Australia's T20 World Cup Win by the Numbers

Australia’s silverware

Australia claimed their sixth Men's World Cup across the two formats, the most by any team, after their win against New Zealand on Sunday night.

Having won ICC Cricket World Cups (in the ODI format) in 1987, 1999, 2003, 2007, 2015, Australia have now pocketed one in the T20 format as well. The next team with most men’s World Cup titles is West Indies (four), followed by India (three), Pakistan, Sri Lanka and England (two each).

Another heartbreak for New Zealand

New Zealand are the only team to play in all 19 men’s World Cups (twelve in ODI format and seven in T20) without winning one. It was third time they ended up on the losing side after reaching the final. They had already lost two World Cups Finals in the ODI format – to Australia in 2015 and England in 2021.

Since the start of 2015, New Zealand have won 23 matches in World Cups (the most by any team) and have the second highest match-win percentage (74.19) after Australia (75.86) but haven’t been able to finish the job.

They have reached the final in three of the four World Cups since 2015 and were the semi-finalists in T20 World Cup in India in 2016.

The experience

Average age of Australia’s XI that beat New Zealand in Dubai was 32 years and 19 days, the oldest team to win the T20 World Cup Final.

The previous record was 31 years and 343 days: the West Indies team that beat England in Kolkata in 2016 - while the youngest team to win the tournament final is India with an average age of 24 years and 51 days against Pakistan in Johannesburg in 2007.

None of the players in Australia’s XI was below 28. Pat Cummins, at 28 years and 190 days, was the youngest in the team and David Warner (35 years and 18 days) was the oldest.

Australia also had plenty of experience in terms of matches. Aaron Finch (331), Glenn Maxwell (328) and David Warner (313) have played more than 300 T20 matches, while the only player with less 100 matches is Josh Hazlewood (64).

There were six players (Finch, Warner, Maxwell, Hazlewood, Steve Smith and Mitchell Starc) who were part of the World Cup winning team in 2015 too.

The highest total

Australia scored 173/2 to win the tournament, the highest total in seven finals of the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup. That was in reply to New Zealand’s score of 172/4 in the first innings.

Before this match, the highest total in the final was 161/6, by West Indies in the famous chase against England in 2016 in Kolkata. 24 of those runs came in the last over thanks to Carlos Brathwaite’s four sixes.

The highest chases

Three of Australia’s four highest successful chases in ICC Men’s T20 World Cup came in the last eight days of the tournament.

Their 177/5 against Pakistan in the semi-final, 173/2 against New Zealand in the final and 161/2 against West Indies in the last group match are their second, third and fourth highest chases in the tournament history. Their best chase remains 197/7, which came in a thrilling semi-final against Pakistan in Saint Lucia in 2010.

The expensive spell

Australia fast bowler Mitchell Starc had an off day in the final and conceded 60 runs, the most by anyone in T20 World Cup Final and also the most by any Australian in the tournament history.

The previous unwanted record of most expensive spell in the final was with Sri Lanka’s Lasith Malinga who conceded 54 runs against West Indies in Colombo in 2012, while the previous most expensive spell by an Australian in the tournament was 4-0-56-1 by Brett Lee against West Indies at The Oval in 2009.

Starc’s 4-0-60-0 was also the worst bowling analysis in ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2021, one run more than Naveen-ul-Haq’s figures of 4-0-59-0 against India in Abu Dhabi.

Marsh magic

Mitchell Marsh was named Player of the Match for his unbeaten 77 off 50 balls in the final against New Zealand. It was the sixth half-century of his T20I career, all coming in 2021.

Marsh has 627 runs in 2021, the most by any Australian in men’s T20Is in a calendar year, while he is also the only Aussie to hit six half-centuries in a year.

Before 2021, Marsh didn’t have any 50 under his belt. The change in fortunes came after he was promoted to number three against West Indies in the Caribbean in July. Since then, while batting at first drop, he has scored 549 runs at 45.75 in T20Is.

Warner’s tournament

Australia opener David Warner was named Player of the Tournament for racking up 289 runs at an average of 48.16 and an impressive strike-rate of 146.70.

It is the most an Australian has scored in one edition of ICC Men’s T20 World Cup breaking Matthew Hayden’s record of 265 runs in 2007.

Warner’s 49 off 30 in the semi-final against Pakistan and 53 off 38 in the final against New Zealand were the key performances behind Australia winning T20 World Cup for the first time.