Highest 9th wicket partnership in T20 World Cup

The 2022 T20 World Cup is just five months away. A total of 12 teams will participate in the multinational event. Australia are the defending champions who will defend their title at home. But when it comes to matches, the pressure is always high at the World Cup. Sometimes it can come down to the team and they can crumble during the bat. And this has happened many times, but then lower-order puzzles come to the rescue.

Although after losing the first 8 wickets the team is pretty much dead and the 9th and 10th batsmen can't do much. But sometimes those batsmen add some important runs to the team that can help them finish with a few more runs. So in this article, we will discuss the ten best 8th-wicket partnerships in the T20 World Cup.

1. Gulbadin Naib and Shapoor Zadran (44) against England in T20 World Cup 2012.

So far, there is no instance of a 9th wicket partnership breaking the 50-run mark in a World Cup tournament. The highest partnership was in the 2012 World Cup between England and Afghanistan. First, England scored 196/5 in their 20 overs. Luke Wright was just one run short of his century. He was unbeaten on 99* from 55 balls, including eight boundaries and six maximums.

The batting of the Afghanistan team got off to a disastrous start. None of their leading batsmen reached the 10-run mark. They lost their first eight wickets in just 26 runs and went on to a humiliating defeat. But after that, Gulbadin Naib and Shapoor Zadran added 44 runs to put their team out of their misery. However, Afghanistan ended up losing the match by 116 runs but eventually recovered slightly.

2. Zaheer Khan and Rohit Sharma (36) against Australia in the 2010 T20 World Cup.

It was the match between Australia and India in the 2010 World Cup at Bridgetown. After winning the toss, India decided to bowl first but Australia got off to a brilliant start. Shane Watson (54) and David Warner (72) scored their half-centuries and added 104 runs for the first wicket. But once the partnership was broken, India came back strongly to restrict Australia to 184/5 in 20 overs.

The Australian bowlers chased the target got the entire Indian batting lineup and continued to score runs. At one glorious stage, India was struggling in their magnificent innings at 97/8 in 14.3 overs. But then Rohit Sharma (79*), who had batted so well, added 36 runs for the ninth wicket with Zaheer Khan to give India hope. But the target was too big and India was eventually bowled out for 135, giving Australia a 49-run win.

3. Hamid Hasan and Mirwai Ashraf (33) against South Africa in the 2010 T20 World Cup.

This incident happened in the 12th match of the 2010 World Cup soccer tournament between Afghanistan and South Africa. The Proteas batted first and struggled against Afghanistan's disciplined bowling attack. As a result, they scored just 139/7 in their 20 overs. It looked like it could be a huge upset as the target was under par. Afghanistan were favourites in the middle of the game.

But when the ball was handed to the South African pacers, they simply changed the script of the game completely. Afghanistan lost their first eight wickets for just 32 runs and looked set to lose by less than 50 runs. But Mirwai Ashraf and Hamid Hasan added 33 runs for the ninth wicket and saved their team from that ignominy. However, they were bowled out by 80 runs in the end. South Africa won the match by 59 runs.

T20 World Cup Highest 9th Wicket Partnership List

Batters	Partnership	Against	Venue	Year
Gulbadin Naib and Shapoor Zadran (Afghnistan)	44	England	Colombo	2012
Zaheer Khan and Rohit Sharma (India)	36	Australia	Bridgetown	2010
Hamid Hassan and Mirwais Ashraf (Afghanistan)	33	South Africa	Bridgetown	2010
RL Bhudia and JK Kamande (Kenya)	27	New Zealand	Durban	2007
Kamran Shazad and EH Silva (UAE)	27	Zimbabwe	Sylhet	2014
Mashrafe Mortaza and Sohag Gazi (Bangladesh)	24	West Indies	Dhaka	2014
Abdur Razzak and Mashrafe Mortaza (Bangladesh)	24	Ireland	Nottingham	2009
AR Cussack and WK McCallan (Ireland)	20*	India	Nottingham	2009
M Gillespie and Daniel Vettori (New Zealand)	20*	England	Durban	2007
Stuart Broad and A Rashid (England)	19	South Africa	Nottingham	2009