2009 World Twenty20

In June 2006, The Daily Telegraph reported that the Marylebone Cricket Club and Surrey CCC had put in a joint bid to host the tournament at Lord's and The Oval.^[5]

In December 2007, the ICC provisionally approved a Women's World Twenty20 to run alongside the men's event which, subject to the approval of the ICC's finance and commercial affairs committee, would come into effect for the 2009 tournament in England.^[6]

In early January 2008, speculation arose that the tournament could be held elsewhere as the British government have banned Zimbabwe from touring England in 2009. However, it was later confirmed that the tournament would definitely take place in the country.

In April 2008, the third venue was confirmed as Nottingham's Trent Bridge; the 17,500 seater stadium was chosen to hold one of the semi-finals, among other earlier matches. Lord's and The Oval are the two other confirmed venues, with the opening match and final being played at Lord's. Old Trafford Cricket Ground had bid for the third venue, but Trent Bridge was chosen for its closer proximity to the two London grounds.

Teams from every ICC Region :

Although early reports suggested the 2009 event may involve just eight teams in a nine-day event,^[7] the full twelve-team tournament was confirmed, featuring the Test-playing nations and two qualifying associate nations. However, in July 2008 Zimbabwe, under pressure from South Africa and England over political matters related to Robert Mugabe, pulled out of the tournament of their own volition, creating an additional space for an associate nation.

Qualification was achieved by the finalists of an ICC World Twenty20 Qualifier held in Belfast from 2–4 August 2008, between Kenya, Scotland, Ireland, Netherlands, Canada and Bermuda.^[8] Ireland and the Netherlands, having reached the final, qualified outright, while Scotland won the third place playoff beating Kenya to also qualify.^[9]

The matches were played at the following three grounds:

During the group stage and Super Eight, points are awarded to the teams as follows:

In case of a tie (i.e. both teams score the same number of runs at the end of their respective innings), a Super Over decides the winner. This applies in all stages of the tournament.^[10]

Within each group (both group stage and Super Eight stage), teams are ranked against each other based on the following criteria:^[11]

1. Higher number of points
2. If equal, higher number of wins
3. If still equal, higher net run rate
4. If still equal, lower bowling strike rate
5. If still equal, result of head-to-head meeting.

The groups were announced on 31 October 2007, based on finishing positions at the 2007 ICC World Twenty20 and the successful qualifying associate nations. The initial four group format is the same as that used at the 2007 tournament. Team seed in brackets.

All times shown are in British Summer Time (UTC+01).

The Super 8s consisted of two groups: Group E and Group F. Group E consisted of A1, B2, C1, D2 and Group F consisted of A2, B1, C2, D1, where X1 is the first seed from Group X and X2 is the second seed from Group X. The seedings were based on performance in the last ICC T20 (2007). If a non-seeded team knocks out a seeded team, the non-seeded team inherits the seed of the team it knocked out.

In the final at Lord's, the home of cricket in London, Sri Lanka won the toss and elected to bat. The first over was bowled by Mohammad Amir. After failing to score off the first four balls – all short – Dilshan went for his scoop and mistimed it, resulting in him being caught at short fine-leg. Soon after this, Jehan Mubarak top edged a delivery by Abdul Razzaq which went high in the air and was caught by Shahzaib Hasan, leaving Sri Lanka at 2 for 2.^[12] Sanath Jayasuriya was able to stabilise the innings for Sri Lanka hitting 17 runs off 10 balls, however, Jayasuriya soon fell as he dragged a good length ball back on to the stumps. Mahela Jayawardene followed after edging a shot into the hands of Misbah-ul-Haq, leaving Sri Lanka on 32/4.^[13] Sangakkara and Chamara Silva added further runs, before the latter was caught by Saeed Ajmal playing a pull shot off the bowling of Umar Gul.^[14] Shahid Afridi soon after, took the wicket of Isuru Udana with a googly which drifted into the right-hander, knocking the off-stump. This brought in Angelo Mathews, who along with Sangakkara took the score from 70/6 to 138/6, with 17 runs being scored off the last over bowled by Mohammad Amir. Sri Lanka finished on 138/6 from 20 overs.^[15]

Pakistan started off well with openers Kamran Akmal and Shahzaib Hasan adding 48 runs for the 1st wicket, before Kamran Akmal was stumped by Kumar Sangakkara by the first delivery of Sanath Jayasuriya.^[12] Pakistan reached the target in 18.4 overs, with Shahid Afridi, who hit the winning runs, earning Man of the Match^[16] while Tillakaratne Dilshan was declared Man of the Series for his 317 runs at an average of 63.40. Pakistan's win, often cheered on by crowds of fans from England's Pakistani communities, marked its first world title since Imran Khan's "cornered tigers" had won the 1992 World Cup.