Twenty20
This article is about the sport of cricket; "Twenty20", the professional version of the game. For details on amateur twenty over cricket, see Short form cricket. For the Malayalam film, see Twenty:20 (film). For other uses, see 2020 (disambiguation).
Twenty20 cricket, sometimes written Twenty-20, and often abbreviated to T20, is a short form of cricket. It was originally introduced by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) in 2003 for professional inter-countycompetition in England and Wales. In a Twenty20 game the two teams have a single innings each, which is restricted to a maximum of 20 overs. Together with first-class and List A cricket, Twenty20 is one of the three forms of major cricket recognised by the International Cricket Council (ICC).
A typical Twenty20 game is completed in about three hours, with each innings lasting around 75–90 minutes and a 10–20-minute interval. This is much shorter than previously-existing forms of the game, and is closer to the timespan of other popular team sports. It was introduced to create a fast-paced form of the game which would be attractive to spectators at the ground and viewers on television.
Since its inception the game has been very successful resulting in its spread around the cricket world. On most international tours there is at least one Twenty20 match and allTest-playing nations have a domestic cup competition. The inaugural ICC World Twenty20 was played in South Africa in 2007 with India winning by five runs against Pakistan in the final.[1] Pakistan won the second tournament in 2009,[2] and England won the title in 2010 and West Indies won in 2012. Sri Lanka are the reigning champions after winningthe 2014 competition beating India by 6 wickets.