It was raining fours and sixes at Eden Park, Auckland as we saw New Zealand post a target of 244 for Australia only to be chased down with 7 balls to go. Despite Martin Guptill’s record-shattering maiden T20I century, the visitors came out on top chasing a record-target with ease on a small ground.
David Warner and D’Arcy Short set the tone by scoring 91 runs in the powerplay overs, the joint-highest powerplay score in T20I cricket. Warner scored 59 runs off 24 balls whereas Short went on to score 76 runs from 44 deliveries. Later Chris Lynn, Glenn Maxwell and Aaron Finch helped the team get past the score without any twists in the story.
What a game we’ve had at Eden Park! Australia pull off the biggest successful run chase in T20I history to beat New Zealand by 5 wickets in a classic! #NZvAUS scorecard https://t.co/Cidk6uRryy pic.twitter.com/RQm52tEXev
— ICC (@ICC) February 16, 2018
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This runchase is also the second-highest in overall T20 cricket which includes T20 leagues and domestic cricket. The highest runchase belongs to Central Districts who chased down 248 runs against Otago in a Super Smash T20 game in New Zealand.
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It was a horrible outing for the bowlers who were smashed around the park which had small boundaries. Australian bowler Andrew Tye and Ben Wheeler were the most expensive bowlers as they gave 64 runs each in the match. Wheeler gave 64 runs in just 3.1 overs with an economy rate of 20.21 which is the highest in T20I cricket as well.
Here’s a list of top five highest run chases in T20I cricket –
Australia – 245 for 5 vs New Zealand, 2018 (successful)
India – 244 for 4 vs West Indies, 2016 (unsuccessful)
West Indies – 236 for 6 vs South Africa, 2015 (successful)
England – 230 for 8 vs South Africa, 2016 (successful)
Australia – 214 for 4 vs New Zealand, 2010 (unsuccessful)
