Stand-in captain Rohit Sharma entered the T20 record books on Friday during India‘s thumping win in the second T20 against New Zealand in Auckland.
India restricted the Kiwis to 158-8 following a superb comeback by their bowlers who went for 219 in the first match. The men in blue were always in command during the chase as Rohit top-scored with 50 to help chase down the target in 18.5 overs and with seven wickets in hand, leveling the three-match series 1-1.
Opener Rohit’s 16th T20 fifty took his career tally in the format to 2,288 runs, overtaking New Zealand’s Martin Guptill on 2,272 to become the highest run-getter in T20s .
The 31-year-old – who made his T20 debut in 2007 – averages 32.6 in 92 matches.
During his match-winning innings, Rohit also smashed four sixes. That took his career sixes tally to 102, becoming only the third batsman in T20 history to breach the three figure mark. He is now behind only Guptill and Chris Gayle, who are both on 103 sixes.
Despite a record-breaking day, Rohit was more pleased with the all-round performance his team put in after losing the first match by 80 runs – their heaviest in history.
“I’m very pleased with how we bowled and then we were quite clinical with the bat as well,” Rohit said.
“We were expecting a performance like that, we’ve got quality in our side but we didn’t execute our plans in the first game. We learned from our mistakes and we got the reward for it.”
Kiwi captain Kane Williamson said India’s bowlers didn’t allow the hosts to make the most of Eden Park’s short boundaries.
“We perhaps missed a trick or two with the bat,” Williamson said. “Some smarter options might have given us another 20 runs at the death that would have been really helpful on that wicket. That opening partnership for India really took the game away from us.”
