Afghanistan, known for their growing cricket skills, surprised everyone on Saturday by scoring the highest ever in a T20 international match.
They played against Ireland, winning the second match of a three-match series by 84 runs and eventually winning the series 3-0. During the third game, Rashid Khan became the first spinner to take a hat-trick in an international T20 match. It was a great few days for Afghanistan.
They have won 46 out of the 68 T20 matches they have played, which means they win more than 67% of the time. Many of these wins were against less experienced teams, but it’s still impressive.
Here are the five teams Afghanistan holds the record for the highest score in T20 internationals:
5. Australia 248/6 vs England at Southampton, 2013
On August 29, 2013, at the Rose Bowl, Aaron Finch amazed everyone. He scored 156 runs from 63 balls, hitting 14 sixes, which was a record back then. This helped Australia win their first match in any format in 200 days.
Shaun Marsh and Shane Watson also played well. Six of England’s seven bowlers gave up more than 11 runs per over. Joe Root had one over that gave away 27 runs. England scored 209 runs but lost by 39 runs.
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4. Sri Lanka 260/6 vs Kenya at Johannesburg, 2007 ICC World T20
If one player mainly helped Australia get a high score, Sri Lanka’s record T20 score was a team effort. Sanath Jayasuriya scored 88, Kumar Sangakkara scored 30, Mahela Jayawardena scored 65, and Jehan Mubarak scored 46. They got runs from both the top and middle order.
Five of Kenya’s six bowlers gave up 12 runs or more per over. Steve Tikolo was the only one who did well, giving up 25 runs in one over. To make things worse, Kenya couldn’t finish their overs and were all out for 88, which was 172 runs short.
3. India 260/5 vs Sri Lanka at Indore, 2017
Sri Lanka faced a defeat similar to one 10 years ago when India overpowered them in Indore. Rohit Sharma had a great start, making one of the fastest centuries in T20I history. KL Rahul also played well, scoring 89 runs from 49 balls, helping India to a huge total score.
India began strongly with a 165-run partnership for the first wicket. Sri Lanka couldn’t keep up and lost by 88 runs, despite Kusal Perera’s quick 77 runs from 37 balls.
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2. Australia 263/3 vs Sri Lanka at Kandy, 2016
Three years after Aaron Finch’s amazing performance at the Rose Bowl, Glenn Maxwell shone in Kandy, scoring an unbeaten 145 runs off 65 balls. David Warner, Travis Head, and Usman Khawaja also batted well, helping Australia set a world record score against Sri Lanka.
Sri Lanka ended their innings at 178/9, 85 runs short of the target. Scott Boland and Mitchell Starc each took 3 wickets for 26 runs.
1. Afghanistan 278/3 vs Ireland at Dehra Dun, 2019
On Saturday, Afghanistan broke Australia’s record and beat it by 15 runs. Hazratullah Zazai played amazingly, scoring 162 runs without getting out from just 62 balls. This was the second-highest score in T20 International cricket. Usman Ghani also played well, scoring 73 runs from 48 balls. Together, they scored 236 runs for the first wicket.
Ireland scored 194/6 in their reply, which is usually enough to win most games, but they were 84 runs short in this match.
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