Cricket Feature: Top plays and players of T20 World Cup 2021

The tournament was filled with many exciting moments, games and players. Aussies winning the cup for the first time was one of the top moments; keep reading as we present some of the top moments and players from the last ICC T20 World Cup held in the United Arab Emirates.

Review and a key highlight of the last world cup

Pakistan ends India's winning streak

Though Australia won their maiden T20 World Cup title, the most memorable image of the tournament was the left-arm pacer Shaheen Shah Afridi who set up the victory by dismissing both the Indian openers early to return with stunning figures of 3-31. After restricting India to 151-7, Babar Azam (68) and Mohammad Rizwan (79) smashed unbeaten half-centuries to crush India by ten wickets.  

Curtis Campher 4 wickets in 4 balls

Irish bowler Curtis Campher scalped four wickets in four balls to help Ireland defeat the Netherlands by seven wickets in a qualifier. He first struck a hattrick and then the fourth one to return with figures of 4-26 as they restricted opponents to 106. He is only the third bowler to achieve this feat in T20Is after Afghanistan's Rashid Khan and Sri Lanka's Lasith Malinga in 2019.

Jos Buttler scored the first century of the T20 World Cup

England registered their four consecutive wins after Jos Buttler smashed the first century of the World Cup to defeat Sri Lanka by 26 runs. His unbeaten 101 helped England post a mammoth total of 163 at a loss of four wickets. In this knock-off 67 balls, he hit six boundaries and six sixes and achieved the feat of making tons in all three formats. 

Players who stood out by their performance 

Babar Azam - most runs and most 50s

According to ICC's latest ranking, the best T20I batter in the world was in absolute beast mode throughout the World Cup. He was the tournament's highest run-scorer (303) with the help of four half-centuries, again the most in the match. He kept an average of 60.60 throughout the world cup. He started his destruction by defeating India with ten wickets in the World Cup opening game alongside Mohammad Rizwan, where he scored 68(52) *.

Wanindu Hasaranga - the birth of a new legend (Most wicket-taking bowler)

Sri Lanka, a team known for having a world-class spinner in their squad, got their potential future legend in the form of Wanindu Hasarange in the T20 World Cup 2021. The tournament's leading wicket-taker (16) was called the Most Valuable Player of the T20 World Cup 2021, according to ESPNcricinfo's Smart Stats. Throughout the series, he took the wickets of all the top-order batters along with a hattrick against South Africa. Along with taking wickets, he also troubled batters in scoring, maintaining an economy of 5.20 throughout the tournament. Following his performance in this tournament, Royal Challengers Bangalore went all in to get this spinner back in their squad during the auction, spending ten crores.

Jos Buttler: The most trusted batter

England was the table topper of group one with a net run-rate of freaking 2.464. The reason - Jos Buttler. He was the batter opening the game for England and managed the best average throughout the tournament of 89.66. He was also the one who blasted the first and only century of the World Cup 2021. For the nature Buttler is known for, he also smashed the most sixes (13) in the tournament. Jos Buttler continued his form throughout the IPL 2022, and now he will be leading England for white-ball cricket.