T20 format of cricket has become one of the most viewed formats of the game among cricket fans. None of us were expecting the level of excitement & thrill it gives.
It allows the players to explore their talent when they are under pressure & have less time to show their talent to prove their worth. It is because of this format, Indian Premier League & T20 World cup have become two of the most viewed tournaments in the world & they are getting closer to the Premier League. Every year, new talents register their names in the list of records in the T20 format. This in turn gives them the motivation to perform better every year & win more trophies for their country.
However, it is not every time we witness the kind of entertainment we expect from the players. There have been incidents where a lot of well-named cricketers, especially batsmen, have played a very slow inning & in the end their team had to suffer. Sometimes a batsman gets stuck because of the pitch, or sometimes it’s because they take their own time to open up on the field.
In this article, we will look at the 4 slowest innings in the history of international T20 cricket scored by some of the big names in the world of cricket.
4) Majid Haq – 14 (31) – T20 World Cup 2007
Majid Haq, a former Scottish off-spinner, made headlines when he played the slowest innings against Pakistan. He scored 14 runs off 31 balls with a strike rate of 45.16. His innings came during the first-ever edition of the T20 World cup in 2007 at Durban.
All because of this incident & his slow ball effect, he became a social media sensation & a big bit of jokes.
3) Lendl Simmons – 16 (35) – T20 World Cup 2021
West Indies is one of the best teams when it comes to the T20 format. Players like Chris Gayle & Andre Russell have made it big with their extraordinary hitting skills. However, Lendl Simmons became one of the West Indian players, at the ongoing T20 World Cup, who played the slowest innings of his T20 career.
He scored 16 runs off 35 balls against South Africa in Dubai. His strike rate was 45.71. He also failed to score a single boundary. The name is new to the list & is expected to stay for some time. However, skipper Kieron Pollard took his side in the post-match conference & mentioned that he was taking his own time.
2) Yuvraj Singh – 14 (32) – Asia Cup 2016
Yuvraj Singh’s name in the list will come as a surprise to Indian Cricket Fans. He was one of the greatest players of the T20 format & always scored big numbers whenever the team needed him to do so. Cricket fans can’t forget his 6 sixes in an over of Stuart Broad against England in T20 World Cup 2007.
However, it was shocking to see Yuvraj struggling to score runs during the 2016 Asia Cup match in Dhaka against Pakistan. He scored 14 runs off 32 balls with a strike rate of 43.75. India won that match easily, but this kind of performance was not at all expected from Yuvraj Singh at that time.
1) Alok Kapali – 14 (35) – T20 World Cup 2007
Bangladesh’s all-rounder, Alok Kapali, tops the list of slow innings. Kapali holds the record of the slowest t20 innings on an international platform. His innings came against South Africa in Cape Town in the first T20 world cup which was held in 2007. Kapali scored 14 runs off 35 balls with a strike rate of 40.
However, Alok kapali is a well-known name in Bangladeshi cricket fertility. His first year of international career was a splendid one, where he scored 89 against West Indies in 2002. His pulls were quite good & fans started comparing his techniques to Brian Lara. His career ended in 2011 & was replaced when he completely failed against Pakistan at home.
