Benedict Bermange looks at the stats and stories from the T20 World Cup as England dish out a shellacking to Australia; Sri Lanka skittle their opponents again, and Afghanistan spinner Rashid Khan becomes fastest bowler to 100 T20 international wickets; watch T20 World Cup on Sky Sports
Sunday 31 October 2021 12:11, UK
As the ICC Men's T20 World Cup continues apace, Sky Sports Cricket statistician Benedict Bermange picks out some of the key numbers and narratives…
England carried on their winning ways with an eight-wicket victory over Australia. It was the heaviest defeat Australia have suffered in T20I cricket in terms of balls remaining:
Last weekend, Adil Rashid took four wickets for just two runs in England's victory against the West Indies at Dubai, the best bowling figures for England in T20I history. The next three best performances also came against West Indies, with Chris Jordan bagging 4-6 and David Willey 4-7 in St Kitts and Nevis in 2019 and Ravi Bopara 4-10 at The Kia Oval in 2011.
Rashid's haul was the joint-cheapest for anyone taking at least four wickets in a T20 international - Steve Tikolo took 4-2 for Kenya against Scotland at Dubai in 2013.
The top six West Indies batters from the top of the order were 'caught' by six different England players, just the second time this has happened in T20 cricket. The top six Australians were all caught by six different South Africans in their match at Durban in March 2016.
Pakistan thrashed India by 10 wickets in their match to give them their first victory against their rivals in World Cup cricket, with the unbroken first-wicket partnership between Mohammad Rizwan and Babar Azam the second-highest ever to win a T20 international by 10 wickets:
Sri Lanka dismissed the Netherlands for just 44 in their meeting at Sharjah. Not only was that the shortest all-out innings in T20 World Cup history but it meant that three of the five lowest totals in ICC T20 cricket have been against Sri Lanka, with the West Indies' total of 55 against England rounding out the top three:
The Netherlands innings provided the first occasion in which five batsmen have been dismissed lbw in the same T20I, with the second occasion coming three days later when five Scotland batsmen were lbw against Afghanistan.
Afghanistan's 130-run victory over Scotland was the joint second-highest margin of victory in any ICC T20 World Cup, alongside South Africa's 130-run win over Scotland at The Kia Oval in 2009, and behind only Sri Lanka's 172-run victory over Kenya in Johannesburg in 2007. In that game, Sri Lanka scored 260-6 before bowling Kenya out for 88.
When Rashid Khan dismissed Mohammad Hafeez in Afghanistan's match against Pakistan at Dubai, he became the fastest of the four bowlers to take 100 wickets in T20I cricket, doing so in his 53rd match. Rashid beat Lasith Malinga (76 matches), Shakib Al Hasan (84 matches) and Tim Southee (84 matches).
Pakistan's Asif Ali won the game against Afghanistan by striking four sixes in the 19th over. He needed only seven balls to get the Player of the Match award, the fewest by any man who didn't have a bowling role in a T20I game. The previous record in a full 20 overs international game was Dinesh Karthik's eight-ball 29 not out against Bangladesh in Colombo in 2018.
Ruben Trumpelmann set the tone for Namibia's victory over Scotland at Abu Dhabi by taking three wickets in the first over. The only previous bowler to achieve that in any T20 international cricket was Sri Lanka's Angelo Mathews, who dismissed three West Indians at The Kia Oval in 2009.
Wanindu Hasaranga took the second hat-trick in this year's competition - after Ireland's Curtis Campher against Netherlands - and the third in all ICC T20 World Cup play when he dismissed Aiden Markram, Temba Bavuma and Dwaine Pretorius from successive deliveries in Sri Lanka's match against South Africa. It wasn't enough, though, as David Miller ensured that 15 required from the final over was no problem at all.
Watch the ICC Men's T20 World Cup live on Sky Sports between now and November 14.
