T20#1. Four countries will enter the Twenty20 World Cup with an unblemished record: India, Bangladesh, Kenya and Scotland. India and Bangladesh have played one T20 match each and won it, while the other two are yet to play any!
T20#2. England, widely seen as the masters of Twenty20 have lost 4 of the 6 matches they have played so far. They actually won the first 2, so they have lost 4 in a row now.
T20#3. The largest defeat yet has been suffered by Australia - it's no mean feat losing a 20 over match by 100 runs.
T20#4. On two occasions, the teams have averaged 10 runs per over for the entire match. West Indies and England amassed a total of 401 runs in a Twenty20 match on 28th June this year. 12 batsmen finished with a strike rate of over 100. Two half-centuries were scored at a strike rate of almost 200. In the other match, Australia lost the match by just 2 runs chasing South Africa's 201.
T2o#5. In a completed innings, the highest average has been Australia's. They scored 221 runs against England at Sydney in January this year. In its alloted 120 balls, Australia scored 14 boundaries and 14 sixes.
T20#6. The world's leading scorer in Twenty20 Cricket is Graeme Smith. 259 runs at an average of 86.33 and more importantly at a career strike rate of 137.76. Rickey Ponting is next but his average is way below into the 40's.
T20#7. Marlon Samuels has a career strike rate of 200+ and Andrew Symond's is just below 200.
T20#8. Even with that stupendous average of 86.33, the South Africa captain is not on the top of the career averages list. Sitting pretty on the top is none other than Sanath Jayasuriya, averaging 92. ( India has lost its top guy here forever, to ICL - Dinesh Mongia)
T20#9. If you are still not convinced about the entertainment quotient of the Twenty20 version of cricket check this out: Just 16 T20 matches have been played so far and we have already seen 15 fifties scored in less than 40 balls. Six of them were scored in under 30 balls.
T20#10. Later this month we will in all likelihood see the first Twenty20 centurion. That's a feat yet not reached, though Rickey Ponting came very close. His 98 may be eclipsed soon, but it may stay on longer as the higest score on Twenty20 debut!!
ps: my apologies for the rampant misuse of the word 'career'.
Searching for a nice funny quote on career to wind up this post with, I didn't get any real gem, but here's one from Michael Vaughan.
"I'm probably going to have to work hard on my knees for the rest of my career."
Posts
