The 2022 T20 World Cup, perhaps the greatest Cricket World Cup of all time, gave its predecessors a run for their money in the bizarreness coefficient as well. Here is a list – by no means exhaustive – of the most unusual moments in the tournament.

Crawling from the front

After being thrashed by 89 runs in their tournament opener, against New Zealand, Australia’s best bet lay in trying to score as quickly as possible to make up for that atrocious net run rate of -4.45. Yet, after restricting Sri Lanka to 157-6, they hit their first boundary on the 44th ball of the chase. They won, but not until the 17th over, largely because Aaron Finch batted through with an unbeaten 42-ball 31.

To no one’s surprise, Australia were eventually eliminated because of their net run rate.

Missed flight, missed cup

Shimron Hetmyer was expected to play key role for West Indies in the World Cup. He was supposed to take the flight on October 1, but requested Cricket West Indies to reschedule to a date two days later “due to family reasons”. They agreed.

But when Hetmyer missed this flight as well, the board had enough. They immediately replaced him with Shamarh Brooks. It probably made a difference, because the West Indies, twice champions in the last four editions, failed to make it to the next stage for the first time. But then, course, they were unlikely semi-final candidates, and as co-hosts, had qualified directly for the 2024 edition anyway.

Two keepers, ten runs

Penalty runs are rare – there have been only 11 instances across 1,881 Twenty20 Internationals, spanning 17 years – but two of them took place in this World Cup. And in both cases, they involved wicketkeepers.

First, Quinton de Kock, against Zimbabwe. When Lungi Ngidi threw the ball, de Kock whisked off one of his gauntlets to be able to prepare himself better in case he needed to throw the stumps down. Unfortunately, the ball hit the glove via his pad, and the umpires invoked Laws 28.2.1.3 and 28.2.3 to award five runs to Zimbabwe.

Three days later, Nurul Hasan moved as Shakib Al Hasan bowled to Rilee Rossouw, thereby violating Law 27.4.1. This time South Africa gained five runs.

On your mark, get set

Glenn Phillips had already played one of the greatest innings of the tournament. It was the last over, so he wanted the strike back, but then, bowlers often tend to notice if you leave the crease before you are allowed to. So he took his position at the non-striker’s end, in a sprinter’s stance – bending forward as much as he could, resting the bat on the ground – and he set off as soon as Lahiru Kumara released the ball.

Anticlimactically, it turned out to be an easy single. Phillips would have got it anyway, but, still, a remarkable innovation.

Flip-flops to wickets

Mohammed Shami had not played a T20I for India since the last World Cup. There were rumours around selectors not having him on their radar. Recalled – to the surprise of some – after Jasprit Bumrah was ruled out with an injury, Shami sat in the dugout in flip-flops during a warm-up game, watching India put on 186-7, and Australia reach 171-4 after 18 overs.

At this point, Shami changed into his spikes. Harshal Patel took two wickets and conceded five, so Australia needed 11, and Shami came on to bowl. Pat Cummins ran two twos, Virat Kohli took an absurd catch, Ashton Agar was run out – and Shami nailed two yorkers, and just like that, India won. But then, strangers things have happened at the Gabba between the same sides less than two years ago…

Come again another day

Three matches were abandoned without a ball being bowled (all of them at the Melbourne Cricket Ground) and one called off after 12 overs of cricket, while the collected works of Messrs Duckworth, Lewis, and Stern were in demand throughout the tournament.

There was little the organisers could do about it – except use the Docklands Stadium, the indoor venue only a short distance from the MCG that has hosted ODIs and is an active BBL venue. Of course, this would have involved breaking the usual pre-tournament protocol – the ICC can be strict about this – but surely something could have been worked out?

Watch, watch, watch, watch

Ahead of the World Cup, Sikandar Raza and his captain Craig Ervine had cracked a deal – of gifting the other person a watch of the recipient’s choice if they won a Player of the Match award. Raza ended up winning three and Ervine none.

Ervine kept his word. The best part of the photograph is how Raza, unaffected by the diminishing marginal utility of the gifts, accepted them while wearing a watch.

Thou shalt play

With rain looming in the air, Zimbabwe made 79-5 in their allotted nine overs against South Africa after play began in debatable conditions. It was then Zimbabwe’s turn to bowl in conditions where, to quote their coach Dave Houghton, “We shouldn’t have bowled even one ball.”

Yet, play began, and so did the rain, after seven legal balls were bowled. The cricketers came back, the target was readjusted, and they played – until it had to be called off for good after three overs. By then, the bowler’s run-up had deteriorated to such an extent that Richard Ngarava had to limp off the ground with an injury after bowling an over.

The lobster

A year after he wrapped a towel around himself during the World Test Championship final, Shami was at it again at a World Cup semi-final. This one was perhaps weirder.

Hardik Pandya bowled, Jos Buttler scooped, and the ball went to Shami at a somewhat fine deep fine-leg. The fielder from deep-third ran for it as well – it is not clear whether this was triggered by a general lack of faith on Shami’s fielding abilities – but poor Shami had no idea about these developments. He lobbed the ball at the fielder in what was clearly his idea of a relay throw.

Unfortunately, the fielder was too close, and the throw too high, so it soared over him. England ran two overthrows. Neither captain nor bowler was amused.

The page boy

Mark Watt sometimes bowls from behind the crease, seldom goes for runs, and periodically spins Scotland to wins against Full Member sides – as he did against West Indies this time.

Oh, and he also sat for an open-note exam during the same match.

The un-stumps

Zimbabwe needed five off the last ball of the match to beat Bangladesh. Mosaddek Hossain bowled, Blessing Muzarabani swung and missed (the momentum of which took him outside the crease), Nurul took the bails off, everyone shook hands, and that was that… almost, for Marais Erasmus had referred the decision to television umpire Chris Gaffaney.

Replays revealed that Nurul had collected the ball in front of the stumps. Since Muzarabani had made no contact with the ball, Nurul had violated Law 27.3. Erasmus – rightly – signalled a no-ball. And a free hit.

Back came the stumps, the fielders, the batters, everyone. The free hit was of little use, but Zimbabwe now needed only four. But Muzarabani missed this one as well.

Not Bean there, yet done that

Cricket was played in Surrey sometime around 1550, which makes it nearly 500 years old. Yet, there has perhaps been no instance when the sport has served as a bridge between a complaint on Twitter over an actor’s impersonator and a conversation between two national leaders.

It is safe to say that between them, R0wan Atkinson, Asif Mohammad, Ngugi Chasura, and the Pakistani and Zimbabwe teams (not to speak of Twitter users realsammalik and MultaniSaint) have etched their names in cricketing history.

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