Brett Lee (centre) with his Sydney Sixers team-mates in his final cricket match – the 2014/15 BBL final
• After Rahul Dewan made a duck in a domestic Twenty20 game in India in 2010/11, his opening partner went on to score 99. Playing for Haryana against Punjab at Delhi, Mukul Dagar became the first batsman to score 99 not out on his Twenty20 debut.
• Upon losing Parthiv Patel to the first ball of a match at Cuttack in the 2012 IPL, the Deccan Chargers pair of Cameron White and Kumar Sangakkara put on a record third-wicket partnership of 157 against Pune Warriors. Manish Pandey was also dismissed first ball, the first time in the IPL that both teams had lost a wicket off the first ball of their innings.
• An IPL match at Uppal in 2014 saw three batsman top-scoring with 68. Hyderabad opener Aaron Finch and Mumbai’s Lendl Simmons and Ambati Rayudu were each dismissed for 68, the highest score in the match.
• In 2010/11, New Zealand’s Tim Southee became the first bowler to take five wickets and a hat-trick in the same Twenty20 international. Southee struck five times in nine deliveries during the first Twenty20 against Pakistan at Auckland, finishing with 5-18, with his hat-trick the second by a New Zealander, and the third overall, in international Twenty20 cricket.
• Deccan Chargers fast bowler Ishant Sharma dismissed four batsmen for a duck in a fiery spell in the 2011 IPL, taking five wickets against Kochi Tuskers. After four overs of the match, the Tuskers were reeling with individual scores of 0, 4, 0, 0, 0 and 0 emblazoned on the scoreboard. Sharma took 5-12 in three overs in the match, in which seven Kochi batsmen failed to get off the mark.
• During the running of the third Twenty20 international, two debutants returned the identical bowling figures of 3-20. In the match against South Africa at Johannesburg in 2005/06, New Zealand spinner Jeetan Patel and his team-mate Nathan Astle both posted figures of 4-0-20-3.
Two debutants also claimed three wickets in the very first Twenty20 international, played between New Zealand and Australia at Auckland in 2004/05. Michael Kasprowicz took 4-29, after Kyle Mills had picked up 3-44 opening the bowling for the hosts.
• To mark the 20th Twenty20 international, South Africa and the West Indies provided the first instance of rival teams recording a 100-run partnership in the same match. Played at Johannesburg in 2007/08, Chris Gayle (117) and Devon Smith (35) began proceedings with a 145-run opening stand, while Herschelle Gibbs (90*) and Justin Kemp (46*) responded with an ultimately match-winning third-wicket partnership of 120.
• When Australia beat Pakistan by 34 runs at the 2010 World Twenty20 competition, the match provided the first instance of all 20 wickets falling in the shortest form of the game. Australia’s last over was also record-breaking with as many as five wickets tumbling, another first in international cricket.
• Western Australia sprung a big surprise in the opening match of the 2010/11 Big Bash tournament by picking a 36-year-old Victorian fast bowler who hadn’t played state cricket for three years. Mick Lewis – famous for conceding a record 113 runs in his final one-day international – opened the bowling for the Warriors against the Tasmanian Tigers at Perth, taking two wickets in his opening over, and three in the match, the first wicket coming off his very first ball. So left-of-field was Lewis’s resurrection, the Cricinfo website had initially listed another player – Oxford University batsman Mark Lewis – on its scorecard.
Another debutant also picked up a wicket with his first delivery in the match. Tasmania import Ryan ten Doeschate, from the Netherlands, dismissed big guns Luke Pomersbach and Chris Gayle in his only over, while their other overseas player, Pakistani Naved-ul-Hasan, took 3-19.
• Despite losing a Twenty20 match in 2012 by 20 runs, the Wayamba United team made history with a 120-run partnership. Chasing 172 to beat Uva Next in the Sri Lanka Premier League, Wayamba crashed to 27/7 before the first instance in Twenty20 of a 100-run stand for the eighth wicket. Azhar Mahmood led the charge with an unbeaten 75, with Isuru Udana hitting 42.
• David Warner was a stand-out performer during the 2011 Champions League becoming the first batsman to score two consecutive Twenty20 centuries. The New South Wales batsman cracked a blinder against the Chennai Super Kings, his unbeaten 135 off 69 balls becoming the highest score to date in the tournament’s history. Batting left- and right-handed, Warner smacked 11 fours and eight sixes, with his 92 runs in boundaries establishing a new benchmark in the competition. One of his sixes off Blues team-mate Doug Bollinger was sent sailing 108 metres out of the stadium. In his next innings – against Bangalore – Warner was just as brutal, thrashing six fours and 11 sixes in an unbeaten knock of 123, in vain, against Bangalore. Chris Gayle – who would later partner Warner at the top for the Sydney Thunder in the Australian Big Bash League – was even more ferocious, scoring 92 off 41 balls, with eight fours and eight sixes, and a strike rate of 224.39.
Warner was the leading run-scorer in the competition and the only one to top 300. He made 328 runs in five matches at an average of 109.33 and also scored the most runs in boundaries (228), followed by Gayle (204). His elation at scoring back-to-back hundreds was short-lived, suffering back-to-back ducks in his next two Twenty20 innings. Facing South Africa in a two-match series, the Australian opener was run out off his first ball at Cape Town and then copped a nine-ball duck at Johannesburg.
• When Dirk Nannes picked up his maiden five-wicket haul in Twenty20 cricket, he did so at the home of cricket. Playing for Surrey against Middlesex at Lord’s in 2011, the Victorian took a match-winning 5-40, which he later described as “absolute rubbish”: “I was bowling terrible all day, but batsmen kept finding the fielders. It was more a case of their bad day turning good for me.”
• En route to the first below-50 total in British Twenty20 cricket, Paul Collingwood claimed a hat-trick and a match-winning haul of 5-6. Representing Durham in the Friends Life Twenty20 tournament in 2011, Collingwood presided over a Northamptonshire collapse that saw them all out for just 47 in 12.5 overs.
• Appearing in his only Twenty20 international, South Africa’s Alfonso Thomas took a wicket with his first delivery. The opening fast bowler took 3-25 in the match against Pakistan at Johannesburg in 2006/07, becoming just the second bowler to take a wicket first-up on his Twenty20 international debut. The first to do so was Australia’s Michael Kasprowicz (4-29), who took wickets with his first two deliveries, in the very first Twenty20 international, against New Zealand at Auckland in 2004/05.
• Barbados slow bowler Ashley Nurse had two five-wicket hauls to his credit in his first ten Twenty20 matches. In his fourth match – the final of the 2010 Caribbean Twenty20 – Nurse took 5-35 against Guyana at Port-of-Spain, although he ended up on the losing side. He then took 5-26, six matches later, against Trinidad and Tobago at Bridgetown in 2010/11. Nurse had a hand in all seven of T&T’s dismissals, with a catch, a run out and five wickets, but again failed to be on the winning side.
Nurse had taken 16 wickets at 16 after his first ten Twenty20 matches, earning a call-up for the West Indies. With no experience in first-class cricket, and just one List A match in 2007, Nurse made his West Indies debut in a Twenty20 international against Pakistan at Gros Islet in St Lucia in 2011.
• On his debut in English domestic Twenty20 cricket, West Indies all-rounder Kieron Pollard sparkled with a match double of a half-century and three wickets. In his first match for Somerset – at Lord’s in 2010 – Pollard took 3-26 against Middlesex and then slammed an unbeaten 89 off 45 balls with seven fours and seven sixes. Passing the milestone of 1,000 runs in Twenty20 cricket, one of his sixes came close to clearing the Lord’s Pavilion.
• The Perth Scorchers pulled off a tight win over the Melbourne Stars at the MCG in the 2011/12 Big Bash after losing its last five wickets in the last over. The final-over mayhem saw three wickets fall on 135 with three run outs.
• Following scores of nine, eight and nought, opener Craig Simmons struck a scorching ton for Perth in the 2013/14 BBL, reaching three figures off just 39 balls. The fastest century to date in the competition, Simmons hit 102 with eight sixes and eight fours against the Adelaide Strikers at the WACA.
Two matches later, Simmons became the first batsman to score two centuries in the competition’s history, bringing up 112 against the Sydney Sixers at the SCG, an innings that contained 11 sixes and four fours.
• Appearing in his first big-time Twenty20 match, an Australian under-19s player took a wicket with his first delivery in the 2011/12 Big Bash League. On his debut for the Adelaide Strikers, 18-year-old spinner James Muirhead took 2-17 against the Brisbane Heat at the Gabba. In his second match, Muirhead impressed again with another two-wicket haul, this time against the Perth Scorchers at the WACA. With 2-37, he dismissed their two imports, South African Herschelle Gibbs for 65 and former England Twenty20 captain Paul Collingwood for 18.
• The Netherlands went from hero to zero at the 2014 World Twenty20 tournament with a record-busting high score in one match and a record low in their next. In a Group B match against Ireland at Sylhet, the men in orange needed to reach a victory target of 190 in 14.2 overs to advance to the next round of the competition, doing so with 37 balls to spare. Stephan Myburgh (63) struck a 17-ball fifty, while South Australia’s Tom Cooper hit a 15-ball 45. As many as 30 sixes were seen for the first time in a Twenty20 international, with Ireland responsible for 11 off 20 overs and the Dutch 19 off 13.5.
But cheers turned to tears three days later with the Dutch all out for 39 at Chittagong, the first total under 50 in Twenty20 internationals. Sri Lanka ripped through the line-up – which contained four Australians – with both openers out for a duck and just one batsman passing ten.
The tournament final – between India and Sri Lanka – saw all 22 players either batting or bowling, but no participant doing both, a world first in any international match.
• On its way to a total of 70 in a Twenty20 international at Belfast in 2008, Bermuda’s innings contained just a single boundary. Opener Chris Foggo hit the only four of the innings off the fourth ball of the match against Canada.
• Tom Huggins took five wickets in five balls in a Twenty20 match for English club side Bury St Edmunds in 2010. Huggins appeared in 11 first-class matches and six Twenty20s for Northamptonshire in the early 2000s but never bowled a ball.
• To mark the 200th match in the IPL, both teams made 200 with David Warner and Virender Sehwag both scoring fifties. One of the most explosive opening pairs possible on the world stage, the dynamic duo put on a 146-run stand in 11.4 overs for the Delhi Daredevils against Kings XI Punjab in the 2011 edition of the IPL.
Both openers were dismissed for 77, with Warner getting to his fifty off 29 balls, and Sehwag 28. Sehwag was a little unkind on Australia’s David Hussey, who was appearing in his first match of the tournament. Sehwag swatted the Kings XI Punjab’s most expensive signing for three consecutive sixes, before Hussey picked him up going for a fourth.
• Appearing in his third Twenty20 match, a 20-year-old spinner took a stunning hat-trick off the first three balls of the innings against Barbados in the 2012/13 Caribbean Twenty20 tournament. Opening the bowling, Derone Davis took 4-5 for Combined Campuses and Colleges in a 12-run victory at Port-of-Spain.
• During the 2013 IPL, Australia’s James Faulkner became the first bowler to pick up two five-wicket hauls in the competition. Both hauls – 5-20 and 5-16 – for the Rajasthan Royals came against the same opposition – Sunrisers Hyderabad – and in the same season.
• Zimbabwe pulled off a humdinger of a win over the West Indies at Port-of-Spain in 2009/10 after the match began with a record 20 dot balls and three wickets. With a wicket to the first ball of the match from spinner Sulieman Benn (4-6) and a five-wicket haul to Darren Sammy (5-26), Zimbabwe’s 105 was too good for the West Indies, which fell for 79, incurring a 26-run loss.
• When South Australia hosted Tasmania in the Twenty20 Big Bash in 2009/10, eight wickets fell in the space of just 13 balls. In an action-packed match at the Adelaide Oval, the Redbacks (131) lost their last six wickets for four runs – with four batsmen dismissed in an over – while Tasmania (108/9) lost its first two wickets for none.
• Despite a century and a five-wicket haul in a 2011 Champions League match, South Australia was pipped at the post by a six off the final ball. The Redbacks began the game against the Royal Challengers in Bangalore with a century from opener Daniel Harris (108*), just the third hundred ever struck in the tournament, and the second in consecutive days by an Australian, after New South Wales’ David Warner (135*) against Chennai. With a victory target of 215, Shaun Tait took a maiden five-wicket haul (5-32), and with six runs needed off the final ball, Bangalore’s wicketkeeper Arun Karthik lifted Daniel Christian high into the crowd to seal his side’s dramatic progression into the semi-finals.
• Fourteen years after his last appearance for Australia, Michael Di Venuto made his debut for another country. In 2012, the then-38-year-old lined up for Italy in the World Twenty20 qualifiers in the United Arab Emirates, top-scoring with an unbeaten 42 in his first match, against Oman. Di Venuto shared a match-winning stand of 84 with the Melbourne-born Peter Petricola (39*), while another Australian starred with the ball. Carl Sandri – also born in Melbourne and a former Victorian second-XI player – took 4-9 in his first Twenty20 appearance.
The 2012 tournament featured another to switch sides. Geraint Jones – a wicketkeeper who appeared in 34 Tests for England – played for Papua New Guinea, the country of his birth, making a duck on his debut in the match against Afghanistan.
• After taking 1-25 in a 2009 Twenty20 Cup match at Cardiff, Gloucestershire’s Steve Kirby scored 25 in 25 minutes. He became the first batsman in all Twenty20 cricket to reach 25 batting at No. 11.
• On his way to a maiden five-wicket haul in Twenty20 cricket, Worcestershire’s Daryl Mitchell caught and bowled three of his opponents. Mitchell, who opened the batting and captained the side, took a match-winning 5-28 against Northamptonshire in 2014; team-mate Shaaiq Choudhry also claimed a caught-and-bowled dismissal.
• After picking up a handy 1-15 against Leicestershire in 2006, Mark Ealham starred with the bat, thrashing an unbeaten 31 off just seven balls batting at No. 7. The Nottinghamshire all-rounder pulverised his attack with four sixes and a further boundary for a record strike rate of 442.85.
• Bowling to a state team-mate at Mumbai in the 2013 IPL, Mitchell Johnson had three catches dropped off successive deliveries. Mike Hussey, opening for the Chennai Super Kings, hit three balls in a row to the same fielding position, occupied by Kieron Pollard who dropped all three chances.
• New Zealand fast bowler Tim Southee opened the batting for Essex in a Twenty20 match in 2011 and proceeded to bring up his maiden 50 in the shortest form of the game. Southee reached the milestone in just 19 balls on his way to a swashbuckling 74 off 34 in the match against Hampshire at Chelmsford. He struck six fours and five sixes with an imposing strike rate of 217.65.
Later in the same tournament – the Friends Life Twenty20 – Southee achieved his first six-wicket haul, taking 6-16 against Glamorgan at the same venue.
• Opening the bowling in a domestic match against the Lahore Lions in Pakistan in 2011, Sarmad Anwar went wicketless while becoming the first bowler to concede 80 runs in Twenty20 cricket. The Sialkot paceman went for 81 off his four allotted overs and then failed to score a run in the match, at Faisalabad.
• A tied Twenty20 match in South Africa in 2013/14 featured a world-record five catches taken by a fast bowler. In the Lions’ innings of 156 against the Warriors at East London, Ayabulela Gqamane held on to his five as a substitute fielder.
• Two months on from making his Test debut for Bangladesh, medium-pacer Al-Amin Hossain took a hat-trick and five wickets in an over in a Twenty20 innings. After three overs for UCB-BCB in the Victory Day Twenty20 Cup match against Abahani Limited in Sylhet in 2013/14, Al-Amin was brought back for the last and took a wicket with his first delivery. After a dot ball, he then removed the next four batsmen with consecutive deliveries to finish with figures of 5-17.
• A Bangladesh Premier League match in 2012/13 saw the Khulna Royal Bengals thrash Duronto Rajshahi after their openers had put on an unbeaten 197. The first time a side batting first had completed its innings without the loss of a wicket, New Zealand’s Lou Vincent scored 89 and Shahriar Nafees 102.
In another BPL match played on the same day, Brad Hodge, playing for Barisal Burners, became the first batsman to pass the milestone of 5,000 runs in Twenty20 cricket: “I am just very happy. I have made 10,000 plus runs in the Sheffield Shield and 5,000 in Twenty20s. It means that I have performed well over the course of my lifetime.”
• A Twenty20 match at Bridgetown in 2013 saw two bowlers claim a maiden five-wicket haul with no batsman reaching 15. Representing Barbados in the Caribbean Premier League, Bangladesh import Shakib Al Hasan took 6-6 against Trinidad and Tobago which was dismissed for 52 in 12.5 overs. Fidel Edwards then picked up 5-22, with Barbados claiming victory with 72 balls to spare.
• A Sri Lankan batsman went the tonk in 2013 hitting 277 in a Twenty20 innings in Lancashire. The 30-year-old Dhanuka Pathirana, who made his first-class debut in 2001/02, belted 29 sixes and 18 fours in a 72-ball knock for Austerlands against Droylsden in the Saddleworth League: “Everything seemed to hit the middle. I was seeing it like a football. It was like a dream … I think I did some serious damage to some of the vehicles in the car park.”
• In his only big-time match in any format, Llewellyn Armstrong captained the Bahamas in the 2006 Stanford 20/20 series at the age of 43 and top-scored for his side with an unbeaten 40. Another player aged over 40 top-scored for the opposition on his debut, with Pearson Best hitting a match-winning 74 for Cayman Islands.
• On its way to a Twenty20 total of 96 and a ten-wicket drubbing in 2013/14, Pakistan Television lost its first five wickets without a run on the board. Playing against Pakistan International Airways at Lahore, five of their top six batsmen made ducks in the worst-ever start by any team in Twenty20 cricket.
• After falling for a duck in a 2013/14 Big Bash League match against Perth at the SCG, Sydney Sixers all-rounder Moises Henriques came back to the crease and copped another. With the scores locked at 153 after 40 overs, the Sixers faced a one-over decider, the first in the competition’s history. Pakistan import Yasir Arafat took 4-24 for the Scorchers and a match-winning 2-1 in the eliminator, dismissing Henriques for a duck, who bagged the BBL’s first unofficial pair.
• Sent in to bat in the first Twenty20 match at Auckland in 2012/13, the top six in England’s batting order all hit a six, a first in Twenty20 international cricket. Michael Lumb struck two sixes, Alex Hales one, Luke Wright four, Eoin Morgan three, Jonny Bairstow two and Jos Buttler three. In a high-scoring encounter at the postage stamp-sized Eden Park ground, New Zealand and England hit 27 fours and 23 sixes.
The following match between the two sides, in Hamilton, saw the first instance of opposing wicketkeepers – Brendon McCullum (74) and Buttler (54) – scoring a half-century in the same match.
• Middlesex got off to a rollicking start to win a Twenty20 match at Hove in 2013, taking 26 runs off the first over. Chasing a total of 149 for victory against Sussex, the innings began with four leg-byes, then five consecutive boundaries (4, 4, 4, 6, 4) by Paul Stirling off Lewis Hatchett, who finished with figures of 0-22 off his only over.
• The first player to achieve two Twenty20 hat-tricks later became one of the victims in the first instance of four wickets in four balls in Twenty20 cricket. Representing West Indies A against India A at Bangalore in 2013/14, Andre Russell removed four batsmen in a row, including Yuvraj Singh who collected two hat-tricks in 2009.
• In the 58th match, and in Mumbai’s 13th, of the 2013 IPL, their million-dollar signing Glenn Maxwell finally made his debut. The biggest signing of the season, Maxwell made his first appearance – against the lowly-rated Pune Warriors – dropping a catch, bowling a single over and scoring an unbeaten 13.
• A domestic Twenty20 match at Rawalpindi in 2011/12 saw as many as nine ducks, with the Lahore Lions contributing six. The Lions (113) lost their first three wickets for ducks and their final three for nought, with the Peshawar Panthers contributing three in a losing total of 79.
• After making a duck batting at seven against Rajasthan at Abu Dhabi in the 2014 IPL, Kolkata wicketkeeper Robin Uthappa was promoted to the top of the order and proceeded to string together a record ten consecutive scores of 40 or above. All came in the merry month of May in matches on Indian soil – 47, 65, 47, 46, 80, 40, 67, 83 not out, 41 and 42.
• A Twenty20 competition played on the Greek island of Corfu in 2012 featured a Pakistani batsman hitting two centuries in a day. Representing Spain in the second division of the European Championship Twenty20 tournament, 38-year-old Tariq Ali Awan hit 150 not out off 66 balls against Estonia, then padded up later in the day for an innings of 148, off 55 balls, against Portugal.
• Chris Gayle was in the groove at Bangalore in 2013, smashing the fastest century and the highest innings to date in Twenty20 cricket. Opening the batting for the Royal Challengers against the Pune Warriors in the IPL, Gayle raced to the three-figure mark off 30 balls and left the field unconquered on 175 after 66. With a strike rate of 265.15, Gayle’s knock was peppered with 13 fours and a world-record 17 sixes, becoming the first player to pass the tally of 100 Twenty20 sixes at a particular venue. Next on the list at the time was David Hussey, with 50 at Trent Bridge.
Aaron Finch, who made his Twenty20 international debut for Australia in 2010/11, was the most harshly treated of the seven bowlers who had to face Gayle on his day of days. Finch sent down five balls and was done for 28 runs, conceding four of Gayle’s 17 sixes: “That was simply the best innings I’ve ever seen. It was just a guy on fire.”
With a new record-high team score of 263/5 in Twenty20 cricket, Gayle then starred with the ball, taking 2-5. Later in the competition, Gayle became the first player to attain 1,000 Twenty20 runs in three different calendar years, doing so consecutively between 2011 and 2013. He also became the first batsman to reach the milestone of 400 sixes in Twenty20 cricket – number two at the time was fellow West Indian Kieron Pollard with 263. In 2015, Gayle then became the first to hit 500 T20 sixes.
• Despite reaching a total of 50 in a Twenty20 match in England in 2009, all 11 members of the Newbury under-11s failed to score a run. Nine batsmen were bowled, while the other was run out, in the match against Mortimer West End. Newbury’s 50-run total came from 19 wides and six no-balls, with each worth two in the junior competition.
• A 41-year-old Brian Lara made a comeback to competitive cricket in 2010/11, making his debut for the Zimbabwean domestic team Southern Rocks. In his first-ever Twenty20 match, Lara scored 65 off 47 balls with eight fours and a six against Mashonaland Eagles at Harare.
• With as many as four debutants, Australia crushed Pakistan in a Twenty20 international at Dubai in 2014/15 in Aaron Finch’s first match as captain. Three bowlers – Cameron Boyce (2-10), Kane Richardson (1-13) and Sean Abbott (1-17) – made their debuts and each claimed a wicket in their first over.
• During a run of five consecutive Twenty20 internationals in 2009 and 2010, West Indies opener Andre Fletcher managed just eight runs with four ducks. Three of the ducks came in consecutive matches in four days in London, with one at Lord’s and two at The Oval.
• When the Kolkata Knight Riders beat the Hobart Hurricanes at Hyderabad in the 2014/15 Champions League, three of their bowlers returned identical bowling figures. The first three bowlers employed by Kolkata – Yusuf Pathan, Andre Russell and Sunil Narine – each took 4-0-24-1.
• Shahid Afridi played an explosive innings in an unofficial Twenty20 match at Nairobi in 2007/08, smashing a 15-ball 57 against Uganda. Pakistan crushed the African nation by 148 runs in the Twenty20 Quadrangular tournament with Afridi the standout, smashing seven sixes in his unbeaten knock. In the 17th over, Afridi hit five sixes and a four off Emmanuel Isaneez, collecting another two sixes and a four off the following over.
• A world first took place in a first-round Group A match at Chittagong in the 2013/14 World Twenty20 when two debutant bowlers claimed a wicket with their first delivery. Hong Kong’s Pakistan-born Nadeem Ahmed became just the seventh bowler to achieve the feat in Twenty20 internationals, with Nepal’s Paras Khadka becoming the eighth.
• Australian import Daniel Christian was on fire during a Twenty20 match at Canterbury in 2014 claiming an all-round double of 129 and 2-29 for Middlesex against Kent. He reached his fifty off 27 balls and his hundred off 46, posting a new high for a batsman at No. 5 in Twenty20 cricket.
• On his debut in Twenty20 cricket, Upul Jayasena hit one of the fastest fifties on record. Playing for the Sinhalese Sports Club against Badureliya in Colombo in 2014/15, Bandara struck a match-winning 54 not out off 14 balls, smacking three fours and six sixes.
• Following a series of three single-digit scores, Aaron Finch came alive in 2013 with the first innings of 150 in a Twenty20 international. Opening the batting against England at Southampton, Finch muscled his way to a match-winning 156 off 63 balls, the first century by an Australian in a Twenty20 international and the first by any batsman in England. After smashing a six off the first ball of the match, he went on to collect another 13, establishing a new record for the most sixes in an innings, reaching his 50, 100 and 150 with shots that cleared the fence. The Victorian batsman also took part in two century partnerships – 114 for the second wicket with Shaun Marsh and 101 for the third with Shane Watson – a first in Twenty20 internationals.
Australia maintained a cracking pace throughout the 20 overs reaching 248/6, the highest total to date in a Twenty20 international against a Test nation. With 209/6 in reply, England then produced the highest total to date by a team batting second and losing.
Batting for the first time in a Twenty20 international, England’s Joe Root hit an unbeaten 90 after bowling one over to Finch and Marsh which cost him 27 runs, while, for the first time, seven bowlers conceded more than 40. As many as 450 runs were scored for the first time in a Twenty20 international – the 457 beating 428 in a tied match fought out by New Zealand (214/6) and Australia (214/4) at Christchurch in 2009/10.
Without a single wicket in Twenty20 cricket, Australia gave a debut cap to an asylum seeker, Fawad Ahmed. The Pakistan-born spinner had appeared in just one 20-over match previously, for the Melbourne Renegades, and in his second Twenty20 international two days later at Chester-le-Street took 3-25.
• In a low-scoring Twenty20 international in Colombo in 2014/15, Nepal medium-pacer Sompal Kami pumped out the highest score by a No. 10 batsman in Twenty20 cricket. Playing against Hong Kong, Kami came in with eight of his team-mates having been dismissed for single-figure scores and struck 40, including six fours and two sixes. The previous best at ten in a Twenty20 international had been 22 by Afghanistan’s Hamid Hassan against South Africa at Bridgetown in 2010.
Chasing 73 for victory, HK recovered from 21/5 to get home with eight wickets down and one ball remaining. Hong Kong’s Aizaz Khan was named man of the match after returning the record-breaking economical figures of 4-1-4-2 and top-scoring with 21 not out.
• When South Africa hosted the West Indies for a round of Twenty20 matches in 2014/15, two batsmen hit centuries, the first time this had happened in a bilateral series. With Faf du Plessis hitting 119 at Johannesburg and wicketkeeper Morne van Wyk 114 not out at Durban, South Africa became the first team to record centuries in consecutive Twenty20 internationals.
• A couple of near-40-year-olds got the Sydney Thunder franchise off to a record-breaking start in the 2014/15 Big Bash League, setting up just their second win in 22 matches. On his BBL debut – against Brisbane Heat in Sydney – former South African all-rounder Jacques Kallis put together an unbeaten 97 in a 160-run opening stand with Mike Hussey, who made 96. Former England all-rounder Andrew Flintoff made a duck and failed to take a wicket on his debut for Brisbane.
• Brett Lee bowed out of cricket in spectacular fashion, ending his career on a hat-trick. With three balls remaining in the final of the Big Bash League in Canberra in 2014/15, Lee took two consecutive wickets for the Sydney Sixers in front of a packed crowd at Manuka Oval. With the scores tied on 147, the Perth Scorchers avoided the hat-trick by taking the prize off the last ball of the match: “It would have been awesome to win, but that’s Twenty20 cricket. When it comes down to the last over, the last ball, you wouldn’t have written a better script. It wasn’t to be.”
Brett Lee (centre) with his Sydney Sixers team-mates in his final cricket match – the 2014/15 BBL final
