Top 5 T20Is of the year 2016
2016 is about to come to an end and the teams around the world have finished playing all the Twenty20 Internationals. This year also had the sixth edition of World T20 as West Indies created history by becoming the first team to win two World T20s by beating England in the finals of this year’s tournament in Kolkata.
Indian batsman Virat Kohli was in sublime form throughout the year as he scored 641 runs in 13 innings at an average of 106.83 and a strike-rate of 140.26. His dominance was evident by the fact that he lead the run scoring charts by 144 runs. As far as the leading wicket-taker is concerned, India’s Jasprit Bumrah ended the year at the top with 28 wickets in 21 matches at an average of 18.82 and an economy of just over 6.
A total of 99 T20Is were played this year with 28113 runs being scored in 3629 overs at a rate of 7.74 runs per over. Among those 99 matches, there were a lot of close encounters. Let us take a look at the five nail-biting T20Is that were played in 2016.
#1 South Africa vs England, Capetown
Towards the end of 2015, England began their tour of South Africa in the best possible manner as they thrashed the hosts 1-2 in the four-match Test series. After going down in the first two ODIs, AB de Villiers’ men staged a stunning comeback to win the next three matches and clinch the five-match ODI series 3-2. With the 2016 World T20 just days away, all eyes were on the two T20Is between both the teams as they began their preparation for the extravaganza.
The first T20I at Capetown was a humdinger and kept the fans on the edge of their seats. After choosing to bowl first, the Proteas bowlers did a fantastic job of restricting Eoin Morgan’s men to just 134 in 20 overs. Leg-spinner Imran Tahir was the pick of the bowlers as he took four wickets for just 21 runs in his four overs. Jos Buttler’s scratchy unbeaten 32 took his side to a respectable position.
In reply, the South African openers got their team off to a good start before Chris Jordan and Ben Stokes removed both AB de Villiers and Hashim Amla in the last two overs of the powerplay. Faf du Plessis and JP Duminy looked completely out of touch as they struggled to score at run a ball before Duminy perished to Rashid. Du Plessis, Rilee Rossouw, David Miller and David Wiese followed Duminy in quick succession and that left Du Plessis men needing 15 off the last over.
Reece Topley bowled the last over for the Poms and Chris Morris dispatched the second and third ball of the over for a four and a six respectively. With four needed off the last three balls, Topley squeezed in a dot ball and Morris completed a double off the penultimate ball. With two needed off the last ball, Morris hit the ball to the long-off fielder, who collected the ball quickly and threw it to the bowler just to see him failing to gather the ball.
It could have been a wicket and a tie. Instead, the Proteas sneaked home with three wickets in hand.