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The six matches that changed the face of Twenty20 cricket
Twenty20 cricket has evolved from a novelty knockabout to become a different beast altogether, generating huge sums of money for many of those involved.
Tim Wigmore picks some key games that have defined and changed the 20-over format over the last two decades.
Australia vs India, 2007: T20 starts to get serious
When the first men’s T20 international was played in February 2005, New Zealand’s players dressed up in retro kits. “I think it’s difficult to play seriously,” Australia’s victorious captain Ricky Ponting said after the game.
In the years since, T20 has evolved from gimmick into cut-throat sport. A crucial staging point in this journey was the first T20 World Cup - then called the World T20 - in 2007.
While the tournament is best remembered for Yuvraj Singh’s six sixes and India’s nerve-shredding victory over Pakistan in the final, India’s wildly oscillating semi-final with Australia best showed the possibilities of the format. After stumbling to 41 for two off eight overs, India added 147 from the last 12, with Yuvraj bludgeoning five sixes in his 70.
Australia were cruising for vast stages of their reply. They needed only 60 from the last six overs with eight wickets in hand before collapsing in front of a raucous Durban crowd, with Indians and South Africans united by their delight in Aussie despair.
The game’s sheer intensity and tactical dimensions - Australia suffered for not picking a specialist spinner - helped legitimise the notion of T20 as bona fide sport. And by setting up an India-Pakistan final, it turbocharged the format’s growth.
Rajasthan Royals vs Chennai Super Kings, 2008: The triumph of the IPL
The inaugural IPL final was staged in Mumbai. The reason was simple: Mumbai’s owner - Mukesh Ambani, India’s richest man - had paid the highest fee for any of the franchises.
And yet, for all the focus upon the razzmatazz, the riches, Bollywood and cheerleaders, the IPL’s first season also had a compelling underdog story. With a budget 25 per cent fewer than any other side, Rajasthan Royals’ victory was a triumph for shrewd strategising over financial determinism.
Rather than merely chasing glamorous names, they schemed like card counters in a casino. Rajasthan recognised the importance of tactical nous in the format, selecting Shane Warne as skipper.
They focused on players with the skills that T20 demanded - the explosive Indian batsman Yusuf Pathan, the Australian all-rounder Shane Watson and the Pakistani left-armer Sohail Tanvir - not merely Test credentials.
While other teams fought against international commitments and the limit of four overseas players per XI - even though they were permitted eight in each squad - Rajasthan developed a settled side.
Warne, naturally, was on the field as Rajasthan scrambled the winning run from the final ball in Mumbai. It ensured the first IPL was a triumph, and, in the process, illustrated how essential sagacious planning was in T20. “We just had a bit of magic in our group,” Warne recalled. “Everyone knew their roles and everyone got along.”
Trinidad & Tobago vs New South Wales, 2009: The arrival of the finisher
As he walked out at No 7 against New South Wales in the inaugural Champions League - pitting the best teams from various leagues against each other - in 2009, Kieron Pollard had two problems.
The first was that Trinidad & Tobago needed 80 from just seven overs in Hyderabad. The second was that they had to get them against an attack that boasted four Australian Test bowlers, including Brett Lee and Stuart Clark.
Pollard recognised that there was one weak link: the medium-pacer Moises Henriques. And so, using his combination of power, a clean bat swing - rendering him especially strong down the ground - and an intuitive sense of when to strike, Pollard razed 42 off nine balls from Henriques. His 18-ball 54 not out didn’t merely help Trinidad win with nine balls to spare; it also transformed his life.
“That innings changed everything for me,” Pollard remembered. “I played international cricket beforehand, but that innings changed the way everyone looked at me as a cricketer.”
Three months later, Pollard was sold to Mumbai Indians for £550,000. That night in Hyderabad led Pollard to be a trailblazer on and off the field: T20’s first great finisher, and first freelance cricketer.
Few cricketers can claim to have changed the sport in one way; Pollard did so in two.
Holland vs Ireland, 2014: The chase against time
At the innings break of their T20 World Cup first stage match against Ireland in Sylhet, Holland needed to score 190 in 14.2 overs to qualify for the next stage. It seemed the acme of futility.
Yet Holland saw a benign wicket and played in the spirit of a side who "had nothing to lose,” captain Peter Borren said. Reasoning that Ireland would open with off spin, Borren was promoted to open and duly swept the first delivery of the innings for four.
Ireland, who had not initially known what the Dutch equation to qualify was, were dazed. The Dutch recognised that singles were almost irrelevant: Stephan Myburgh, Borren’s partner, hit three consecutive sixes twice within the first 21 balls. The openers added 91 during the Powerplay, a new international record.
The batsmen who followed were similarly emboldened; Wesley Barresi’s six over midwicket - the 19th of the Dutch innings - clinched qualification with three balls to spare.
“Après moi, le déluge,” Roger Bannister had predicted after he became the first man to run a four-minute mile in 1954, showing other runners what was possible. Only two months after the Dutch heist, Mumbai Indians plundered 195 in 14.4 overs to qualify for the IPL play-offs.
West Indies vs England, 2016: The power of the six
Before the last over of the 2016 T20 World Cup final at a packed Eden Gardens, the West Indies needed 19 to win with the No 8, Carlos Brathwaite, on strike.
As Brathwaite prepared to face Ben Stokes, he knew what to expect: “I knew the long boundary was to the leg side,” he later recalled. Pre-game data analysis told Brathwaite that England would try and bowl straight to force him to hit to the longest boundary.
Stokes’ first delivery was sprayed down the leg side, but he only erred fractionally in his next three. Yet against Brathwaite that was too much. Four consecutive times he cleared the ropes with ease - three over the leg side - to confirm the West Indies’ status as international cricket’s first T20 dynasty.
They were not merely a brilliant team; they also changed the game. Across the semi-finals and finals of their victorious 2012 and 2016 campaigns, the West Indies hit 39 sixes to their opponents’ 14. Brathwaite’s belligerence was in keeping with this spirit.
Sunrisers Hyderabad vs Royal Challengers Bangalore, 2017: The democratisation of cricket
Throughout most of cricket history, a player’s nationality has been a roadblock to what they can achieve: those from smaller nations - let alone those who did not play Test cricket - were simply not afforded a fitting stage for their talents. But T20 leagues have democratised the sport. Now, like in the Premier League and NBA, T20 stars can come from anywhere.
The best embodiment of this shift can in the first game of the 2017 IPL season when Rashid Khan, a player from Afghanistan - who had only played their first official international in 2004 - made his debut in the competition.
Rashid only needed four balls to take his first IPL wicket, celebrating by lifting his arms high and wide, imitating his hero Shahid Afridi’s starship celebration. It has been a familiar sight ever since.
Perhaps no cricketer embodies the best of T20 like Rashid. His brilliant leg spin, delivered over 60mph, has shown how T20 has made the ability to turn the ball both ways more valuable than ever.
Rashid’s success has also encouraged clubs to scour new lands for talent: in 2018, Nepal's leg spinner Sandeep Lamichhane made his IPL debut.
