T20 World Cup 2024
20-20 World Cup: Top five biggest upsets in tournament’s history
One of the upsets took place in the first-ever match of the 2022 edition.
Teams like the Netherlands, Zimbabwe, and Scotland get to play against great nations like England, Australia, and India in multi-national tournaments like the 50-over World Cup and the 20-20 World Cup. However, when it comes to major tournaments, no team can take the associate nations for granted as they have proved their worth in the past.
Namibia beating Sri Lanka in the ongoing 20-20 World Cup 2022 will go down as one of the great upsets in the tournament’s history. As things stand, let us take a look at four other upsets that rocked the cricketing fraternity on the whole.
1) Australia vs Zimbabwe, 2007
Zimbabwe vs Australia, 2007 (Image Source: Twitter)
The Australia-Zimbabwe clash in 2007 would be cherished forever as the latter silenced the spectators with a win off the penultimate ball of the match. Chasing a target of 139, the Zimbabwe team led by Brendan Taylor defeated the mighty Aussies by 5 wickets.
To comment more on the match, the Zimbabwean skipper scored an unbeaten 60 off 45 balls and took his team home against the Kangaroos. This win created a huge shock wave during the inaugural tournament and the victory was cherished all over Zimbabwe.
2) England vs Netherlands, 2009
England vs Netherlands, 2009 (Image Source: Twitter)
The Netherlands proved a point in the 2009 20-20 World Cup after defeating favourites England in their home ground while chasing a target of 163. The team led by Jeroen Smits defeated the Three Lions with 4 wickets off the last ball of the match.
That was not enough for them as the team defeated England yet again in the year 2014 and continued their dominance over the Three Lions in the major tournament. However, the 2009 upset is still the most-talked-about match as it came in England.
3) Bangladesh vs Hong Kong, 2014
Hong Kong vs Bangladesh, 2014 (Image Source: Twitter)
Hong Kong clinched an emphatic win against Bangladesh in the 20-20 World Cup 2014and stunned everyone. After restricting the Bangla Tigers to just 110 runs with the ball, the team under the leadership of Jamie Atkinson pulled off an unbelievable win as they chased down the target with 2 wickets to spare.
The win, however, remains one of the greatest in Hong Kong’s history and one of the greatest upsets in the tournament’s history. Hong Kong, however, failed to come up with such performances post-2014.
4) Namibia vs Sri Lanka, 2022
Namibia vs Sri Lanka (Image Source: Twitter)
Namibia, led by Gerhard Erasmus, shocked everyone in the very first match of the 20-20 World Cup 2022 as they defended a total of 163 runs. While everyone backed Sri Lanka to clinch the victory, Namibia, on the back of some stupendous spells from David Wiese and Bernard Scholtz, clinched the win.
“It’s been an incredible journey, last year was exciting for us and we’ve now topped that with a great win. Though there’s still a lot of work to do for the rest of the tournament. But yeah it’s been a historic day for us. [On head coach Pierre de Bruyne] He turned this whole ship around for us in 2019, he’s instilled a culture in this team,” said skipper Erasmus on the win.
5) Zimbabwe vs Pakistan, 2022
Zimbabwe vs Pakistan, 2022 (Image Source: Twitter)
After facing a humiliating defeat against India in the campaign opener in 2022, Pakistan was bracing for an easy win against Zimbabwe in their next clash. However, their dreams were shattered as Zimbabwe defended the total of 130 by just a run.
With this defeat, the Men in Green’s dreams of making it to the semis were reduced and eventually, the team depended on other teams to take them through. However, this became one of the most-talked-about upsets of all time.
