T20I cricket is the shortest version of the game played internationally. It became really popular after the 2007 T20 World Cup in South Africa. People thought it would be a good format for batsmen because they can hit the ball hard right from the start.
Lots of batsmen have been really good at hitting the ball and have made it hard for bowlers to do well. But some bowlers have been really good at stopping batsmen from scoring. Leg-spin bowlers especially have changed the game and sometimes they take more than 5 wickets in just 4 overs.
Here are the top 5 T20 teams and the best bowling performance by one of their bowlers in a T20 match
5. Bangladesh – Elias Sunny – 5/13 vs Ireland
In 2012, Bangladesh went to Ireland to play a T20I series. In the first match in Belfast, Bangladesh scored 190/5 when they batted first. The Irish team was expected to play well at home.
But they struggled against the spin bowling of Elias Sunny, who was playing his first T20I match for Bangladesh. He made history by becoming the first Bangladeshi bowler to take 5 wickets in his debut T20I match.
Sunny got the wickets of Ed Joyce, Niall O’ Brien, J Mooner, A Cusack, and D Johnston. He was named the man of the match for his excellent bowling figures of 4-1-13-5. Elias Sunny has only taken 9 wickets in his T20I career for Bangladesh so far.
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4. Pakistan – Umar Gul – 5/6 vs New Zealand, ICC WT20 2009
Umar Gul was a really fast bowler from Pakistan who played T20 cricket. He was very good at it and had some great moments. Two times, he got the best bowling figures of his career: 5 wickets for just 6 runs.
The first time was on June 13, 2009, during a World T20 game against New Zealand. He bowled so well that New Zealand’s team could only score 99 runs before getting all out. Gul took wickets of Scott Styris, McGlashan, Nathan McCullum, James Franklin, and Kyle Mills.
Then, in 2013, during a T20 match against South Africa in Centurion, he did it again. This time, he got wickets of F du Plessis, Chris Morris, J Ontong, Farhaan Behardien, and Kyle Abbott. This helped Pakistan win the match.
3. Afghanistan – Rashid Khan – 5/3 vs Ireland, 2017
Rashid Khan, a young and talented cricket player from Afghanistan, has been really important in making Afghanistan known in cricket. In a match against Ireland in Greater Noida, Afghanistan set a target of 185 runs for Ireland. But because of some reasons, the game was shortened to 11 overs, and Ireland had to score 111 runs to win.
At one point, Ireland seemed to be doing well, with a score of 68/2. But then Rashid Khan, with his amazing bowling, changed the game. In just 2 overs, he only let 3 runs pass and got 5 important players from Ireland out: Kevin O’Brien, G Wilson, L Tucker, B McCarthy, and G Thompson. This made it really hard for Ireland, and they only managed to score 93/9 in their 11 overs. Rashid Khan even managed to bowl a whole over without letting Ireland score any runs.
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2. India – Yuzvendra Chahal – 6/25 vs England, 2017
Yuzvendra Chahal is a really good leg-spinner for India. He did something amazing in a match against England in 2017. In that game, he took six wickets, which no other Indian bowler had done in a T20 international match before.
During the series between India and England, the last match was played in Bengaluru. India batted first and scored 202 runs. When England started batting, they were doing really well. But then, Chahal came into play. He took important wickets of England’s key players like Root and Morgan. In total, he took six wickets and became the best player of the match.
1. Sri Lanka – Ajantha Mendis – 6/8 vs Zimbabwe, ICC WT20 2012
Ajantha Mendis became famous in cricket when he played for Sri Lanka. He was really good at bowling tricky leg-spin. In a big tournament called the Asia Cup, he played amazingly against India in the final match. After that, he became a key player for Sri Lanka. In another important tournament, the T20 World Cup in 2012, he helped Sri Lanka win. In the first game of the T20 World Cup, he played against Zimbabwe. He bowled so well that he knocked down many Zimbabwean players.
Zimbabwe needed to score 183 runs to win, but they couldn’t do it. Ajantha Mendis and another player named Jeevan Mendis took 9 wickets together. Ajantha was the one who did the most damage by getting rid of six Zimbabwean players. This made him the bowler with the best performance ever in T20 cricket matches.
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