Following the culmination of this year's World Twenty20 tournament in Bangladesh, Sport 360° provides a review of the highs and lows from the competition.
Highs
Best batsman: Virat Kohli
Runs: 319 Average: 106.33
No batsman showed such amazing consistency at the World Twenty20 as the 25-year-old Indian who was adjudged ‘player of the tournament’. With scores of 36*, 54, 57*, 23, 72* and 77, Kohli practically made an impact in all six matches that he played. His conventional approach to batting busted the popular myth that T20 batting is only power driven. His appetite for runs is staggering and few batsmen have been as majestic across formats as India’s captain-in-waiting.
Best bowler: Ravichandran Ashwin
Wickets: 11 Average: 11.27
The wily off-spinner proved why is rated as India’s No1 bowler with a superb return during the tournament. The 27-year-old troubled all opposition batsmen with his guile and Aswin's dominance is reflected in both his economy rate (5.75) and his figures in the tournament – 0-23, 1-24, 2-15, 4-11, 3-22 and 1-29. He also bowled the ‘ball of the tournament’ which led to the dismissal of Hashim Amla in the semi-final. Amla was completely flummoxed by the carrom-ball that spun like a leg-break and left the South African batsman headed for the pavilion with felled stumps.
Best knock: Alex Hales
116* off 64 balls v Sri Lanka
Truly an electrifying century by the right-handed opener as he dismantled the Sri Lankan bowling, clobbering 11 fours and six sixes. By any measure, it was a superb example of controlled aggression as he became England’s first T20 centurion. Considering England were 0-2 in pursuit of Sri Lanka’s 189-4, it verged on a sporting miracle. England, though, failed to capitilise on Hales’ heroics and crashed out in the Super 10 stage.
Best spell
3.3-2-3-5 v New Zealand
The short and stocky Herath cuts an innocuous, almost inconspicuous figure. But hand him the ball and the 36-year old roars to life by spinning a web of discomfort for batsmen. Line and length, flight and dip are his weapons of choice alongside subtle variations of pace. In only his seventh T20 Internationals, all of his armory was on display as he sent the Kiwis into a tailspin to log the third best figures in T20I.
Lows
Worst team innings: Netherlands
Runs: 39 Overs: 10.3
Netherlands experienced a disastrous innings against eventual winners, Sri Lanka. At least the Dutch entered the record books with the worst ever international T20 total as they scored 17 fewer than the previous low set by Kenya last year. The lowlight of the innings has to be when the struggling Netherlands lost four wickets in 13 balls for just six runs.
Worst individual batting when needed: Yuvraj Singh in the T20I final.
Runs:11 Balls: 21 SR: 52.38
Yuvraj Singh didn't live up to expectations when his nation needed him the most against Sri Lanka in the T20I final. It was a 21-ball nightmare for the left hander who seemed woefully out of touch. The man who lit up the first edition of the tournament by hitting Stuart Broad for six sixes in one over now seemed a sad, stagnant, shadow of his former self. Singh’s strike rate in the final was an embarrassing 52 (compared to a career SR of 147), which for the sixth-best batsman in the world in T20 cricket is scandalous.
Worst bowling figures: Mashrafe Mortaza
4-0-63-0 v Pakistan
During the Bangladesh vs Pakistan encounter, Mashrafe Mortaza produced the worst bowling figures in terms of runs conceded, and subsequently, economy rate in T20I history. The left-arm pacer was knocked all over the park with ease by the Pakistani batsmen. Ahmed Shehzad and Shahid Afridi particulary benefitted from Mortaza's abysmal bowling in the penultimate over when the pair took Mortaza for 24.
Biggest let-down: Tamim Iqbal
Matches: 7 Runs: 83 Average: 11.85
Bangladesh's premier T20 batsman, Tamin Iqbal, failed to live up to the hype in the latest T20I much to the disappointment of the home nation. Iqbal won Wisden Cricketer of the Year in 2010 and has since been Bangladesh's star player so expectations were sky high for their most experienced and highly-rated batsman. Iqbal scored a trifling 5, 16, 6, 5, 0, 30, 21 in his seven innings which didn't only diminish his batting reputation but also demoralised the Bangladesh team who crashed out in the Super 10 stage with a solitary win.
