakistan pursued 204 targets in South Africa
Not long ago, scoring 200 runs in a 20-over cricket match was enough to win, but now things have changed. There’s no guaranteed safe score anymore. Pakistan showed this when they chased down 204 runs with two overs to spare against South Africa.
In April 2021, during the third T20I match, South Africa batted first and scored 203 runs. Aiden Markram and Janneman Malan played well, with Markram scoring 63 runs and Malan adding 55. Rassie Van der Dussen also played a good innings.
Then it was Pakistan’s turn. Babar Azam scored an impressive 122 runs in just 59 balls, hitting 15 fours and four sixes. Rizwan also played well and finished the match with 73 not out. Even the in-form Tabraiz Shamsi couldn’t stop them. Pakistan kept using this opening pair throughout the year.
9. Bangladesh felt insulted by Scotland
Bangladesh lost to Scotland in the ICC T20 World Cup. Scotland and Bangladesh played each other in Group B. Scotland won, and Bangladesh felt bad about it.
Scotland batted first. One of their players, Goerge Munsey, did okay and scored 29 runs from 23 balls. The middle part of their team didn’t do well, but their seventh player, Chris Greaves, did really well. He scored 45 runs in just 28 balls. With help from Mark Watt, they made a total of 140 runs.
No one from the Bangladeshi team played comfortably. Brad Wheel, a player from Scotland, bowled really well, taking 3 wickets for 24 runs in four overs. Mushfiqur Rahim tried his best, but the other players didn’t help much. Bangladesh could only score 134 runs and lost the match by 6 runs.
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8. Bangladesh defeated the Kiwis in a low-scoring match.
In 2021, Bangladesh had many ups and downs, but they were really good when playing at home. In September 2021, the New Zealand Cricket Team came to Bangladesh to play some matches. Even though New Zealand is one of the best teams, they struggled on Bangladesh’s spinning pitches.
In one of the matches, things got really close. When scores are low, cricket games can get very tense, and that’s what happened here. New Zealand batted first and managed to score 93 runs, mainly thanks to Will Young’s careful batting. Bangladesh’s Nasum Ahmad and Mustafizur Rahman bowled really well, each getting four wickets.
The target seemed easy, but New Zealand’s bowlers made it tough. Bangladesh’s opener Mohammed Naim tried, but he didn’t get much help from other batsmen. Then, the captain, Mahmudullah Riyad, came in and scored 43 runs off 48 balls without getting out. Thanks to him, Bangladesh won the game in the last over.
7. New Zealand defeated Australia in a high-scoring thriller.
The big competition between New Zealand and Australia is always exciting for fans. Both teams are really good at cricket and always play hard. In February 2021, Australia visited New Zealand to play a series of T20I matches.
In the second T20I match, both teams played really well and it was a close, high-scoring game where the bowlers struggled. New Zealand batted first, with Martin Guptill scoring 97 runs from 50 balls. Kane Williamson and Jimmy Neesham also helped, and New Zealand ended with a score of 219.
Australia also played strong, with Josh Phillipe scoring 45 runs from 32 balls, followed by Marcus Stoinis who scored 78 runs from 37 balls. Daniel Sams hit 41 runs from just 15 balls. But despite their efforts, New Zealand won the match by four runs.
6. Australia triumphed over Pakistan in the 2021 T20 World Cup semifinal
Pakistan, who hadn’t lost any games in the earlier rounds, played against Australia in the semi-finals. Everyone thought Pakistan would win, but something unexpected happened. They lost the match in the final moments, which was really sad.
Pakistan batted first. Rizwan scored 67 runs off 52 balls, and Babar Azam, his partner, also played well. Then, Fakhar Zaman scored 55 runs very quickly.
At the start of Australia’s turn to bat, Shaheen Shah Afridi got Aaron Finch out without any runs scored. But then, David Warner played really well until he got out at 49 runs. Marcus Stoinis also played nicely, but the real star was Matthew Wade.
When Australia needed 20 runs from 10 balls, Hassan Ali missed an easy catch from Wade. That mistake cost Pakistan a lot because Wade hit three sixes in the next three balls and Australia won the game with an over left to play.
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5.India won a close match against England
India played their first T20I series against England in March 2021. People thought India would easily win because they were playing in India. But England played really well and made it hard for India to win. Still, India managed to win the series by 3-2.
In one of the games, India batted first and scored 185 runs. Suryakumar Yadav did great in his first international game, scoring 57 runs. Rishabh Pant and Shreyas Iyer also played well. Jofra Archer took four wickets for England.
When England batted, Jason Roy started well but got out. Then Ben Stokes played aggressively. But Shardul Thakur and Bhuvneshwar Kumar took important wickets for India. England ended up scoring 177 runs, and India won by eight runs.
4. Zimbabwe overcame the unbeaten Pakistani team.
Zimbabwe is a team that plays cricket matches at a high level, and they’ve been doing so for a while. However, lately, they haven’t been doing very well in their games. But in 2021, they had a good moment when they beat Pakistan in a shorter form of cricket called T20.
In one of the matches held in Harare, Zimbabwe batted first. But their batting wasn’t very good. Only one player, Tinashe Kamunhukamwe, scored a decent number of runs, while the others didn’t do so well. They ended up giving Pakistan a target of 119 runs.
Although Zimbabwe’s batting was just okay, Pakistan’s batting was worse. Luke Jongwe, a player from Zimbabwe, did really well and took four wickets while giving away only 18 runs. Pakistan’s captain, Babar Azam, tried his best, but the rest of the team didn’t perform well that day. Pakistan lost all their wickets for just 99 runs in almost 20 overs, and Zimbabwe won the match.
3. Australia was bowled out for 6 by Bangladesh.
Australia won the ICC T20 World Cup in 2021, but they didn’t do well in other matches. In August 2021, Bangladesh beat them in a T20 series, winning 4 games out of 5. In the last game, Bangladesh played much better than Australia.
Bangladesh batted first, but they didn’t score many runs. The Australian bowlers, Nathan Ellis and Dan Christian, stopped them from scoring big. Bangladesh only managed to get 122 runs.
Then it was Australia’s turn to bat. But they struggled against Bangladesh’s spin bowlers. They kept losing wickets and couldn’t score much. Shakib Al Hasan took four wickets with a good economy rate. In the end, Australia only scored 62 runs and lost all their wickets.
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2. The clash between the West Indies and South Africa
In June 2021, South Africa went to the Caribbean islands to play some cricket games called T20Is. The third game was very close. In that series, South Africa won against West Indies by 3-2. People liked watching all the games, but the third one was talked about the most.
South Africa batted first and scored 167 runs, with Quinton de Cock making 72 runs. Aiden Markram and Rassie Van Der Dussen also scored some runs. Obed McCoy was very good at bowling and got four players out for 22 runs. DJ Bravo, a famous T20 player, also bowled well. South Africa ended with 167 runs.
West Indies had some good moments with players like Evin Lewis, Lendl Simmons, and Nicholas Pooran scoring runs. Andre Russell hit three big sixes. But the best player from South Africa was Tabraiz Shamsi. He only gave away 13 runs and got two players out in his four overs of bowling. In the last over, West Indies needed 15 runs to win. Rabada, a South African player, was bowling. He got hit a couple of times but stopped West Indies from winning, so South Africa won by just one run.
1. The suspenseful Pakistan-South Africa match
Recently, there hasn’t been much cricket in Pakistan. But in February 2021, the South African Cricket Team visited Pakistan to play a T20I series. The first match of the series was very exciting. Both teams were eager to win.
South Africa won the coin toss and chose to field first. Mohammad Rizwan played amazingly, scoring 104 runs in his first T20I century, hitting seven sixes. Haider Ali also played well, but Pakistan only scored 169 runs because the other batters didn’t support Rizwan enough.
South Africa’s openers started strong. Reeza Hendricks scored 54 and Janneman Malan scored 44, but their middle-order batsmen didn’t do well. Yet, Andile Phehlukwayo and Dwaine Pretorius added quick runs. Everyone thought South Africa would win, but they needed a six on the last ball, which Fortuin couldn’t hit, so Pakistan won by three runs.
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