The T20 World Cup 2024 saw some outstanding bowling performances. Most of the grounds were helpful for bowlers, a rare occurrence in this T20 era, and the bowlers took full advantage of that. There were two 5-wicket hauls, although both came against Uganda, arguably the weakest team in the tournament. There were 17 4-wicket hauls and a record number of maiden overs bowled including Lockey Ferguson’s super-human effort of bowling four maidens against Papua New Guinea. Also, for the first time in the tournament’s history, a proper bowler, Jasprit Bumrah won the player-of-the-tournament award for his brilliant match winnings displays consistently.
Here are the top five memorable bowling performances of T20 World Cup 2024.
Fazalhaq Farooqi 4-17 vs New Zealand
Fazalhaq Farooqi played a key role in Afghanistan’s maiden appearance in a World Cup Semi-final. He was almost unplayable in his first spell in most of the matches and Thanks to his five-wicket haul, Afghanistan blew away Uganda for just 58 runs in the first match. However, the more shocking result happened when the Afghans met New Zealand in their second match and bowled them out for a paltry 75. Farooqi picked up a wicket first ball during the chase and set the tone. He picked up the other opener Davon Conway in his next over and the dangerous Daryl Michell in his third over. After picking up three wickets in his first three overs, Farooqi later came at the death and picked up the final wicket to hand Afghanistan’s first victory over New Zealand. Fifteen of his 20 deliveries were dot balls and he finished with 4-17.
Jasprit Bumrah 3-7 vs Pakistan
Bumrah delivered mind-blowing performances in almost every match but his spell against the arch-rival Pakistan during T20 World Cup 2024, was out-of-this-world. This is the match where almost all the Indian batters failed as they could score only 119. Bumrah bowled in all three phases of the Pakistan innings and provided three crucial breakthroughs. In his first spell, he dismissed Babar Azam after he and Mohammed Rizwan provided a good start to Pakistan.
Then he came back in the 15th over with Pakistan needing 40 off 30 and Rizwan batting on 31. He dismissed Rizwan with the first delivery of the over and gave them a huge blow. Only three runs were scored in that over and the momentum shifted completely. Bumrah bowled the 19th, again conceded three runs, and with his final delivery dismissed Iftikhar Ahmed to remove any chance of a Pakistan win. India eventually won by six runs and Bumrah was Player-of-the-Match for his 3-7.
See also: 5 memorable batting innings from T20 World Cup
Anrich Nortje 4-7 vs Sri Lanka
Anrich Nortje did not enjoy a great IPL. He was just coming back from Injury and lacked intensity. He was dropped midway of the tournament from Delhi Capitals first XI. However, he came to the World Cup charged up and provided a glimpse of his skill in the very first match. When Nortje came to bowl, Sri Lanka were 30/1 in 7 overs.
It was not a good start but they had wickets in hand. But Nortje changed all this. He dismissed Kamindu Mendis in his first over, and Kushal Mendis in his second over as Sri Lanka crashed to 40/5. They never recovered as wickets continued to fall. Nortje ended up picking up wickets in all his overs and finished with 4/7 and 18 dot balls as Sri Lanka were folded for just 77.
Kuldeep Yadav 3-19 vs England
Kuldeep Yadav did not play India’s matches in the Group stage and was only included in the first XI once the team reached West Indies. Despite going wicketless in the final, Kuldeep picked up 10 wickets in the tournament with his best performance coming against England in the Semi-final. England were already in trouble when he came to bowl thanks to the early blows from Axar Patel.
But Kuldeep ensured that there was no respite for the English batters as they were bamboozled by his trickery. He dismissed Sam Curran off a wrong one, bowled Harry Brooks who tried to play a reverse sweep, and dismissed Chris Jordan with a traditional leg break. His full range was there on that day for the Indian fans to enjoy as England crashed to a meager 103 and lost by 68 runs.
Lockey Ferguson 3-0 against Papua New Guinea
Although Lockey Ferguson’s magic spell came against P.N.G., one of the associate nations playing in the tournament, bowling 4 maiden overs in a T20 match is not a joke. This was only the second instance in T20 Internationals where a bowler was able to bowl four maiden overs in a match. Lockie picked up a wicket with his first delivery and also scalped two more in his third and fourth over.
In between, he kept things extremely tight and the relatively inexperienced batters of P.N.G. had no answer to his swing. There were many playing and missing and with some more luck Ferguson could get an even bigger haul. But he could still put his name in the record book after finishing with 4-4-0-3.
Leave a Reply