The 2020–21 Road Safety World Series was the inaugural season, an international

T20 cricket Twenty20 (T20) is a shortened game format of cricket. At the professional level, it was introduced by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) in 2003 for the inter-county competition. In a Twenty20 game, the two teams have a single inning ...

league, which featured former international cricketers and was organized by the

Road Safety World Series Road Safety World Series is a Twenty20 cricket league, which features former international cricket players from various nations. Road Safety World Series is founded by Ravi Gaikwad, the chief road traffic officer of Thane in collaboration with ...

(RSWS) organization to raise awareness about

road safety Road traffic safety refers to the methods and measures used to prevent road users from being killed or seriously injured. Typical road users include pedestrians, cyclists, motorists, vehicle passengers, horse riders, and passengers of on-road ...

. The 2020–21 edition of the series featured players from

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

Sri Lanka Sri Lanka (, ; si, ශ්‍රී ලංකා, Śrī Laṅkā, translit-std=ISO (); ta, இலங்கை, Ilaṅkai, translit-std=ISO ()), formerly known as Ceylon and officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, is an ...

West Indies The West Indies is a subregion of North America, surrounded by the North Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea that includes 13 independent island countries and 18 dependencies and other territories in three major archipelagos: the Greater A ...

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

and

Bangladesh Bangladesh (}, ), officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh, is a country in South Asia. It is the eighth-most populous country in the world, with a population exceeding 165 million people in an area of . Bangladesh is among the mos ...

Sunil Gavaskar Sunil Manohar Gavaskar (Marathi pronunciation: uniːl ɡaːʋəskəɾ ; born 10 July 1949), is an Indian cricket commentator and former cricketer who represented India and Bombay from 1971 to 1987. Gavaskar is acknowledged as one of the grea ...

, former India captain, was the commissioner of the series, while

Sachin Tendulkar Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar (; ; born 24 April 1973) is an Indian former international cricketer who captained the Indian national team. He is regarded as one of the greatest batsmen in the history of cricket. He is the all time highest run-scor ...

was its brand ambassador.

Background

The Road Safety World Series was founded by Ravi Gaikwad and approved by the

BCCI The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) is the national governing body for cricket in India. Its headquarters are situated at Cricket centre, Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai. The BCCI is the richest governing body of cricket in the worl ...

. The first edition of the tournament began in March 2020, with the tournament taking place at venues in

Mumbai, India Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — List of renamed Indian cities and states#Maharashtra, the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of Maharashtra and the ''de facto'' fin ...

and

Pune Pune (; ; also known as Poona, (List of renamed Indian cities and states#Maharashtra, the official name from 1818 until 1978) is one of the most important industrial and educational hubs of India, with an estimated population of 7.4 million ...

(India Legends),

Brian Lara Brian Charles Lara, (born 2 May 1969) is a Trinidadian former international cricketer, widely acknowledged as one of the greatest batsmen of all time. He topped the Test batting rankings on several occasions and holds several cricketing reco ...

(West Indies Legends)

Tillakaratne Dilshan Tillakaratne Mudiyanselage Dilshan ( si, තිලකරත්න මුදියන්සේලාගේ ඩිල්ෂාන්; born 14 October 1976), commonly known as TM Dilshan () is a former Sri Lankan cricketer and former captain of th ...

(Sri Lanka Legends),

Brett Lee Brett Lee (born 8 November 1976) is an Australian former international cricketer, who played all three formats of the game. During his international career, Lee was recognised as one of the fastest bowlers in the world. In each of his first two ...

(Australia Legends), and

Jonty Rhodes Jonathan Neil "Jonty" Rhodes (born 27 July 1969) is a South African professional cricket commentator and former Test and One Day International cricketer. He is regarded as one of the greatest fielders of all time and was the first South African ...

(South Africa Legends) were the captains of their respective teams. The tournament was to be played in a round-robin format with the top two finishers playing the final. On 13 March 2020, as a result of an advisory by Indian Government following the global coronavirus pandemic, the remaining seven matches were rescheduled to a later date. Soon, it was decided that the remaining seven matches of the tournament would be played behind closed doors in

DY Patil Stadium The DY Patil Stadium, also known as DY Patil Sports Stadium, is a multi-purpose stadium at D. Y. Patil campus at Nerul in Mumbai, Maharashtra, India. It was designed by Hafeez Contractor. It is a privately owned ground and is the home of D.Y. ...

; but then the tournament was indefinitely postponed. Instead of starting afresh in 2021, the organizers opted to resume the previous edition, paused after only four games. Six teams took part in the tournament. They were India Legends, Sri Lanka Legends, South Africa Legends, West Indies Legends, Bangladesh Legends, and England Legends. Bangladesh Legends and England Legends were added to the tournament after Australia Legends opted out due to COVID-19. Mohammad Rafique (Bangladesh Legends) and

Kevin Pietersen Kevin Peter Pietersen (born 27 June 1980) is a cricket commentator, conservationist, and former England international cricket player. He is a right-handed batsman and occasional off spin bowler who played in all three formats for England betw ...

(England Legends) were captains of their respective teams.

Venues

The 11 matches were initially scheduled to start on 7 March 2020 and played in Wankhede Stadium in

Mumbai Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra and the ''de facto'' financial centre of India. According to the United Nations, as of 2018, Mumbai is the second- ...

Navi Mumbai Navi Mumbai (), is a planned city situated on the west coast of the Indian subcontinent, located in the Konkan division of Maharashtra state, on the mainland of India. Navi Mumbai is part of the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR). The city is ...

, and MCA Stadium in

with the final supposed to be played on March 22, 2020, in Pune. In 2021, with the arrival of

COVID-19 vaccine A COVID19 vaccine is a vaccine intended to provide acquired immunity against severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS‑CoV‑2), the virus that causes coronavirus disease 2019 ( COVID19). Prior to the COVID19 pandemic, an e ...

, the remaining tournament was held at

Shaheed Veer Narayan Singh International Cricket Stadium The Shaheed Veer Narayan Singh International Cricket Stadium Raipur, also known as Naya Raipur International Cricket Stadium, is a cricket arena in the city of Naya Raipur, Chhattisgarh, India. It is List of cricket grounds by capacity, the t ...

, in

Raipur Raipur ( ) is the capital city of the Indian state of Chhattisgarh. Raipur is also the administrative headquarters of Raipur district and Raipur division, and the largest city of the state. It was a part of Madhya Pradesh before the state of Chh ...

Squads

Points table

* Qualified to the

semi-finals A single-elimination, knockout, or sudden death tournament is a type of elimination tournament where the loser of each match-up is immediately eliminated from the tournament. Each winner will play another in the next round, until the final matc ...

* Opted out of the tournament ** Australia Legends played 1 match against Sri Lanka Legends and forfeited their remaining matches as they could not travel to India due to

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was COVID-19 pandemic in Hubei, identified in Wuhan, China, in December ...

restrictions.

Tie-break criteria

# Number of wins. # Head to head results. If this is not applicable, positions decided by NRR. # If three or more teams are tied on points and the number of wins, positions decided by NRR.

Postponed and abandoned matches

2020

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Final

----

2021

----

League stage

All times are according to

Indian Standard Time Indian Standard Time (IST), sometimes also called India Standard Time, is the time zone observed throughout India, with a time offset of UTC+05:30. India does not observe daylight saving time or other seasonal adjustments. In military and avia ...

(IST).

2020

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2021

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Knockout stage

The knockout stage started with semi-finals at Raipur, the winners of each progressing to the final at Raipur. If any match ended in a tie, a Super Over would be used to determine the winner. If the scores in the Super Over were also tied, the winner would be determined by another Super Over and continues, until the team wins the Super Over. On 10 March 2021, Sri Lanka Legends became the first team to qualify for the semi-finals after beating Bangladesh Legends at Raipur.'Sri Lanka Legends becomes the first team to qualify for Semi-finals'
/ref> Three days later, saw tournament hosts India Legends, the second team to qualify after they defeated South Africa Legends at Raipur on 13 March 2021.'India Legends defeat South Africa Legends to book their place in Semi-finals
/ref> The following day after, South Africa Legends became the third team to qualify after they beat Bangladesh Legends at Raipur on 15 March 2021.'South Africa Legends advance for Semi-finals to face Sri Lanka Legends'
/ref> The following day, in the final match of the league stage, West Indies Legends and England Legends played for the final spot in the semifinals. Eventually, West Indies Legends became the fourth and final team to qualify for the semi-finals after they beat England Legends in a virtual quarterfinal match. The first semi-final was played between India Legends and West Indies Legends at Raipur, while the second semi-final was played between Sri Lanka Legends and South Africa Legends at the same venue again. * ''All times are according to IST (

).''

Bracket

Semi-finals

Semi-final 1: India Legends v West Indies Legends

The first semi-final between India Legends and West Indies Legends was played at

in Raipur on 17 March 2021. Batting first, India Legends got off to a fantastic start, but lost opener

Virender Sehwag Virender Sehwag (born 20 October 1978) is a former Indian cricketer who represented India from 1999 to 2013. Widely regarded as one of the most destructive opener, he played for Delhi Capitals in IPL and Delhi and Haryana in Indian domestic c ...

, after he gave Indians the perfect start, having scored 35 runs. However, the Indians continued their high scoring rate, as

combined with

Mohammad Kaif Mohammad Kaif () (born 1 December 1980) is a former Indian cricketer, who played Tests and ODIs. He made it to the national team on the strength of his performances at the Under-19 level, where he captained the India national under-19 cricke ...

and

Yusuf Pathan Yusuf Pathan (born 17 November 1982) is an Indian former cricketer. Pathan made his debut in first-class cricket in 2001/02. He was a right-handed batsman and a right-arm off-break bowler. His younger brother, Irfan Pathan was also an Indian c ...

for partnerships of 53 and a quick 31 respectively. Tendulkar scored 65 runs before he was the third man out in the 14th over. After his dismissal,

Yuvraj Singh Yuvraj Singh (born 12 December 1981) is a former Indian international cricketer who played in all formats of the game. He is an all-rounder who batted left-handed in the middle order and bowled slow left-arm orthodox . He has won 7 Player of ...

combined with Yusuf Pathan for an unbeaten partnership of 78 runs, also scoring a quickfire unbeaten 49* from just 20 deliveries, which included 6 sixes, out of which 4 came in 18th over bowled by

Mahendra Nagamootoo Mahendra Veeren Nagamootoo (மகேந்திர வீரன் நாகமுத்து) (born October 9, 1975) is a former cricketer for Guyana and the West Indies and of Tamil Indo-Guyanese ethnicity. In 2005, Nagamootoo took the most ...

. The Indian Legends finished with a score of 218/3, after a fantastic display of batting at the end of their 20 overs. The West Indies Legends saw William Perkins fell to

Manpreet Gony Manpreet Singh Gony (born 4 January 1984) is an Indian cricketer. He is a Fast bowling, right-arm medium pace bowler and right-hand middle order batsman. In June 2019, Gony announced his retirement from all forms of cricket, except for short-fo ...

in the second over, but the West Indians scored 71/1 in the first six overs, with

Dwayne Smith Dwayne Romel Smith (born 12 April 1983) is a former Barbadian international cricketer who has represented the West Indies in all three formats of the game. An all-rounder, he is known as an aggressive and powerful right-handed batsman, bowls m ...

combining with

Narsingh Deonarine Narsingh Deonarine (born 16 August 1983) is a Guyanese cricketer, who has played for the West Indies. Domestic and franchise career He is a left-handed batsman who bowls a right-arm off break. He made his debut for Guyana at the age of 17, and ...

going berserk after the Indian bowlers. After a partnership of 99 runs for the second wicket between Dwayne Smith and Narsingh Deonarine, Smith was dismissed for 63. After

Kirk Edwards Kirk Anton Edwards (born 3 November 1984) is a West Indies former international cricketer. He played as a right-handed batsman, domestically mainly for Barbados. Domestic career In May 2018, he was selected to play for the Windward Islands nati ...

was stumped by

Naman Ojha Naman Vinaykumar Ojha (born 20 July 1983) is an Indian former cricketer. He represented India in International cricket. He made his Test debut for India against Sri Lanka on 28 August 2015. He retired from all formats of cricket on 15 February ...

off

Pragyan Ojha Pragyan, NIT Trichy is the technical festival of the National Institute of Technology, Tiruchirappalli. Since its inception in 2005, it has been held every year over a period of three and a half days during the months of January, February, or M ...

’s bowling, falling for a first-ball duck,

was joined by Narsingh Deonarine for a partnership of 80 runs for the fourth wicket that left West Indies Legends needing 32 runs from the final three overs; however, after the dismissal of Brian Lara and Narsingh Deonarine, within a span of 4 runs and good tight bowling by

Vinay Kumar Ranganath Vinay Kumar (born 12 February 1984) is a former cricketer who has represented India at Test, One Day International (ODI) and Twenty20 levels. He is a right-arm medium fast bowler who played domestic cricket for Karnataka and also in ...

, Manpreet Gony and

Irfan Pathan Irfan Pathan (; born 27 October 1984) is a former Indian cricketer turned Commentator, Cricket Analyst, Actor and Dancer. He was a bowling all rounder and a member of the Indian cricket team that won the inaugural 2007 ICC Twenty20 World Cup a ...

, Indians managed to stop West Indies Legends at 206/6, entering into finals of Road Safety World Series.'India Legends enter into Finals'
/ref> ----

Semi-final 2: Sri Lanka Legends v South Africa Legends

The second semi-final saw Sri Lanka Legends take on South Africa Legends at

in Raipur on 19 March 2021. Sri Lanka Legends won the toss and chose to field first. South Africa Legends made a steady start to their innings but lost

Andrew Puttick Andrew George Puttick (born 11 December 1980) is a South African cricket coach and former cricketer. He is the current batting coach of the Afghanistan national cricket team. International career A left-handed opening batsman, Puttick represent ...

in the third over.

Alviro Petersen Alviro Nathan Petersen (born 25 November 1980) is a former South African international cricketer who played domestic cricket in South Africa for the Highveld Lions and in England for Lancashire. A right-handed batsman, he has represented South Af ...

was joined by

Morné van Wyk Morné Nico van Wyk (born 20 March 1979) is a South African professional cricketer who has played in 17 One Day Internationals for South Africa. He is also the brother of fellow cricketer Divan van Wyk. Domestic career In October 2018, he was ...

and combined for a 53 runs partnership. Apart from these batsmen, no other batsman could significantly contribute towards the total as they lost wickets at regular intervals.

Nuwan Kulasekara Kulasekara Mudiyanselage Dinesh Nuwan Kulasekara ( si, නුවන් කුලසේකර; born 22 July 1982) is a former Sri Lankan cricketer who played all formats of the game. Considered as one of the best swing bowlers in world cricket, H ...

ran through the South African batting lineup and took 5 wickets. Somehow, the South African Legends managed to score 125, with

top-scoring with 53. Sri Lanka Legends took their time to get going in the run chase but were soon making progress before

was dismissed by

Makhaya Ntini Makhaya Ntini OIS (born 6 July 1977) is a South African former professional cricketer, who played all forms of the game. He was the first black player to play for the South African national cricket team. He reached second place in the ICC Te ...

for the first wicket. Quick-hitting

Sanath Jayasuriya Deshabandu Sanath Teran Jayasuriya ( si, සනත් ජයසූරිය, ta, சனத் ஜெயசூர்யா; born 30 June 1969), is a former Sri Lankan cricketer and a captain. He is credited for having revolutionized one-day in ...

with

Upul Tharanga Warushavithana Upul Tharanga (born 2 February 1985), commonly known as Upul Tharanga ( si, උපුල් තරංග), is a former professional Sri Lankan cricketer, and a former limited over captain who played for all formats of the game. He ...

had a small partnership of 39 runs before Petersen dismissed Jayasuriya for 18 runs. Chinthaka Jayasinghe promoted up the order, started to smash bowlers all over the park, while Tharanga played the anchor's role in the chase. The Sri Lankan Legends successfully chased the target with more than two overs to spare and saw them entering the finals against India Legends, to be played on 21 March 2021.'Sri Lanka Legends to face India Legends in Finals'
/ref>

Final

Statistics

The top 5 players in each category are listed.

Most runs

Most wickets

Broadcasting

Viacom 18 Viacom18 Media Private Limited is an Indian media and entertainment joint venture between TV18 and Paramount Global based in Mumbai. It was founded in 2007 and owns various channels, as well as content production studios in India. History In ...

was the official broadcasting partner of the tournament.

Colors Cineplex Colors Cineplex (formerly Rishtey Cineplex from 2016 to 2019 in SD and the HD version formerly known as Cineplex HD from 2017–19) is an Indian pay television channel owned by Viacom18. It was launched on 29 March 2016. History In June 2016 V ...

& Rishtey Cineplex broadcast all the games of the tournament, and live streaming was available on

Voot Voot is an Indian subscription video on-demand and over-the-top streaming service, owned by Viacom18. Launched in March 2016, it is Viacom18's advertising-led video-on-demand platform that is available as an app for iOS, KaiOS ( JioPhone) an ...

and

Jio TV JioTV is an Indian streaming television service, owned by Jio Platforms, a subsidiary of Reliance Industries Limited. JioTV is a live TV channel streaming platform. JioTV has over 950+ channels. History JioTV, launched in 2016, from the digi ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:2020-21 Road Safety World Series Twenty20 cricket matches International cricket competitions in 2020–21 Road safety campaigns