Not every time you get to see Associate nations giving tough fights or defeating Cricketing giants in a World Cup. For quite a few years, one can hardly remember any major upset caused by a World Cup. Personally, the last upset that I can recall is when Ireland defeated England in the 2011 ICC Cricket World Cup. Post that, there have been hardly any upsets staged.
However, the ICC T20 World Cup 2022 has proven to be more competitive and probably the “Toughest tournament” staged to date. There have been major upsets staged since the qualifiers. Sri Lanka and West Indies faced the heat from Associate Nations in the qualifiers round and now the time was for the already qualified teams. The first and probably the biggest upset of this Tournament was Ireland defeating “Favourites” England in a rain-curtailed clash. Touted as “The Most Destructive” batting line-up in the Tournament, the Englishmen failed to chase down 158 runs. There was always going to be a rain interruption and a shortened innings for which England had to be on par or ahead of the DLS score, but they failed to do so and fell short by 5 runs to hand Ireland a memorable victory. Few might call the loss a tactical error on part of the Jos Buttler-led side, with power-hitters Moeen Ali and Liam Livingstone getting to face only a combined 14 deliveries. With each of the other batsmen struggling to clear the fence, a lot was left for Moeen Ali who alone faced 12 of those 14 deliveries. Moeen though tried his best with 24 off 12 but it wasn’t sufficient as rain abandoned further play and both power hitters were left with nothing to play.
After England, it was Pakistan’s turn of tasting an upset and it was none other than their favorite opponents, Zimbabwe, who handed them the defeat. Like England, Pakistan too has themselves to be blamed as they failed to chase a score as low as 130 in their full quota of 20 overs. With Babar and Rizwan again failing to score, it was up to their middle order to chase the total down. And they failed miserably in doing so. The last-over horror for Mohammad Nawaz continued, though he was at the batting end this time around, as he failed to take his side home when they required only 3 runs off the final 3 deliveries. What followed then was a dot, the wicket of Nawaz, and a single with a run-out, to hand Pakistan their second straight defeat in as many games.
To be honest, no one saw this coming with both England and Pakistan coming into the Tournament as Giants and Favourites to lift the trophy. But as famously said, “Never underestimate anyone” and Ireland and Zimbabwe showed why is it so to the entire world.
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