After the USA recorded their historic win over Pakistan, Al Jazeera lists the five biggest upsets in the tournament’s history.
The United States pulled off one of the biggest upsets in cricket history when they defeated Pakistan in the T20 World Cup 2024 match in Dallas.
The victory, won in a super over after the score was tied after the prescribed 20 overs, shocked the cricketing world and led many experts to believe that cricket might finally become popular in baseball land.
In the 17-year history of the T20 World Cup, here are the top five upsets in order of shock value:
1. America beats Pakistan: 2024
The co-hosts had never played Pakistan in any format before Thursday’s match. The United States, 12 places lower than the 2009 winners, came into the game riding the momentum of their opening win over Canada, while Pakistan came into the match after a series loss to England.
Despite the contrasting performances, not many experts would have predicted a team of recently professional cricketers to pull off an upset victory against a leading cricket team.
The US national team is made up of cricketers who played for India, Pakistan, the West Indies, South Africa and New Zealand until a few years ago. The country’s cricket infrastructure is not the best and the World Cup is being held in the US by the International Cricket Council.
But that didn’t affect the calm, professional demeanor of the US team players as they kicked off America’s biggest cricket party with a shock win in Dallas.
2. Netherlands beat England: 2009
The first and only T20 World Cup kicked off at Lord’s Cricket Ground in London, the home of cricket, with host nation England facing off against the so-called underdog nation of the Netherlands.
All seemed to be going well when England posted 163, a score considered well above par in the early days of T20 cricket, but the Netherlands lost their first wicket in the first over, but they steadied in the middle overs and a 60-run partnership between Tom de Groos and Peter Bolen secured a famous victory under a grey evening sky at Lord’s.
3. Nepal defeats Afghanistan: 2014
Nepal were making their debut in the T20 World Cup and had already registered one win against Hong Kong, but Afghanistan were a developing team with several players playing in leagues around the world.
Mohammed Shahzad, Najibullah Zadran, Mohammed Nabi and Asghar Afghan were among the playing eleven but were dismissed nine runs short of the target set by Paras Khadka-led Nepal.
4. Namibia beats Sri Lanka: 2022
Namibia have been a fixture in the lower division cricket leagues for many years but defeating the 2014 T20 champions and 1996 50-over World Cup winners was no mean feat.
The African players fought hard to reach a total of 163 before some superb bowling rocked Sri Lanka to be restricted to 108 in the 19th over and Namibia’s celebrations began.
5. Afghanistan beat West Indies: 2016
The West Indies went into the 2016 tournament as one of the favourites to win, with T20 stars Dwayne Bravo, Andre Russell and Darren Sammy in the line-up.
Samuel Badree halted the spin bowling attack and restricted Afghanistan to 123, but the Afghanistan spinners had plans of their own. Rashid Khan and Nabi took two wickets each to leave the 2012 team in disarray and Afghanistan cruised to a famous six-wicket win.
A few days later, West Indies lifted the trophy, making Afghanistan’s achievement even more incredible.
