World T20 in Numbers - Home team voodoo and close finishes

No host country has ever won the World T20. West Indies beat Sri Lanka in the final in Colombo in 2012. © Getty

With the first stage of the ICC WT20 2016 concluded, the real battles will begin now. Before hosts India take on New Zealand in Nagpur in the Super Ten opener on Tuesday (March 15), we take a look back at some important numbers from the five previous editions of the tournament.

All five tournaments were hosted by different countries and had different winners. A young exuberant India lifted the trophy in the inaugural edition in 2007 while Sri Lanka finally shed their tags of being the perennial bridesmaids to win the coveted trophy in 2014. The first four editions had a league round which had 12 participants followed by a Super Eight. This was replaced by a qualifying round and Super Ten from 2014 which led to an increase in participating nations from 12 to 16.

WT20s A summary across all editions

Year	Teams	Host	Matches	Winner	Winning Captain	Runners Up
2007	12	South Africa	27	India	MS Dhoni	Pakistan
2009	12	England	27	Pakistan	Younis Khan	Sri Lanka
2010	12	West Indies	27	England	Paul Collingwood	Australia
2012	12	Sri Lanka	27	West Indies	Darren Sammy	Sri Lanka
2014	16	Bangladesh	35	Sri Lanka	Lasith Malinga	India

WT20s The big names

Year	Most Runs	Most Wickets	Player of the Final	Player of the Series
2007	Matthew Hayden (265)	Umar Gul (13)	Irfan Pathan	Shahid Afridi
2009	Tillakaratne Dilshan (317)	Umar Gul (13)	Shahid Afridi	Tillakaratne Dilshan
2010	Mahela Jayawardene (302)	Dirk Nannes (14)	Craig Kieswetter	Kevin Pietersen
2012	Shane Watson (249)	Ajantha Mendis (15)	Marlon Samuels	Shane Watson
2014	Virat Kohli (319)	Imran Tahir (12)	Kumar Sangakkara	Virat Kohli

# The wickets column only includes the Super Ten stages for 2014 edition.

Sri Lanka and Pakistan have been the two leading teams in WT20s across the five editions. Both have made it to the semis four times each Pakistan in the first four editions and Sri Lanka in the last four. Australia are yet to win the trophy whereas New Zealand and South Africa, much like their record in 50-over World Cup records till last year, are yet to make it to the finals even once. West Indies were knocked out by Sri Lanka twice in the semis but came back to win from an improbable position to lift the trophy in 2012.

England reached the last four only once in 2010 and went on to lift their first and only world title till date. India, the inaugural winners, didn't go past the Super Eight for the next three editions but ended as the runners up in 2014 with their only loss in that tournament coming in the grand finale. No host nation has ever won the World T20.

Team	Matches	Won	Lost	Tied	NR	W/L	HS	LS
Sri Lanka	31	21	9	1	0	2.333	260	87
Pakistan	30	18	11	1	0	1.636	191	82
India	28	17	9	1	1	1.888	218	135
England	26	11	14	0	1	0.785	200	80
South Africa	26	16	10	0	0	1.6	211	129
Australia	25	14	11	0	0	1.272	197	86
New Zealand	25	11	12	2	0	0.916	198	60
West Indies	25	12	11	1	1	1.09	205	101

Unsurprisingly, West Indies play out the largest percentage of dot balls (42.66) but make up for it by hitting lots of boundaries. Nearly 60% of their runs have come in boundaries. Australia is the other team following the same pattern as the West Indies with a dot ball percentage of nearly 39 and boundary to ball percentage of 16.62 (the highest) and boundary to runs percentage of 59.69 (only behind West Indies).

At the other end of the spectrum, there is South Africa, who maintain the lowest dot ball percentage (36.6) while farming the strike most often. Their singles percentage of 40.14 is the most with only India (39.7) offering any competition in the metric. Only 53% of their runs come from boundaries which is the lowest for any team. India also closely follow the South African pattern with the difference being that they considerably more fours (10.89% of balls), only behind England's 11.25%.

New Zealandalso consume a lot of dots (39.61) and have the fewest percentage of fours (9.75) but they compensate by hitting sixes (4.36% - only behind Australia and West Indies).

Note: Stats for Bangladesh have been accounted for in an earlier piece. Stats against Bangladesh have been taken into account here.

Batting:

Team	Dots	Singles	Twos	Threes	Fours	Fives	Sixes	Total Runs	Total Balls
Australia	1041	981	190	16	289	0	155	3495	2672
England	1140	1139	266	23	341	0	121	3830	3030
India	1177	1247	232	16	342	0	127	3889	3141
New Zealand	1044	995	211	13	257	1	115	3179	2636
Pakistan	1398	1284	311	15	368	1	131	4214	3508
South Africa	1086	1191	246	14	317	0	113	3671	2967
Sri Lanka	1386	1280	289	17	422	0	117	4299	3511
West Indies	1128	891	194	8	286	1	136	3268	2644
Grand Total	9400	9008	1939	122	2622	3	1015	29845	24109

Bowling:

Team	Dots	Singles	Twos	Threes	Fours	Fives	Sixes	Runs Conceded	Total Balls
Australia	1208	1044	220	5	311	0	125	3493	2913
England	1079	999	239	14	289	0	106	3311	2726
India	1327	1092	241	17	301	0	146	3705	3124
New Zealand	1101	1048	211	13	303	1	108	3374	2785
Pakistan	1438	1349	282	17	374	0	125	4210	3585
South Africa	1254	1073	216	11	311	0	111	3448	2976
Sri Lanka	1356	1198	259	19	306	1	109	3663	3249
West Indies	1112	1034	211	19	322	0	104	3425	2802
Grand Total	9875	8837	1879	115	2517	2	934	28629	24160

Along expected lines, the teams that have the biggest boundary hitters are also the ones leading the run rate charts. West Indies and Australia top this list largely due to their rapid scoring in the death overs. India have also done well in the last five overs but have been considerably sedate during the Powerplay overs reducing their overall rate. Pakistan is the only team to score below seven in the Powerplays and below nine in the last five. However their overall economy rate of 7.41 is only behind Sri Lanka's 7.17. Like their batting counterparts, Indian bowlers have been sedate in the Powerplays while leaking runs in the last five. Sri Lanka have been remarkably good with the ball at all stages of the match while New Zealand have been exceptional in the middle overs after conceding a lot in the first six.

Scoring Rates:

Team	Overs 1-6	Overs 7-15	Overs 16-20	Overall
Australia	7.38	8.12	9.71	8.27
England	7.56	7.62	9.31	8.03
India	7.02	7.49	9.79	7.91
New Zealand	7.09	7.38	9.16	7.72
Pakistan	6.87	7.58	8.51	7.74
South Africa	7.27	7.29	9.7	7.88
Sri Lanka	7.68	7.21	9.34	7.91
West Indies	7.2	7.62	10.03	8.06

Economy Rates:

Team	Overs 1-6	Overs 7-15	Overs 16-20	Overall
Australia	6.94	7.75	8.73	7.79
England	7.08	7.37	9.63	7.83
India	6.59	7.17	9.41	7.53
New Zealand	8.12	6.64	8.61	7.63
Pakistan	7.2	7.14	8.51	7.41
South Africa	7.03	7.32	8.26	7.48
Sri Lanka	6.25	7.12	8.52	7.17
West Indies	7.21	7.58	9.08	7.86

Sri Lanka recorded the highest total in all T20Is against Kenya at Johannesburg in 2007. Overall there have been six totals in excess of 200 in WT20 matches with chasing sides scoring 200+ taking place twice. However, the only win chasing a 200+ target came in the inaugural match between hosts South Africa and West Indies as a Chris Gayle century went in vain.

Highest Totals:

Team	Score	Result	Opposition	Ground	Date
Sri Lanka	260/6	Won	Kenya	Johannesburg	14-09-2007
India	218/4	Won	England	Durban	19-09-2007
South Africa	211/5	Won	Scotland	The Oval, London	07-06-2009
South Africa	208/2	Won	West Indies	Johannesburg	11-09-2007
West Indies	205/6	Lost	South Africa	Johannesburg	11-09-2007
West Indies	205/4	Won	Australia	Colombo (RPS)	05-10-2012
England	200/6	Lost	India	Durban	19-09-2007

Netherlands' 39 against Sri Lanka at Chittagong remains the lowest total ever in a T20I by any team. A week later, New Zealand were at the receiving end when they got bundled out for 60 lowest by a Test playing nation in all T20Is. That match saw Kane Williamson scoring exactly 70% of team's total runs a record in T20Is.

Lowest Totals:

Team	Score	Result	Opposition	Ground	Date
Netherlands	39	Lost	Sri Lanka	Chittagong	24-03-2014
New Zealand	60	Lost	Sri Lanka	Chittagong	31-03-2014
Ireland	68	Lost	West Indies	Providence, Guyana	30-04-2010
Hong Kong	69	Lost	Nepal	Chittagong	16-03-2014
Afghanistan	72	Lost	Bangladesh	Mirpur	16-03-2014
Kenya	73	Lost	New Zealand	Durban	12-09-2007

Sri Lanka won the Johannesburg match against Kenya by 172 runs after scoring 260 themselves a record not just in WT20 but in all T20 games. Overall there have been nine instances of a team winning with margin of 100 or more runs with the top three coming in WT20s. Sri Lanka again tops the largest win with balls remaining (90 balls) another T20I record. However they have been at the receiving end once. They remain the only test playing nation other than Zimbabwe to lose a WT20 match by 10 wickets.

Largest victories - By 100 or more runs

Team	Margin	Opponent	Ground	Date
Sri Lanka	172 runs	Kenya	Johannesburg	14-09-2007
South Africa	130 runs	Scotland	The Oval	07-06-2009
England	116 runs	Afghanistan	Colombo (RPS)	21-09-2012

# The largest margin of victory by an associate against a full member team is 45 runs by Netherlands against England at Chittagong on 31 Mar 2014.

Largest Victories - By 10 wickets

Team	Margin	Opponent	Ground	Date
Australia	10 wkts	Sri Lanka	Cape Town	20-09-2007
South Africa	10 wkts	Zimbabwe	Hambantota	20-09-2012

Largest victories with 50 or more balls remaining

Team	Margin	Opponent	Ground	Date
Sri Lanka	90 balls	Netherlands	Chittagong	24-03-2014
New Zealand	74 balls	Kenya	Durban	12-09-2007
Australia	58 balls	Sri Lanka	Cape Town	20-09-2007

WT20 has also witnessed quite a few humdingers over the years including the first ever WT20 final between arch rivals India and Pakistan where the eventual difference between the sides were just 5 runs! South Africa is one team which been at the right end of quite a few close encounters.

Closest victories by runs

Team	Margin	Opponent	Ground	Date
South Africa	1 run	New Zealand	Lord's	09-06-2009
New Zealand	1 run	Pakistan	Bridgetown	08-05-2010
India	1 run	South Africa	Colombo (RPS)	02-10-2012
South Africa	2 runs	New Zealand	Chittagong	24-03-2014
South Africa	3 runs	England	Chittagong	29-03-2014
England	3 runs	India	Lord's	14-06-2009

Closest victories - by wickets

Team	Margin	Opponent	Ground	Date
Pakistan	2 wkts	South Africa	Colombo (RPS)	28-09-2012
New Zealand	2 wkts	Sri Lanka	Providence	30-04-2010
England	3 wkts	New Zealand	St Lucia	10-05-2010
Australia	3 wkts	Pakistan	St Lucia	14-05-2010