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Twenty20 World Cup Guides

The Twenty20 World Cup also called the ICC World Twenty20 is a Twenty20 cricket international championship. The International Cricket Council (ICC), which is the governing body of Twenty20 cricket, organises the event. The competition consists of 12 teams and Test-playing countries and qualifiers compete in the tournament. The Twenty20 World Cup is expected to take place every two years.

History of the Twenty20 World Cup

The Twenty20 World Cup evolved from Twenty20 cricket. Twenty20 cricket has tow teams, who each have a single innings. The two teams strive to gain the maximum number of overs, which is 20. Twenty20 cricket revitalised cricket as a sport and made it much better and attracted more fans.

• The England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) first discussed a shorter cricket format in the late 1990s and in 2001 the concept really started to take a concrete form.

• The idea was a 40-over game with each innings having 20 overs. The board presented the concept to the chairman of the county in 2001 and it won the vote of 11 to 7 for the new format. The new form was named Twenty20 and it is popularly called T20. This new form caused a revolution of the sport of cricket. Cricket is one of the oldest sports in the world.

• A game of Twenty20 cricket lasts about two and half hours, each innings lasts about 75 minutes.

• The England and Wales Cricket Board formally introduced the new form internationally in 2003 when it presented the Twenty Cup.

• Also in 2003, the world’s first Twenty20 cricket tournament was held in England. The tournament has many cricket teams from various counties and showed to be an unqualified success due the tens of thousands of viewers that crowded the stands of England’s cricket stadiums, which was the first time in many years.

• Other countries that played cricket soon began to notice the Twenty20 form. Twenty20 cricket made its first international appearance in 2005 with a game between Australia and New Zealand played at Eden Park.

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As the popularity of the new form increased, the game was taken more seriously and by 2007 the game had become so popular that the ICC decided to organise the first international Twenty20 competition, the Twenty20 World Cup.

• The first inaugural event called the 2007 ICC World Twenty20 was held in South Africa from September 11-24, 2007. 12 teams competed in the competition. • The competition was an exciting event and exceeded the expectations of estimated attendance and the interest of people around the world.

• There were many unforgettable matches, such as Zimbabwe defeating Australia and Bangladesh beating the West Indies. But, the most thrilling was the tie between India and Pakistan.

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India defeated Pakistan and won the tournament and became the first World Twenty20 (T20) Champions. India beat Pakistan by 5 runs at Johannesburg for the final competition. • After the success of the first Twenty20 World Cup, the ICC decided to hold the competition every two years.

• The second Twenty20 World Cup will be held in June 2009 in England. Three stadiums in English will host the competition matches. The opening ceremony and final is planned to take place at Lords. The semi-finals of the competition will be held at the Oval and Trent Bridge. • The event will be divided into two tournaments, a men’s competition and a women’s competition. There will be 12 teams in the men’s tournament and 8 teams in the women’s tournament. There will 9 Test-playing countries and ICC Associate members the Netherlands, Ireland, and Scotland. These three teams qualified for the tournament in the 2009 ICC World Twenty20 Qualifier competition.

• There will not be many format changes in the 2009 competition except for changes to the rules applying to tie breakers.

• The 2009 competition is scheduled to start of June 11, 2009 and end on June 21, 2009.

Twenty20 World Cup Statistics

The 2007 ICC Twenty20 World Cup was an exciting competition with many records and excellent statistics.

South Africa versus West Indies

• Most runs in boundaries in one Twenty20 International game with 252 runs from 36 fours and 18 sixes.

• Chris Gayle, player for West Indies, had the most individual sixes (10), the first hundred (117), and most individual runs (88).

• Herschelle Gibbs had the most individual fours in a single inning, 14.

• South Africa has the highest total innings batting second, 208.

• Devon Smith and Chris Gayle both West Indies players had the highest partnership for any wicket with 145 runs.

Kenya versus New Zealand

• Kenya had the third lowest team total with 73 runs (16.5 overs).

Bangladesh versus West Indies

• Dwayne Smith, player for West Indies, had the fastest strike rate, 414.28) 29 runs from 7 balls).

Sri Lanka versus Kenya

• Sri Lanka has the highest total (260 for 6), largest margin of win by runs (172), most fours (30), most runs (186 with 30 fours and 11 sixes).

• Kenya players Lameck Onyango, Peter Ongondo, and Nehemiah Odhiambo set the record for the first time more than three bowlers gave up more than 50 runs.

Australia versus Bangladesh

• Brett Lee did the first hat trick by a bowler.

India versus England

• Match had the highest aggregate total with 418 runs.

• India player, Yuvraj Singh, had six sixes in an over (36 runs) and the fastest fifty (12 balls).

Australia versus Sri Lanka

• Largest margin of win by wickets with 10 wickets by Australia.

Australia versus India

• Longest six, 119 meters by India player Yuvraj Singh in a ball thrown by Australian player Brett Lee.

Highest Team Totals

• 260-6 Sri Lanka versus Kenya

• 218-4 India versus England

• 208-2 South Africa versus West Indies

• 205-6 West Indies versus South Africa

• 200-6 England versus India

Lowest Team Totals

• 73 Kenya versus New Zealand

• 83 Bangladesh versus Sri Lanka

• 88 Kenya versus Sri Lanka

Most Wickets in the Competition

• Umar Gul, Pakistan with 13

• Stuart Clark, Australia with 12

• R.P. Singh, India with 12

• Shahid Afridi, Pakistan with 12

• Daniel Vettori, New Zealand with 11

• Ifran Pathan, India with 10

• Mohammad Asif, Pakistan 10

• Morne Morkel, South Africa 9

• Nathan Bracken, Australia 8

• Mitchell Johnson, Australia 8

Most Runs in the Competition

• Mahela Jayawardene, Sri Lanka 159

• Aftab Ahmed, Bangladesh 162

• Craig McMillan, New Zealand 163

• Adam Gilchrist, Australia 169

• Justin Kemp, South Africa 173

• Kevin Pietersen, England 178

• Shoaib Malik, Pakistan 195

• Misbah-ul-Haq, Pakistan 218

• Gautam Gambhie, India 227

• Matthew Hayden, Australia 265

Highest individual scores

• 68 Virender Sehwag, India versus England

• 70 Yuvraj Singh, India versus Australia

• 71 Junaid Siddique, Bangladesh versus Pakistan

• 73 Matthew Hayden, Australia versus Bangladesh

• 75 Gautam Gambhie, India versus Pakistan

• 79 Kevin Pietersen, England versus Zimbabwe

• 88 Sanath Jayasuriya, Sri Lanka versus Kenya

• 89 Justin Kemp, South Afriva versus New Zealand

• 90 Herschelle Gibbs, South Africa versus West Indies

• 117 Chris Gayle, West Indies versus South Africa

Rules of Twenty20 World Cup

All Twenty20 cricket matches must abide by the same rules. The ICC Standard Playing Conditions for Twenty20 outline the general rules. The rules are updated annually to incorporate developments and improvements in the game.

Duration

• Each side has one innings and there can be a maximum of 20 overs in each innings.

Interval

• Each internal is typically 15 minutes long. The intervals are decreased to 10 minutes in matches that have reduced overs.

• Re-arrangement of Overs

• Both teams have an hour and 15 minutes to bowl 20 overs.

• In the first innings of the match, the number of overs is calculated based on one over for every 3.75 minutes in the total time allotted for play up to the planned time to close play.

• In the second innings, overs are reduced to one over for every 3.75 minutes lost, unless the first innings end early or the second innings begins early, if this happens no overs are lost until the time is gained back.

Timed Out

• The player that is up to back must be in the correct position to guard or allow his or her partner to receive the ball within one minute and 30 seconds from when the previous wicket fell.

Result

• Both sides must have had the opportunity to face at least five overs for it to be called a match. In interrupted matches, the Duckworth Lewis Method is used.

Restrictions on the Placement of Players on the Field

• Restrictions on fielding apply for the first six overs in each innings.

Number of Overs per Bowler

• Each bowler can only bowl a maximum number of four overs.

• In delayed or interrupted matches, bowlers cannot bowl more than 1/5 of the total overs that are allowed unless the number was reached before the match was delayed or interrupted.

A free hit after a foot fault and no ball will apply as circumstances arise.

One short-pitched ball is allowed for every over.

Over-Rate Penalties

• For every over not bowled a six-run penalty will apply. Both sides are expected to be in the bowl position to bowl the first ball of the 20th over within the hour and 15 minute time of play.

• In matches with reduced overs, there is a one over leeway for the fielding side along with time the Umpires allow for stops.

• Umpires are told to apply a strict understanding of ways to waste time by the batsman, which are five run penalties. As soon as the bowler is ready, batsmen should be ready to start a new over.

Net Run Rate

• The net run rate of a team is calculated by subtracting the average runs per over that were scored against the team from the average runs per over scored by the team.

• If a team is all out in less than the maximum number of overs, the calculation of the team’s net run rate will be based on the full allowance of overs and not the number of overs the team dismissed.

Remarkable Facts About Twenty20 World Cup

Even though the Twenty20 World Cup has only been held once and is scheduled to be held again this year, there are many interesting facts about the competition.

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Australia lost to Zimbabwe in their opening game in the 2007 Twenty20 World Cup.

• In the 2007 World Cup, only one match was abandoned and it was the group match between Scotland and India in Durban.

• The first hat trick in the entire World Cup was by Brett Lee, an Australia player in a match against Bangladesh.

• Adam Gilchrist had the most amount of dismissals by a wicket keeper. The number was 9 dismissals.

• Sri Lanka has an uncertain record of winning by the biggest margin in runs and losing by the biggest margin in wickets. Sri Lanka beat Kenya by 172 runs and was defeated by Australia by 10 wickets.

• Dramatic thing in the 19th over, Yuvraj Singh hit 6 sixes in one over in a match against England and against bowler Stuart Broad.

• There were 53 runs in the first partnership between Irfan Pathan and Darren Maddy.

• The total runs for the tournament was 418 and the total wickets was 10.

• Yuvraj Singh was given the Man of The Match for his 6 sixes.

• India was the country that had the least amount of experience with Twenty20 cricket. The country only played one match before the competition, which was against South Africa in 2006.

• Sri Lanka had the best net run rate of 4.72.

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The least number of matches was played by Scotland. The team only played one match against Pakistan. The team was supposed to play India, but the match was cancelled because of rain.

• South Africa had the highest successful run chase in the competition in a match versus West Indies. The team chased the target of 205 runs.

• West Indies had the most extra runs in the match against South Africa with 28 extra runs.

• New Zealand player, Craig McMillan scored the most amount of sixes (13) in the competition.

• Umar Gul had the most number of wickets in the tournament, with 13 wickets. The average was 11.92.

• The success of the 2007 inaugural Twenty20 World Cup helped cricket shed its reputation as a sport that is unattractive, boring, and long. The event caused such a stir that the new form of cricket is becoming more and more popular around the world.

• The ESPN STAR Sports network saw exceptional viewership for the inaugural 2007 ICC Twenty20 World Cup.

• Due to its popularity and fan base the 2009 Twenty20 World Cup is scheduled to be telecast in 216 countries by ESPN STAR Sports. The network is predicting an even greater viewership than the previous tournament.

• For the 2009 ICC Twenty20 World Cup, India are considered favourites as they go in as defending champions, but many other teams are very motivated to fight for the title.