Australia's veteran opener David Warner etched his name in history on Thursday, June 6. He became the first player in the world to achieve a staggering feat in T20 cricket.
Warner busts Gayles' mighty T20 record
Warner surpassed Chris Gayle's long-standing record of most 50-plus scores in the format. Playing against Oman in the ongoing T20 World Cup 2024 match at Kensington Oval, Bridgetown, Barbados, Warner smashed a gritty 56 off 51 balls in Australia's 39-run win over Oman. This knock included six boundaries and a mighty six, propelling him to a historic milestone. Previously, the record belonged to the explosive West Indian opener Chris Gayle, a two-time T20 World Cup champion himself. During his illustrious career, Gayle amassed a staggering 22 centuries and 88 half-centuries, bringing his total 50-plus scores to 110. Warner, who recently called time on his Test and ODI career, boasts an impressive record of 103 fifties and a further eight centuries.
While David Warner shattered the record for most T20 fifties, the competition for the top scorers remains fierce. Former Indian captain Virat Kohli sits comfortably in third place with a staggering 105 fifties to his name. Pakistan's captain, Babar Azam, has also joined the elite club of batsmen with over 100 fifties in T20s. In his impressive 300-match career, Azam has amassed a well-rounded record of 11 centuries and a whopping 90 half-centuries.
David Warner, the southpaw who shone as Player of the Tournament in the 2021 T20 World Cup, has rewritten history. He surpassed Aaron Finch's record of 3120 runs for Australia, reaching a new peak of 3155 runs in just 104 T20 internationals. This remarkable fifty also helped Warner tie Chris Gayle's mark of seven half-centuries in the T20 World Cup.
However, the record for most fifties in this global T20 event belongs to Virat Kohli, the Indian batting maestro. Kohli boasts a phenomenal 14 fifties across his 28 T20 World Cup appearances for India. Rohit Sharma, the Indian captain who smashed a well-made 52 off 37 balls in India's opening match of the 2024 World Cup against Ireland, sits at a commendable 10 fifties in 40 matches. Notably, Sharma is the only player to achieve the feat of scoring a fifty in eight different editions of the T20 World Cup.
Players with most 50-plus scores in T20s
POSITION | PLAYER | COUNTRY | MATCHES | RUNS | 50+ SCORES |
| 1. | David Warner | Australia | 379 | 12,289 | 111 (8+103) |
| 2. | Chris Gayle | West Indies | 463 | 14,562 | 110 (22+88) |
| 3. | Virat Kohli | India | 391 | 12,735 | 105 (9+96) |
| 4. | Babar Azam | Pakistan | 300 | 10,820 | 101 (11+90) |
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