ESPNcricinfo Awards 2022 T20 leagues batting nominees: Title-winning knocks, and the Hundred's first centurion

Sunil Narine
57 vs Fortune Barishal
Final, Mirpur
Years after he took to opening in T20, Narine showed he can still be deadly dangerous as a bat-swinger up top, lashing two sixes and a four off Mujeeb Ur Rahman in the first over here and not letting up after. His fifty came off 21 deliveries; two balls later, he was out, but Comilla Victorians had made over 70 in the powerplay, and they eventually went on to a narrow win, their third title in the BPL.

Sunil Narine
57 vs Chattogram Challengers
Qualifier, Mirpur
Narine foreshadowed his 57 in the BPL final with an identical score at the same venue two days previous, when he made short work of Chattogram's middling 148. Opening partner Litton Das' dismissal off the first ball fazed Narine not one bit, as he showed with three boundaries in that over; in the next, off Mehidy Hasan Miraz, he hit three sixes and a four in four balls. By the time he was out, Victorians were more than halfway to their target, in just the sixth over.

Munim Shahriar
44 vs Comilla Victorians
Qualifier, Mirpur
Shahriar got Fortune Barishal off to a rocketing start in the qualifier against the team they would meet again in the final, with 16 off the first over. Though he didn't quite go at that pace for the rest of this innings - he only seemed to stir again when he took 11 off a Moeen Ali over, the eighth - he left his side placed at a comfortable 84 when he was out in the tenth over. It proved enough for a ten-run win.

Laurie Evans
76 not out vs Sydney Sixers
Final, Melbourne
Perth Scorchers got off to a rocky start in pursuit of their fourth BBL title, sinking to 25 for 4 against Nathan Lyon and Co. Evans turned things around in the company of Ashton Turner, putting on 104 in 59 balls. After six balls of circumspection, he was away with a three angled through slips, followed next ball by a four driven through cover, and two balls after with a hard-swept flat six. He stayed till the end, getting his team to 171, which turned out to be more than plenty for a crushing win

Hayden Kerr
98 not out vs Adelaide Strikers
Challenger, Sydney
Sydney Sixers succeeded in their second shot at a place in the 2022 BBL final thanks to Kerr's judicious striking. He faced just under 50% of the balls available and made just under 60% of the team's runs, sometimes taking the upper hand and at others hanging back. In his partnership of 45 with Moises Henriques, Henriques contributed 13; in contrast, in the 55-run stand with Sean Abbott, Kerr made only 12. He finished strong, with 12 runs off the last three balls of the innings after two wickets fell off the first two deliveries of the over. It took Sixers into their sixth BBL final.

Daniel Sams
98 not out vs Melbourne Renegades
Melbourne
The perfect game for Thunder, who inflicted the third-heaviest defeat in the BBL's history. Sams came in at 78 for 2 in the ninth over, sent his second delivery flying for six, and then stayed the duration, building partnerships of 20 or more runs with four batters. He hit the Afghanistan wristspinner Zahir Khan for six twice in an over in successive overs he faced off him, and took Thunder to 209, which they then defended with ridiculous ease.

Faf du Plessis
103 vs Guyana Amazon Warriors
Providence
Du Plessis produced the standout performance of this league game, though his team, St Lucia Kings, ended up on the wrong side of the scoreline. After opener Mark Deyal went in the first over, du Plessis and Niroshan Dickwella bedded in for a partnership that produced 132 runs. In the third over du Plessis took Romario Shepherd for four fours, but after that he largely reserved his powder for the spinners. He finished on a strike rate of 175, but Kings' 194 did not prove a bridge too far for Warriors.

Rahkeem Cornwall
91 vs Guyana Amazon Warriors
Qualifier, Providence
Another big score against the Warriors attack. Cornwall scored four off his first 11 balls, then changed gear to take 24 off the fourth over of the innings. Azam Khan and he put on 90 runs for the third wicket, of which Cornwall made the lion's share. It was enough for a comfortable win for Royals, and Cornwall chipped in with the ball too, taking two wickets.

Brandon King
83 not out vs Barbados Royals
Final, Providence
King swung the title match Jamaica Tallawahs' way after their bowlers kept Royals down to 161. Opening the innings, he scored at a steady clip against all the bowlers, broke into a flurry of fours in the 12th over as the score went past 100, made 15 runs in the 16th over, and sealed the game with a six in the 17th, giving Tallawahs their third CPL title.

Will Smeed
101 not out vs Southern Brave
Birmingham
Smeed produced the first century in the Hundred, in the second year of the competition, to take Phoenix comfortably past Southern Brave. He hit the first ball of the innings for four, in a sign of things to come, and struck at over two runs a ball all through. Having got just bits and bobs of the strike for the better part of 35 balls, Smeed soon found his pace and tucked into George Garton, Jake Lintott and Tymal Mills in particular. His fifty came in 25 balls and his hundred in another 24.

Will Jacks
108 not out vs Southern Brave
The Oval
Coming off 81 in his previous game, Jacks raised the ante here, making the biggest score in the Hundred so far. Each of the Southern Brave bowlers came in for some tap, but Jacks stepped it up 32 balls into his innings, when six of the next seven balls he faced went to the boundary or over it. He capped the innings with two sixes over long-on off Rehan Ahmed for the win and the century.

Dawid Malan
98 not out vs Manchester Originals
Manchester
Malan made a chase of a massive 190 look easy, hitting just under 100 in 44 balls. He went neck and neck with opening partner Alex Hales in putting the Originals bowlers to the sword, and when Hales was out a little short of halfway into the innings, Malan kept going. Legspinner Matt Parkinson took heavy punishment, going for 21 runs off the six balls Malan faced off him, and Sean Abbott and Andre Russell didn't fare much better. Rockets got to their mark with six balls to spare in the end.

Rajat Patidar
112 not out vs Lucknow Super Giants
Eliminator, Kolkata
Patidar came in in the first over and, in the company of Virat Kohli, who played anchor, got into top gear soon. In the fifth over he hit back-to-back fours off hard-length balls from Avesh Khan. In the sixth he mowed three fours and a six, leaving Royal Challengers Bangalore 52 for 1 at the end of the powerplay. He was dropped in the 16th over, when he went extra big - 27 runs came off it. The hundred came two overs later, with a pulled six. Patidar's innings took RCB to 207 - enough for a comfortable win.

KL Rahul
103 not out vs Mumbai Indians
Mumbai
Rahul largely played a lone hand. He raised the run rate above six after the powerplay, in which Mumbai tied the Lucknow Super Giants batters down, and he kept it around seven through the innings even as wickets fell at the other end. He stayed the course, eventually scoring 61% of the team's runs on his own. Impressively for an innings where he struck at over 166, Rahul was in control of over 85% of deliveries he played.

David Miller
94 not out vs Chennai Super Kings
Pune
Miller came in in the fourth over at 16 for 3 and kept the score ticking over, if not exactly galloping, against a gun CSK attack, hitting the odd four and six each over. In the 12th he broke loose, hitting 17 off Ravindra Jadeja, before going back to a more measured style. Rashid Khan plundered 23 off the 18th over when Gujarat Titans needed 48 off 18. It came down to 13 needed off the last over. Miller played out two dots, hit a six, a four, and ran two; Chris Jordan's no-ball on the fourth delivery did the rest.

Wanindu Hasaranga
77 not out vs Colombo Stars
Qualifier, Colombo
Hasaranga, the Kandy Falcons captain, had his work cut out. His team had lost two wickets in the first over of their innings and made just 29 in the powerplay. He injected the right note of urgency into the proceedings by hitting his second and third balls for fours. The next over, the tenth, produced consecutive boundaries again, and so did the 13th. In between was a six swatted over wide long-on off Dominic Drakes. Hasaranga's fifty came with a four hit straight back over the bowler's head, and he capped things off with two sixes off the 20th over, taking Falcons to 168 - which proved not enough in the end.

Rahmanullah Gurbaz
73 vs Dambulla Aura
Pallekele
Wicketkeeper-opener Gurbaz delivered a signal of intent early when he hit the second and third balls of the Jaffna Kings innings for fours. He kept motoring for close to 11 overs, with Avishka Fernando at the other end nearly matching him shot for shot, and when Gurbaz became the first wicket to fall, the score was on 133, Kings having taken each over for about 13 runs. The third over, off Pramod Madushan got special stick, going for 20 runs, and Gurbaz hit five sixes and seven fours in all, taking Jaffna to a steep 240, which Dambulla didn't get close to.

Nuwanidu Fernando
63 not out vs Dambulla Aura
Colombo
Fernando's innings produced nearly four times as many runs as his next highest-scoring team-mate made. Galle Gladiators lost wickets at a regular clip after they got to 20 and were 32 for 4 when Fernando came in. He consolidated with Azam Khan - the two went 37 deliveries without a boundary - before hitting his first six. The wicket of Azam produced another long spell without a four or six, after which Fernando hit two sixes in three overs. Realising he had left it late, he went for broke in the final over, which went for 25. It took Galle to 129, which didn't prove enough in the end.

Fakhar Zaman
106 vs Karachi Kings
Karachi
Fakhar's first PSL hundred brought Lahore Qalandars their first win of the season. He flew solo - the next-highest score was 26 - and by the time he was done, the team needed seven runs to win. Right-arm seamers Aamer Yamin and Mohammad Ilyas came in for some special attention, going for 46 runs off the 18 balls Fakhar faced off them. Fakhar and Samit Patel, who put on a partnership of 74 in seven overs, combined to hit three fours and a six off Ilyas in the 18th over, in the course of which Fakhar also got to his hundred.

Mohammad Haris
70 vs Islamabad United
Lahore
Azam Khan top-scored in this game with 85, but it was Haris' brutal 70 off 32 that made the decisive difference, taking his side, Peshawar Zalmi, to 206 and a ten-run win. They made 74 runs in the powerplay, of which 22 came in the second over, when Haris hit four fours and a six off Mohammad Musa.

David Wiese
28 not out vs Islamabad United
Eliminator, Lahore
Wiese's score is the smallest in this list of nominees, but it made a mighty contribution to Lahore Qalandars making it to the PSL final. He came in with 11 balls of the innings to go, Lahore at a decidedly under-par 135 for 6, and produced the kick that got them to 168, which they then defended. The first ball of the 20th over, the fourth Wiese faced, was wide. The next and the one after went for sixes, sliced over deep point and launched over long-off. The third ball of the over was top-edged for four, and the fifth disappeared over deep midwicket for a six.