STATS BURST
Follow UsTeam India created history in New Zealand when they won the final T20I match at the Bay Oval in Mount Maunganui to win the series 5-0 and become the first side in T20I cricket history to do so. This incidentally is India’s eighth whitewash (of three or more matches) of an opponent in an away series across all formats.
Team India on a song in T20I cricket
By winning the series 5-0, Team India has just registered their longest unbeaten run in T20I cricket. Now only three sides have managed to remain unbeaten in consecutive matches on more occasions than India’s current nine matches.
Rohit now - top of the heap!
Rohit Sharma in the final T20I match, during his knock of 60 (retd hurt) became the first batsman to register 25 fifty-plus scores in T20I cricket. Overall, he has four 100-plus and 21 fifties in this format. Sharma bettered his teammate Virat Kohli’s tally of 24 fifty-plus scores.
India’s 14K run international club
Rohit Sharma in the final T20I game became the eighth Indian to aggregate 14000 runs in international cricket (across all formats) while playing for India.
Rahul leads in bilateral series aggregates
KL Rahul aggregate of 224 runs in the recent five-match T20I series in New Zealand is now the highest by a batsman in a bilateral series involving Test sides. He thus became the first Indian to score 200+ runs in a bilateral series in T20I cricket. His captain Virat Kohli’s 199 runs in the 3-match T20I series in 2016 against Australia was the previous highest by an Indian.
Note: If we consider all T20I series, ie among all countries, the record is held by Francis Damiao Couana of Mozambique, who made 233 runs in the 7-match bilateral series with Malawi a couple of months ago. Rahul then occupies the second position.
Rahul shines as keeper-batsman
KL Rahul meanwhile has set another record during the recent series. He now has the most aggregate runs in a T20I series/tournament by a wicket-keeper.
Dube’s expensive over
Shivam Dube now has a dubious record against his name in his short international career. He conceded 34 runs in the 10th over of New Zealand’s innings at Mount Maunganui. This is now the 2nd most runs conceded in an over in the T20I history after England’s Stuart Broad, who was plundered by India’s Yuvraj Singh for 36 runs at Durban in 2007 WT20 match. Incidentally, the previous most runs conceded by an Indian in an over was the 32 runs by Stuart Binny against West Indies at Lauderhill in 2016.
It’s all about sixes
New Zealand batsmen hit 39 sixes in the just-concluded series against India. This takes their tally of sixes to 772, now the most hit by any side in T20I cricket. Indian batsmen hit 35 sixes in the series. In doing so India became the fourth side in this format to hit 700 or more sixes.
Postscript:
Ross Taylor became the third player and the first from New Zealand to appear in 100 T20I matches. He now joins Pakistan's Shoaib Malik (113) and India's Rohit Sharma (108). However, Taylor will now shortly possess a very unique record in international cricket – he is all set to become the only player to appear in 100 or more matches in each of the three formats. He now has appeared in 99 Tests, 228 ODIs, and 100 T20Is. When he plays the opening Test against India at the Basin Reserve in Wellington during the third week of this month, he will complete this unique record.
(all records mentioned above are complete and updated until 3 Feb 2020)
