Hyderabad: On the day of Dusshera, reigning T20 World Cup champion India scaled new heights with the bat on a record-breaking day. Electing to bat first, India smashed a whopping 297/6 – the second-highest score in men’s T20I history, against Bangladesh at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium in Hyderabad.
It is also India’s highest team total in T20Is and the most runs ever posted by a full-member nation in this format, going past Afghanistan (278/3), England (267/3) and Australia (263/3).
India’s previous highest score in men’s T20Is was 260/5 scored against Sri Lanka in 2017. Incidentally, this was the game that saw Rohit Sharma smash a 35-ball century, the fastest by an Indian male player in the shortest format of the game.
Last year, Nepal recorded a total of 314/3 against Mongolia, the highest-ever total in men’s T20Is, during the Asian Games in Hangzhou.
On Saturday, Wicketkeeper-batter Sanju Samson was the star of the show through his 111 off 47 balls – also his maiden T20I hundred in 40 balls, — becoming the second-fastest India men’s batter behind Rohit Sharma to score a ton in the shortest format.
Samson, who smashed 11 fours and eight sixes in his knock, also becomes the first Indian wicketkeeper-batter to hit a hundred in men’s T20Is. Samson and captain Suryakumar Yadav, who hit 75 off just 35 balls, also ensured India got its joint-highest Power-play score in T20Is (83).
Their partnership of 173 runs is also the second-highest second-wicket partnership for India in T20Is. The duo fell just short of breaking the record stand of 176 runs shared by Samson and Deepak Hooda against Ireland in Malahide in 2022.
In this innings at Hyderabad, India hit 47 boundaries – 22 sixes, 25 fours – which is the highest boundary count in a men’s T20I innings. Samson’s 30 runs – coming off five straight sixes off leg-spinner Rishad Hossain — is the fourth-most runs scored by an Indian batter in an over in T20Is.
The lower-order maintained the momentum of Samson and Suryakumar, whose 75 came off 35 balls – laced with eight fours and five sixes – feasting on Bangladesh bowlers to help India reach a mammoth total with a run rate of 14.85 in an extraordinary batting performance.
–IANS
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