BARBADOS (West Indies): David Warner etched his name into the history books by surpassing former captain Aaron Finch to become the highest run-scorer for Australia in the T20I format.
During Australia’s T20 World Cup campaign opener against Oman, Warner didn’t adopt the high-risk, high-reward approach and took his time to settle on the tricky surface.
Warner walked back with a score of 56(51), glistened with six boundaries and a sole maximum. He has 3,155 runs in 104 matches to his name and is the highest run scorer in the shortest format of cricket. He surpassed Finch’s tally of 3,120, which he racked up in 103 matches at an average of 34.28 and a strike rate of 142.53.
The experienced opening batter took time to open his arms and effectively negated Oman’s spin threat. He came down the track, opened his arms and sent the ball onto the stands to raise his bat for the 27th T20I fifty.
He was eventually dismissed by Oman right-arm pacer Kaleemullah after he ended up mistiming his shot to the fielder at long-off. His fifty took him past the former West Indies hard-hitting opener Chris Gayle. Warner has 111 fifties in T20 cricket while Gayle managed to get 110 fifties under his belt.
India stalwart batter Virat Kohli is the closest competitor to Warner’s tally with 105 fifties to his name. During his time on the field, he forged a 102-run stand with Marcus Stoinis that helped Australia put up a score of 164/5 on board.
Stoinis once again produced an effortless power-hitting fest and went unbeaten with a score of 67 off a mere 36 deliveries. His influential knock was laced with two fours and a whopping six sixes. The 34-year-old helped the Baggy Greens to quickly accelerate in their innings from a point when they were tottering at 50/3 in the 9th over.
Following his knock, Stoinis went past the 100-run mark in the T20I format for Australia and became just the eighth batter to achieve the feat.The experienced all-rounder has 1,007 runs to his name in 60 matches at an average of 31.46 and a strike rate of 147.22. (ANI)