Sports
Leading lights of ICC Men’s T20 World Cup
The measure of great players is the ability to perform on the biggest stage and in T20 cricket, it does not come any bigger than the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup.
Over the course of the previous six editions, there have been many stunning individual performances.
Taken as a whole though, it is no surprise that the players who have performed the most consistently since 2007 are also among the very best players the game has seen.
So, as we prepare for the start of the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2021, we take a look at 10 players who have had a huge impact on the history of the tournament with their consistent excellence:
Shahid Afridi (Pakistan) – 39 wickets and 546 runs in 34 matches
The greatest wicket-taker in the history of the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup, Pakistan’s Shahid Afridi is one of the poster boys of the format capable of having an impact with bat and ball.
His crowning achievement came in 2009 when he inspired Pakistan to the title, earning Player of the Match honours for his performance in the eight-wicket win over Sri Lanka in the final.
In that game Afridi took one for 20 with a miserly spell before hammering an unbeaten 54 off 40 balls to see his side home.
His 39 wickets are the most of any player in the tournament, while he is just outside the top ten all-time runs scorers with 546, and only Tillakaratne Dilshan has played more than Afridi’s 34 matches.
Shakib Al Hasan (Bangladesh) – 567 runs and 30 wickets in 25 matches
The only player on this list who has not reached at the least the semi-finals of the competition, it is mark of Shakib Al Hasan’s achievements that he has been so successful despite playing in a struggling side.
One of just eight men who will be playing in 2021 having also featured in the inaugural tournament, Shakib has been one of the great all-rounders in the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup.
He joins Afridi as the only players to have scored at least 500 runs and taken 30 wickets in the tournament, and if his performances in England two years ago are anything to go by, his taste for the big occasion is only increasing.
Samuel Badree (West Indies) –24 wickets in 15 matches
Not quite as prolific as some players on this list, but West Indian spinner Samuel Badree had a remarkable impact on the competition between 2012 and 2016.
In tandem with Sunil Narine for the first two of those tournaments, Badree showed just how dangerous spinners can be in T20 cricket, opening the bowling for the West Indies.
His bowling average of 13.58 is the best in the tournament’s history, while an economy rate of 5.52 is second only to Narine.
When you consider those figures, it is no surprise that West Indies enjoyed great success during that period, with Badree crucial to the triumphs in 2012 and 2016.
AB de Villiers (South Africa) – 717 runs and 30 catches in 30 matches
AB de Villiers will go down as one of, if not South Africa’s greatest player across all three formats, and he certainly shone on the global stage in ICC Men’s T20 World Cups.
His 717 runs are good enough for fifth all time and of that top five, only Chris Gayle has a better strike rate than De Villiers’ 143.4.
Of course, the Proteas superstar offered more than just his batting. Whether it was as a wicket-keeper or just an outfielder, he influenced the game like few others.
De Villiers’ 23 catches as an outfielder are eight more than anyone else in the tournament, with seven more and a pair of stumpings when he had the gloves on.
Tillakaratne Dilshan (Sri Lanka) – 897 runs in 35 matches
The 2021 ICC Men’s T20 World Cup will be the first tournament in which Tillakaratne Dilshan will not feature, having played more matches than anyone in the competition’s history.
The Sri Lankan great sits third all time in terms of runs scored (897) and also contributed to the addition of a new word to cricket’s lexicon, and a new shot to a batter’s armoury, with the ‘Dilscoop’ that he mastered in 2009.
He was outstanding in that tournament, including an unbeaten 96 in the semi-final against the West Indies as he made 317 runs to be named Player of the Tournament. The fact that Pakistan removed him for a duck is probably a big factor in why Sri Lanka lost the final.
Chris Gayle (West Indies) –920 runs in 28 matches
The man born to play T20 cricket, Chris Gayle has made the format his own and ‘The Universe Boss’ will look to make it a hat-trick of titles in the UAE and Oman.
Curiously, Gayle has scored three and four in the two finals he has played so far, but the Windies have won them both anyway.
In the other 26 matches he has played, he has racked up 913 runs, second only to Mahela Jayawardene. By the end of the 2021 tournament, Gayle will hope to have joined Jayawardene in the 1000-run club.
As destructive as they come, Gayle has smashed 60 sixes in the tournament, nearly double the next most from Yuvraj Singh with 33, and is the only player to have notched two ICC Men’s T20 World Cup centuries.
Mahela Jayawardene (Sri Lanka) – 1016 runs in 31 matches
No-one has scored more runs at ICC Men’s T20 World Cups than Sri Lankan great Mahela Jayawardene, the only player to have topped 1000 runs in the tournament.
He played in every competition from 2007 to 2014, bowing out in style as he helped Sri Lanka claim the title in his final appearance.
In that match he made a run-a-ball 24 as Sri Lanka chased down India’s total of 130/4 to win the tournament for the first time, becoming the first player to make it four figures in the process.
Among other highlights, he enjoyed a purple patch at the 2010 T20 World Cup when he scored 81, 100 and 98 not out in three successive innings as Sri Lanka reached the semi-finals.
Virat Kohli (India) – 777 runs in 16 matches
The list of candidates for the best player never to have won the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup starts and ends with Virat Kohli. The India skipper averages an absurd 86.33 in the 16 matches he has played.
With a half-century in more than half his innings, Kohli has been as consistent a player as the tournament has seen.
He has been named Player of the Tournament in each of the last two editions of the competition, averaging more than 100 in both editions, while his lowest score in a knockout game is the 72 not out he scored against South Africa in a semi-final win in 2014.
Lasith Malinga (Sri Lanka) – 38 wickets in 31 matches
The most prolific wicket-taker in the history of T20 internationals, Lasith Malinga is second only to Shahid Afridi at the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup.
The master of the yorker, Malinga was the ultimate death bowler, capable of crushing toes and splaying wickets in the deciding moments of matches.
It is also a testament to his importance within the Sri Lankan team that Malinga was captain of the side that won the title in 2014, in a squad featuring the likes of Mahela Jayawardene and Kumar Sangakkara.
And even in a match where he did not take a wicket, the way Malinga restricted India to just 11 runs from overs 18 and 20 of their innings in the final, was crucial to the eventual six-wicket success.
Kevin Pietersen (England) – 580 runs in 15 matches
In the vein of Samuel Badree, Kevin Pietersen’s influence on the tournament was relatively short, but his star shone incredibly bright.
The driving force behind England’s march to glory in 2010 in the Caribbean, Pietersen’s 580 runs in just 15 innings is a phenomenal return.
Only Kohli and Mike Hussey average more than Pietersen’s 44.61 by players with at least ten innings, and his strike-rate of 148.33 is the best of anyone in the top ten all-time run scorers.
He also has the silverware to go with it – being named Player of the Tournament as an aggressive England side powered their way to the title.
He scored 248 runs in that tournament, capping off a run of three editions in which he was England’s most devastating batter.
After back-to-back ducks in his last two innings, Virat Kohli showed most emphatically that he had merely been out of runs and not out of form, scoring his ninth IPL hundred to lead Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) to the top of the IPL 2026 table with a commanding win over Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) in Raipur.
Kohli’s unbeaten 60-ball 105 was a vintage effort in a run-chase – smooth, controlled, and full of both relentless sprinting between the wickets and gorgeous strokeplay, particularly at either end of his innings. That he never seemed stretched, however, was perhaps the story of the match – it may have been decided by the relative quality of the bowling attacks, particularly the seamers.
RCB’s bowlers did a superb job to keep KKR down to below 200 even though they only lost four wickets, and KKR’s inexperienced seam attack simply couldn’t match them for discipline and ability to extract misbehaviour from a slightly two-paced surface – with the caveat that it may have eased up a little during the second innings.
This was the first time RCB had fielded all three of Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Jacob Duffy and Josh Hazlewood – the legspinner Suyash Sharma made way. This suggested RCB expected conditions to play similarly to their previous game in Raipur, against Mumbai Indians, with seam movement and inconsistent bounce throughout.
When the match began – after a rain delay of an hour and a quarter – it became clear that this was a much better pitch to bat on, but there was still something in it for the seamers. Bhuvneshwar showed this with a cross-seamer that nipped away to nick off Finn Allen in the third over, and Hazlewood showed this by getting a short-of-length ball to rear at Ajinkya Rahane and have him caught and bowled off a miscued pull in the fifth over.
KKR still scored 56 in their powerplay, though, and 31 of those runs came in two overs from Duffy, who took the new ball ahead of Hazlewood, and didn’t do too much that was obviously wrong, but Allen, Rahane and Angkrish Raghuvansh were good enough to put away marginal errors in line and length.
That Dubey over was the last bit of real joy with the ball for KKR. Vaibhav Arora kept drifting onto Kohli’s pads in an 18-run second over, and then Bethell took his revenge on Dubey by going 6, 4, 4 at the start of the third.
Kartik Tyagi removed Bethell with a nasty short ball that rushed him on the pull, but he followed that up by straying down the leg side and overcompensating with width, and Devdutt Padikkal put both away to the boundary to get his innings moving.
RCB finished the powerplay at 66 for 1, with Kohli swivelling to pull Tyagi for six in the sixth over and ending that phase on 30 off 14.
From there, it was just a case of ticking off the remaining runs with no need for undue risk. No one is better at that game than Kohli. He scored eight twos – the joint third-most for him in an IPL innings – and found the boundary whenever the viewer may have wondered how long it had been since the last one. Mishaps at the other end – Tyagi dismissed Padikkal with an into-the-pitch cutter before pinging Rajat Patidar on the helmet; a Sunil Narine carrom ball forced a miscue from Patidar; Manish Pandey took a flying one-hander at point to send back Tim David – were mere blips in RCB’s otherwise silky-smooth ride.
And as the end neared, Kohli grew more expansive, playing two of his most eye-catching shots – a straight six off Anukul Roy with barely any follow-through, and a whipped six of iron wrists off Tyagi – to hurry towards the century mark. He got there with a single off Arora in the 19th over, and Jitesh Sharma finished the game soon after, flat-batting Dubey past long-on to bring up victory with five balls remaining.
Brief scores:
Royal Challengers Bengaluru 194 for 4 in 19.1 overs (Jacob Bethell 15, Virat Kohli 105*, Devdutt Padikkal 39, Rajat Patidar 11; Kartik Tyagi 3-32, Sunil Narine 1-31) beat Kolkata Knight Riders 192 for 4 in 20 overs (Ajinkya Rahane 19, Finn Allen 18, Angkrish Raghuvanshi 71, Rinku Singh 49*, Cameron Green 32; Bhuveneshwar Kumar 1-34, Josh Hazelwood 1-35, Raasik Salam 1-35) by six wickets
[Cricinfo]
Prema Pinnawala, one of Sri Lanka’s most experienced and influential sports administrators, passed away after a brief illness on Tuesday. He was 88 at the time of his passing.
Pinnawala, who dedicated more than six decades to sports administration, played a pivotal role in shaping athletics and Olympic sports governance in Sri Lanka. His contribution to sport extended across national and international platforms, making him a respected figure within the athletics fraternity.
He first rose to prominence as a sportsman during his school days at Christian Mission College in the 1950s. His journey into sports administration began in 1963 when he was appointed Chairman of the Sports Council at the University of Peradeniya, marking the start of a career that would span several decades.
Joining the Sri Lanka Insurance Corporation in the late 1960s, Pinnawala also became actively involved with the National Service Sports Association, where he held a number of positions over the years.
His association with athletics administration commenced in the late 1960s when he joined the committee of Sri Lanka Athletics. In 1978, he was elevated to the position of Vice President of the association, before taking on a more prominent national role in 1983 as Secretary General of the National Olympic Committee of Sri Lanka.
Pinnawala held the position for 15 years until 1998, becoming one of the key architects of Sri Lanka’s Olympic and sports administration during a transformative period. Following his tenure at the National Olympic Committee, he returned to Sri Lanka Athletics and assumed duties as General Secretary in 1998. He held the post thrice (1998-2010, 2013-2014 and 2017-2023) between 1998 and until his retirement in 2023.
Although his prolonged presence in sports administration, attracted criticism from certain quarters, Pinnawala remained steadfast, often maintaining that his continued involvement served the greater interests of sport. Undeterred by opposition, he continued to contribute extensively to the functioning of athletics.
Over the decades, he developed a reputation as an effective mediator and coordinator between local and international sporting bodies. His expertise and diplomatic approach saw his services sought by influential government officials, including heads of state, particularly in matters involving sports administration and international relations.
Internationally, Pinnawala earned considerable recognition within the athletics community. In 2025, his exceptional and long-standing service to athletics was acknowledged by World Athletics, which honoured him with the World Athletics Veteran Pin.
His contributions beyond Sri Lanka included serving as Secretary of the South Asian Sports Council, Secretary of the Media Committee of the Olympic Council of Asia, and as a Council Member of the Asian Athletics Association.
Apart from sports administration, Pinnawala also established himself as a prominent corporate leader, serving for many years as General Manager of the Sri Lanka Insurance Corporation.
He is survived by his wife, Jayani Pinnawala, a senior administrative officer and former Additional Secretary to the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports, and their two daughters.
(RF)
Before the first T20I against Zimbabwe Women, Ayesha Zafar had hit just one six in 28 T20 innings, with her career strike-rate in the early 80s. On Tuesday (May 12), she hit two sixes and 15 fours, smashing the joint third-fastest Women’s T20I hundred in a record-filled win for Pakistan Women.
Her unbeaten 47-ball 102 propelled Pakistan to 237/5 – the first time they crossed 200 in the format – paving the way for a whopping 153-run win in Karachi, their biggest ever margin by runs in T20Is. By the time she was done, Zafar’s career strike-rate had gone up to 97.
The 31-year-old Zafar, who made a comeback to the side in March after nearly two years away, put on a fine show dominant with leg-side hits, notching up her first T20 fifty and converting it to three figures.
At the crease in the second over, Zafar repeatedly shuffled to the backfoot and targeted the leg-side against spinners, pulling any remotely short deliveries to the midwicket or square leg fence. On 20, she got a reprieve playing that shot, with square leg shelling a catch. But Zafar continued to play that stroke, also punishing anything too full by hitting it firmly down the ground.
Gull Feroza, meanwhile, departed for a 19-ball 37, having given them an early push. Zafar raced to 40 off 18, but slowed down a bit thereafter, reaching her fifty in 29 balls.
From the 16-over mark, Zafar picked up again, showcasing her power-hitting against quicks, particularly with shots in the V and towards midwicket, using the crease well to make room. A 67-run stand off 35 balls with Aliya Riaz (48) and a 70-run partnership off just 27 balls with Fatima Sana ensured they easily crossed 200 for the first time. A last-ball four ensured Zafar crossed her three-figure mark.
In reply, Zimbabwe couldn’t really match the run-scoring, pegged down by a flurry of wickets in the Powerplay. Sana prised out Beloved Biza and Kelly Ndiraya off back-to-back balls in the third over to leave Zimbabwe at 14/3. Despite three boundaries in the sixth over, they had slipped to 30/5 at the end of the Powerplay.
There was very little resistance thereafter, with opener Natasha Mtomba top-scoring with 24 and staying put until the tenth over. No other player crossed 20.
Sana finished with 3-7, becoming the highest wicket-taker among T20I quicks for Pakistan Women (46). Zafar won the Player of the Match award and is now the only other Pakistan Women’s T20I centurion besides Muneeba Ali.
Brief scores:
Pakistan Women 237/5 in 20 overs (Gull Feroza 37, Ayesha Zafar 102*, Aliya Riaz 48, Fatima Sana 21*; Precious Marange 1-39, Nomvelo Sibanda 2-59, Beloved Biza 1-33, Michelle Mavunga 1-23) beat Zimbabwe Women 84 all out in 18.2 overs (Natasha Mtomba 24, Beloved Biza 10, Adel Zimunu 18; Fatima Sana 3-07, Sadia Iqbal 2-14, Rameen Shamin 1-18, Natalia Pervaiz 2-03) by 153 runs.
[Cricbuzz]
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