Top 10 Cricketing moments in 2020

Top 10 cricketing moments in 2020:

2020 wasn't the best year for cricket fans. We missed a lot of action due to the global pandemic that hit mankind, the world was under Lockdown for the maximum amount of time in the year. Yet, we got a decent amount of enjoyment through IPL, England vs West Indies series, India's tour of Australia, and many more. 

10. Katherine Brunt avoids Mankading in ICC Women's T20 WC.

        Katherine Brunt did something which was in the right spirit of the game but then ended up costing her team during England's ICC Women's T20 World Cup 2020 encounter against South Africa at the WACA Ground in Perth back in February. The pacer avoided a Mankading in the final over of the contest just when the match could have gone either way. In the end, the former champions lost the match. Had Brunt ran out of Luus then the scenario could have been completely different as South Africa would have felt the pressure of losing an extra wicket at a crucial juncture.

9. Glenn Maxwell and Alex Carry's record partnership empowers Australia to beat England.

        This had happened during the series-deciding third and final ODI that was played between arch-rivals England and Australia at the Emirates Old Trafford, Manchester on 16 September 2020. Chasing a stiff total of 303, the Aussies had lost half their side for just 73 runs on the board. The middle-order duo of Glenn Maxwell (108) and wicket-keeper batsman Alex Carey (106) took matters into their own hands and added 212 runs for the sixth-wicket stand as the five-time world champions snatched victory from the jaws of defeat by three wickets with a couple of balls to spare.

8. Arrival of T. Natarajan in international cricket.

        Indian player T. Natarajan impressed everyone with his toe-crushing yorkers in IPL 2020, got his chance to debut for India in their tour to Australia. He came in as a replacement of Navdeep Saini in ODIs and in place of Varun Chakraborty in T20. And Natarajan continued to impress every Indian on his international debut taking 8 wickets in 1 ODI and 3 T20 matches. He is also all set to debut for India in the test in 2021. 

7. Mumbai Indians win their 5th IPL cup. 

        Mumbai Indians became the 2nd team to successfully defend their IPL title after Chennai Super Kings. Mumbai Indians beat Delhi Capitals in the final to clinch their 5th IPL title and Rohit Sharma winning the cup for the 6th time. This created history and also raised many questions that led to the point where almost every Indian wanted Rohit Sharma to be the Indian team's captain.

6. James Anderson registers 600 test wickets.

        Jimmy Anderson became the first pacer in history to register 600 scalps in the longest format. He had achieved this feat during the third and final Test match against Pakistan at the Ageas Bowl, Southampton when he had accounted for former Pak skipper Azhar Ali. 

Meanwhile, the veteran pacer also became the only fast bowler to pick 600 wickets in the history of international cricket as well i.e. including Tests and One Day Internationals. Anderson is now the fourth-highest wicket-taker in red-ball cricket after the likes of Muttiah Muralitharan (800), Shane Warne (709), and, Anil Kumble (619) respectively. While Muralitharan was an off-spinner, his counterparts Warne and Kumble were leggies. 

5. Delhi make their first-ever IPL final appearance.

        The Shreyas Iyer-led side who had finished third last season was on a roll this year as they showcased a clinical performance on the field. They were also regarded as one of the firm favorites to win the showpiece event. Nonetheless, they did go on to suffer a few setbacks at the backend of the league phase. Delhi beat Bangalore in their final group game to finish second in the points table and set up a clash against the mighty Mumbai in Qualifier 1 which they went on to lose by a mammoth 57 runs after being reduced to 0/3 in the second over during a stiff chase of 201.

Iyer & Co. then defeated the Orange Army in Qualifier 2 and looked to rewrite history against Rohit Sharma's brigade in the summit clash but it wasn't to be as the reigning champions made it a one-sided affair by registering a five-wicket win chasing 157. In fact, Delhi could not get the better of the five-time champions even once in this year's tournament in all the four matches that the two sides had featured in ( Two league games + Playoff & Final).

4. England and West Indies players take on Support black life matters. 

        England and West Indies players took a knee in support of the Black Lives Matter campaign as international cricket resumed after the coronavirus lockdown on Wednesday. Both teams had already announced they would be wearing BLM logos on their shirts during the three-match series.

The death of an African-American man, George Floyd in police custody in the United States triggered protests across the globe against racism. The Black Lives Matter movement has garnered a lot of support over the last few weeks and the sporting fraternity has backed the campaign with their on-field support.

3. Virat Kohli gets past 22,000 international runs.

        Indian skipper Virat Kohli might not have scored a single century this year but he did get to a couple of milestones in the recently-concluded ODI series against Australia. He breached the 12,000-run mark in One Day Internationals during the 3rd ODI at Canberra and at the same time, became the sixth batsman to go past 12,000 ODI runs. The batting megastar also became the fastest cricketer in the world to do so, bettering the record of former Indian captain and batting icon Sachin Tendulkar’s record by 58 innings.

Before VK had amassed 12K ODI runs, he had notched up yet another mammoth feat during the second ODI at the SCG three days earlier when he crossed the 22,000 run-mark in international cricket after having scored 89 during India's run chase of 390.

2. India beat Australia in the shortest format of the game.

        The year 2020 has been a good one for the Men In Blue in the game's shortest format. The Virat Kohli-led side had handed a 5-0 whitewash to New Zealand in their own backyard at the beginning of this year and have recently defeated the Aussies Down Under. They lost the dead-rubber at the SCG by 12 runs but ended up winning the T20I series for the second time on Australian soil.

1. MS Dhoni retires from International cricket. Suresh Raina follows him.

        On August 15, legendary cricketer Mahendra Singh Dhoni took to Instagram and announced that he is bidding adieu to international cricket after having served the nation for 16 years on the cricket field and almost a decade as a captain as Team India went on to win all the major titles under his reign. 

Moments after MSD had announced his retirement from international cricket, his former Indian and current Chennai team-mate, as well as good friend Suresh Raina, also joined him as he decided to bid adieu to the game at the highest level after having served Indian Cricket for 15 years. The veteran middle-order batsman also did not participate in the Dream11 IPL 2020 as he returned back to India due to personal reasons. He was dearly missed as Chennai failed to make the playoffs for the first time since the inception of the marquee tournament in 2008.