England’s Dawid Malan becomes fastest to 1,000 T20I runs

English top-order batter Dawid Malan on Saturday became the fastest batsman to reach 1,000 runs in men’s T20 Internationals during the fifth and final match of the series between India and England at Narendra Modi Stadium, Ahmedabad.     

Chasing a mammoth total of 225 runs, England lost their opener Jason Roy in just the second ball of their innings. Malan joined Jos Buttler in the middle and with some sensible hitting from the duo, they added 130 runs for the second wicket in 82 deliveries.  

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Buttler was sent back to the pavilion by Bhuvneshwar Kumar, only after he amassed a handy half-century.  

But the 33-year-old continued batting and crossed the 1000-run mark in only his 24th innings, breaking the previous record posted by Pakistan’s Babar Azam (26 innings). 

The left-handed batter completed the feat with a single off Kumar in the 13th over.

However, Malan was finally dismissed for 68 (46) by Shardul Thakur and eventually, England fell short of the target by 36 runs. Earlier in the match, India scripted a formidable performance with the bat in the series decider. 

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India skipper Virat Kohli, who scored 80 off 52 balls after coming out to open, is the third-fastest to reach the four-figure mark, followed by Australian captain Aaron Finch and Indian opener KL Rahul — both on 29.

Among English batters, Malan, currently the Number 1 ranked ICC T20I batsman, has broken the joint record of Kevin Pietersen and Alex Hales, who batted 32 times to complete the milestone at the international level. 

Meanwhile, with the victory, India has sealed the T20I series 3-2 and will be hungry to clinch the ODI encounters as well.