Best Bowling Figures in T20 Cricket

In the format dominated by the batters due to shortened overs, not just boundaries but excellence with the ball in hand is what makes T20 cricket exciting. A good bowler holds the power to control the proceedings of a match in their team’s favour. Let’s have a look at some of the excellent bowling performances in the history of T20 cricket.

Malaysian medium pacer Syazrul Idrus has the World record for the best bowling figures in T20 cricket. During the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup Asia B Qualifier tournament in July 2023, he dismissed 7 Chinese batters to dismiss them for just 23 in 11.2 overs, later winning the game by 8 wickets.

Idrus bettered Netherlands allrounder Colin Ackermann’s figures of 7-18 that the latter achieved in a T20 Blast fixture back in 2019. Playing for Leicestershire, Ackermann became the first man in the history of T20 cricket to take 7 wickets in an innings. He picked up 3 wickets in an over twice on the way to the magical figures.

In the long list of bowlers who have picked 6 wickets in an innings, left-arm spinner Arul Suppiah in 2011, broke Sohail Tanvir’s record for best T20 figures by taking 6 scalps against Glamorgan. Nigerian medium pacer equalled the record against Sierra Leone in 2021.

Bangladesh’s legendary allrounder Shakib Al Hasan took 6 wickets in a Caribbean Premier League fixture back in 2013, Sri Lankan superstar Lasith Malinga in Big Bash League (2012), New Zealand’s premier fast bowler Kyle Jamieson also achieved the feat in 2019 during the domestic T20 competition. Deepak Chahar in the same year achieved the feat for India playing against Bangladesh. Uganda’s Dinesh Nakrani has the best figures for his country with Ajantha Mendis topping the list for Sri Lanka with his 6-wicket haul against Zimbabwe in 2012.

In April 2018, ICC granted T20I status to all its member nations creating a huge spike in the number of T20 international fixtures. Malaysia’s Syazrul Idrus has the best-ever bowling figures in the format but it was Ajantha Mendis who back in 2011 became the first bowler to take a 6-wicket haul in T20Is. He repeated the feat next year in the T20 World Cup against Zimbabwe.

Deepak Chahar, the Indian medium pacer was leading the attack in a series decider against Bangladesh at Nagpur when India was defending 174. He broke the back of the Bangladeshi batting order and created history.

Left-arm medium pacer, Uganda’s Dinesh Nakrani dismissed 6 Lesotho batters during the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup Sub Regional Africa Qualifier fixture. In 2022, Namibian allrounder JJ Smit scored 71 in 35 balls batting first and then ran through the Uganda lineup with thrilling figures of 6/10 also taking 2 catches in the game.

Nepal’s Abinash Bohara achieved the feat in the Asian Games Cricket competition held in Guangzhou. Defending a big total of 212 against Maldives, Nepal registered a huge 138-run win. The same year in a tri-series played in Malaysia, Hong Kong’s Nasrulla Rana bowled a remarkable spell of 4-1-12-6 against Papua New Guinea while defending a low score of 89/9. P.N.G snatched victory by just 1 wicket and 8 balls in hand. West Indies’ opening bowler Obed McCoy put the Indian batting order to test taking 6/17 at Basseterre in 2022 in a winning cause.

Malaysian off-spinner Khizar Hayat has the best bowling figures on his T20I debut as he became the third bowler to take a fifer on debut after Bangladesh’s Elias Sunny, Luxembourg’s Ankish Nanda and Swedish Hassan Mehmood. Japan’s Reo Sakurano-Thomas is the latest bowler to achieve the feat in 2022.

Another off-spinner, Germany’s Ghulam Ahmadi had a brilliant start to his career with 2 maidens and 4 wickets against Norway in 2021. Ahmadi became only the third bowler in the world to bowl 2 maidens on debut.

Belgium’s fast bowler Burhan Niaz was just 17 years old when he made his debut and picked up 4 wickets against Malta in 2021. Indian left-arm seamer Barinder Sran also had a dream debut against Zimbabwe in 2016 when he and Jasprit Bumrah put a complete stop to the Zimbabwean batter’s scoring rate and kept the total down to 99/9 with the Indian openers chasing the total down without a dent inside 14 overs.

Afghanistan’s teenage sensation Noor Ahmad also got off with flying colors against Zimbabwe taking 4 wickets in a series dead rubber where the Afghan atalan defended 125 runs thanks to Noor’s effort. Miniru Kpaka from Sierra Leone bowled the first change on debut and dismissed 4 Nigerian batters to take his team to victory.

Right-arm medium pacer Deepak Punia became the first Indian to take 6 wickets in a T20 playing for Services against Haryana in the Syed Mushtaq Ali T20 tournament on March 26, 2015. The very next day, Baroda’s Swapnil Singh became the 2nd Indian to take a 6-wicket haul with his magical performance against Saurashtra in the same tournament.

In 2017, leg spinner Yuzvendra Chahal playing in familiar conditions at Bangalore picked up 6 wickets against a strong England lineup. It is the first-ever 6-wicket haul for India in the format. Deepak Chahar later repeated this against Bangladesh in 2019 and has the best T20 figures for any Indian bowler.

Himachal Pradesh allrounder Rishi Dhawan also achieved the feat in the 2021 Syed Mushtaq Ali trophy with Gujarat bowler Arzan Nagwaswalla also repeating the feat in the same season.
In the next season of the tournament, Madhya Pradesh and India all-rounder Venkatesh Iyer achieved the feat as the seventh bowler of the team against Rajasthan. In the current season (2023/24) two more Indians have added their names to the list with Jammu & Kashmir pacer Rasikh Salam taking 6 wickets against Chhattisgarh, Hyderabad’s T Ravi Teja also picked up a 6-wicket haul against the same opposition.

Gujarat’s Nagwaswalla created history becoming the only Indian bowler to take 6 wickets in an innings twice. He is also only the third bowler in the world after Shakib Al Hasan and Ajantha Mendis to achieve the remarkable record.