From participants to powerhouses: Surge of Associate nations at T20 World Cup 2026
We are only into the fourth day of the T20 World Cup and the fans have already witnessed quite a few thriller in the group stage matches. Teams like Nepal, Netherlands and the USA have performed exceptionally well and it seems that the upset in only around the corner in the World Cup.
"We are not here just to make up numbers." These are the words of the Italy captain, Wayne Madsen. The confidence from the South Africa-born cricketer was oozing ahead of the mega event as they defeated Canada and the UAE by 10 runs and 112 runs respectively. The fact that Italy are the World Cup debutants and are already capable of beating teams ranked above them shows how far cricket has come and that the associate nations are not here just to make up numbers.
Earlier, the teams like Scotland, Netherlands, Oman, Nepal and the UAE, among others were being looked at just as the participants at the World Cup. But that isn't the case this time around. Ever since the T20 World Cup has expanded to 20 teams, it has opened the door for the associate teams to punch above their weight and they are doing so regularly now against full member nations.
The Netherlands are habitual of beating big teams in their cricketing history, and the USA knocking Pakistan out of the T20 World Cup in 2024 was the watershed moment in their cricketing history. In the ongoing edition of the mega event, four of the first five matches proved that the gap between the full members and associate nations is fast closing in which is massive for cricket.
Netherlands almost stunned Pakistan
Pakistan were on the mat in the opening game against the Netherlands, and it needed a catch drop from Max'O Dowd for them to pull off an unlikely victory in the 148-run chase. The Dutch had brought the equation down to 29 runs off the last two over,s and Faheem Ashraf was the only recognised batter who presented an opportunity on the first ball of the 19th over. He survived and took his team over the line in a thriller. For once, the majority of the cricketing world felt that the Netherlands deserved to win the game, but such are the margins in T20 cricket that you seldom get second chances.
Scotland and USA had their moments
In the next game of the day, Scotland needed 67 runs off 40 balls in the 183-run chase with seven wickets in hand before they collapsed, conceding a hat-trick to Romario Shepherd, to lose by 35 runs. USA seemed to be on the verge of the biggest upset in the history of the sport, as they had reduced India to 76/6 at the Wankhede Stadium on the same day, only to let Suryakumar Yadav bail the hosts out of trouble.
In response, they scored 132 runs while batting out the entire 20 overs, which proves that if not for Surya's heroic knock, the USA would've easily restricted India to a score of less than 140 runs and later chased it down.
Nepal came closest to upsetting England
Among all teams, Nepal came the closest to beating England as they fell short by just four runs in the end due to Sam Curran, who nailed his yorkers perfectly in the final over. When the final over of the 185-run chase got underway, they were within touching distance, needing only 10 runs to win. But Curran took it upon himself to break the hearts of millions of Nepali fans.
It was a real scare for England as they got out of jail somehow to realise they can't take any team lightly in this World Cup.
'Don't take us lightly' is the message from Associate Nations
The T20 World Cup has just started, and we might not be far from an upset. In fact, one feels the word 'upset' shouldn't be used anymore for associate nations. The way they have progressed over the last few years, the time is not far when their wins over full member nations won't surprise anyone.