David Warner surpassed the milestone for the most fifties in his T20 career on Thursday, hammering an undefeated 92 versus his former franchise Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) in an IPL 2022 match. Warner’s fifty was his 89th in T20Is, which is the Most Fifties in T20, one more than Chris Gayle, who holds the milestone.
Warner confronted 58 deliveries throughout his undefeated knock and hit 12 fours and 3 sixes, exacting revenge on his former team, who had sacked him of leadership halfway through last campaign following a string of defeats before dismissing him from the playing XI outright. He was not one of the 4 players signed by SRH, as assumed before the auctions.
SRH skipper Kane Williamson won the toss and chose to bowl first, and Bhuvneshwar Kumar set his team off to a good start by removing DC opener Mandeep Singh for a golden duck. Mitchell Marsh got off to a good start with a boundary but was removed for 10 in the 5th over by Sean Abbott. Rishabh Pant, the skipper of DC, struck for a hat-trick of sixes against Shreyas Gopal but departed in the very same over on 26.
This was followed by an unbeaten 122-run 4th-wicket stand among Warner and Rovman Powell, which helped DC reach a mammoth 207/3. Powell hit 3 fours and 6 sixes to finish undefeated on 67 off 35 balls. Umran Malik, the SRH bowler, was ramped up, but he finished up surrendering 52 runs in 4 wicketless overs.
“It’s a really nice wicket, I’ve had some success here. I knew if I played my strokes, it was going to come off. Challenging here in Mumbai with the humidity and I was cooked there towards the back end, I am getting older. Having Rovman at the other end was amazing. I was glad he was at the other end. I didn’t need extra motivation ‘playing against SRH’, we’ve seen what’s happened before in the past, and it was good to get the win on the board. It was a little bit silly of me to try and run fast – while batting with Powell”, said Warner at the post-match presentation.
Virat Kohli, India’s batting legend, finishes in the top 3 with 77 half-centuries. Pakistan allrounder Shoaib Malik is in 4th place, having 70 to his account, whereas another Aussie superstar Aaron Finch, is in 5th place.
S NO | NAME | MATCHES | FIFTIES |
1 | David Warner | 321 | 89 |
2 | Chris Gayle | 463 | 88 |
3 | Virat Kohli | 337 | 77 |
4 | Shoaib Malik | 472 | 71 |
5 | Aaron Finch | 352 | 70 |