Twenty20 takes 22 players

We really like Twenty20, but it can be difficult to report on. It’s more difficult to identify that one, stand-out performance from a player.

Twenty20’s more of a team game than you might think. With only 20 overs, it makes sense that one big innings from a batsman decides the match, but quite often it doesn’t work like that. Even if there is a big innings, it’s not necessarily the most influential.

With scores being closer, outfielders have a greater influence than they do in other forms of the game and we’ve written before about the value of the Twenty20 wicketkeeper. Conversely, bowlers only get four measly overs with which to make an impact.

So you can get a bit sick of writing about the batsmen and as we said, it can be hard to identify that day’s hero anyway. For example, in today’s match between New Zealand and England, Owais Shah hit 47 off 35 balls, but was that really any better than Phil Mustard’s 40 off 24?

Thankfully it’s Paul Collingwood to the rescue, like a ginger superhero boasting special powers like ‘doggedness’ and ‘a strong work ethic’. Paul’s 54 off 28 balls was the biggest innings as well as being the quickest of those that lasted more than a few balls. Plus, we really like Paul Collingwood so we try and write about him when we can, anyway.

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