Afghanistan, known for their rising cricket skills, amazed 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 sweeping 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 is a win rate of over 67%. Many of these wins were against less experienced teams, but it’s still impressive.
Here are the five team they hold 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 stole the show. He scored an incredible 156 runs from 63 balls, which was a record at the time, and hit 14 sixes. This helped Australia win their first match in any format in 200 days.
Shaun Marsh and Shane Watson also played well, while six of England’s seven bowlers gave up more than 11 runs per over. Joe Root even had one over that went for 27 runs. England tried hard and scored 209 runs, but they still lost by 39 runs.
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4. Sri Lanka 260/6 vs Kenya at Johannesburg, 2007 ICC World T20
If one man mainly led Australia’s high score, Sri Lanka’s record T20 score was a team effort. Sanath Jayasuriya scored 88, Kumar Sangakkara 30, Mahela Jayawardena 65, and Jehan Mubarak 46, with the runs coming from both the top and middle order.
Five of Kenya’s six bowlers gave up 12 runs or more per over, with Steve Tikolo standing out for his 0-25 from one over. Making things worse, Kenya couldn’t even finish their overs and were all out for 88, falling 172 runs short.
3. India 260/5 vs Sri Lanka at Indore, 2017
Sri Lanka experienced a similar defeat as they did 10 years ago when India dominated them in Indore. Rohit Sharma started strong, hitting one of the fastest T20I centuries ever. Alongside him, KL Rahul scored 89 runs from 49 balls, leading to a massive total score.
India set the pace with a 165-run partnership for the first wicket. Sri Lanka struggled to catch up and ended up losing 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 great performance at the Rose Bowl, Glenn Maxwell took the spotlight in Kandy with an incredible 145 not-out from 65 balls. David Warner, Travis Head, and Usman Khawaja also scored well, helping Australia set a world record score against Sri Lanka.
Sri Lanka finished at 178/9, falling 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 not only broke Australia’s record but also surpassed it by 15 runs. Hazratullah Zazai had an amazing performance, scoring 162 runs without getting out from just 62 balls. This became the second-highest score in T20 International cricket. Usman Ghani supported him 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 a winning total in most games, but they fell 84 runs short in this match.
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