Indian batter Rohit Sharma on Sunday became the highest-run scorer in the T20I format of the game.
Rohit accomplished this feat during India’s Asia Cup 2022 campaign opener against Pakistan in Dubai. In the eighth over of India’s innings bowled by Mohammed Nawaz, Rohit hit it big over the long-on region with impeccable timing, sending the ball for a six. With this, he became the highest run-scorer in the shortest format of the game.
Though as far as his own innings in the match is concerned, he did not last long and struggled to showcase his usual attacking style of batting. He was dismissed by Nawaz for 12 off 18 balls, which consisted of only one six.
Now he has a total of 3,499 runs across 125 innings in 133 games at an average of 32.10. He has four centuries and 27 half-centuries to his name in the shortest format, with the best individual score of 118.
He has gone past New Zealand batter Martin Guptill, who currently has 3,497 runs under his belt.
They are followed by Indian batter Virat Kohli (3,343 runs), Ireland opener Paul Stirling (3,011 runs), Australian opener Aaron Finch (2,855 runs) and Pakistani star Babar Azam (2,696 runs).
Coming to the match, Pakistan were bundled out for 148 in 19.4 overs. Opener Mohammed Rizwan (43) and Iftikhar Ahmed (28) were the only ones who could contribute something decent with the bat. The pace and short-length deliveries of Bhuvneshwar Kumar (4/26), Hardik Pandya (3/25) and Arshdeep Singh (2/33) and Avesh Khan (1/19) blew away Pakistani batters and wickets fell at a regular rate.
Chasing 149, India lost KL Rahul for a duck in the very first over. After this, Virat Kohli (35) anchored the innings and had a 49-run stand with skipper Rohit Sharma (12), who largely struggled at the other end. Twin strikes from Mohammed Nawaz, who took Sharma and Kohli’s wickets restricted India to 3/53.
Following this, a 36-run stand between Ravindra Jadeja and Suryakumar Yadav helped move the scoreboard, before Suryakumar fell to debutant Naseem Shah for 18.
A 52-run stand between Jadeja (35) and Hardik Pandya (33*) followed, which took India close to a win and in-form Pandya finished the proceedings with a six with two balls to spare, giving India a five-wicket win.
Nawaz (3/33) and Naseem Shah (2/27) bowled really well for Pakistan, though not enough to give them a win.
Pandya was adjudged as ‘Man of the Match’ for his all-round performance
(Inputs from IANS)