The seventh edition of the ICC T20 World Cup was held in 2021 in the Middle East, across the United Arab Emirates and Oman.
Originally, this edition was meant to be held in Australia in 2020 but due to COVID-19, the event was postponed.
The ICC confirmed that the event would be hosted by India in 2021, but in June 2021 the ICC once again changed the host nation due to growing concerns over the pandemic situation in India. Thus, the UAE and Oman got the hosting rights.
The World Cup was divided into two stages, the Group stage and the Super 12s. India, along with the top nine ranked ICC Full Members qualified for the tournament directly. Out of these 10 teams, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, and the six teams who qualified through the 2019 ICC T20 World Cup qualifiers were put into the Group stages.
The top 4 teams from the Group stages would qualify for the Super 12s.
Group A matches were held in the UAE and Group B matches were held in Oman. After the conclusion of the Group Stages, the Super 12s consisted of 2 groups.
Group 1: Australi, Bangladesh, England, South Africa, Sri Lanka, West Indies
Group 2: Afghanistan, India, Namibia, New Zealand, Pakistan, Scotland
Here are the top 5 matches from the 2021 T20 World Cup.
3. West Indies edge past Bangladesh in a last-ball classic
West Indies played Bangladesh in the 23rd match of the event. The match was played in Sharjah on October 29. Bangladesh won the toss and sent West Indies in to bat. On a tough batting pitch, the only real innings of substance were played by Nicholas Pooran who scored 40 off 22 balls. This included 4 sixes and 1 four. Mustafizur Rahman's 20th over went for 19 runs and this allowed the Windies to crawl to 142. Bangladesh's Shoriful Islam had decent figures of 2/20 in 4 overs.
Bangladesh's innings weren't smooth at all. Lack of intent from the Bangladeshi batters along with some disciplined bowling by the Windies made sure that the task was too much for the Bangladeshi team. This ended up with 13 runs needed off the last over, which then became 4 off the last ball. Andre Russell was able to hold up his nerve as Bangladesh went down by 3 runs.
Pooran was named the player of the match for his explosive innings on a difficult pitch.
