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England opener Phil Salt tied with Pakistan's Babar Azam to become the player with the third-highest number of centuries in T20I cricket.
Salt reached this accomplishment during the first T20I against West Indies at Barbados. During the match, England was assigned a task to chase down 183 runs. Salt almost single-handedly did it by himself, scoring 103* in just 54 balls. His innings was laced with nine fours and six sixes. His strike rate was 190.74. This is Salt's third T20I hundred, tying him with Pakistan star Babar, who also has three T20I tons. Only Indian stars Suryakumar Yadav (4 centuries) and Rohit Sharma (5 centuries) and Australian hitter Glenn Maxwell (5 centuries) are above Salt. All of Salt's three T20 centuries have come against West Indies, making him the only second player to have smashed three T20 centuries against a single opponent. KL Rahul has three centuries against Mumbai Indians (MI) in the Indian Premier League (IPL). Salt has a fine record against West Indies in T20Is, scoring 581 runs in 10 innings at an average of 83.00, with a strike rate of 187.41. He has scored three centuries and two fifties, with the best score of 119. The opening batter also completed his 1,000 T20I runs. In 34 T20Is, Salt has scored 1,047 runs at an average of 38.77 and a strike rate of 167.52. He has scored three centuries and three fifties in 32 innings, with the best score of 119. He is only the ninth England player to touch the 1,000-run mark in the shortest format. The highest run-getter for England in T20Is is Jos Buttler. The England white-ball captain has scored 3,264 runs in 125 T20Is at an average of 35.47 and a strike rate of 146.23, with a century and 24 fifties in 115 innings. His best score is 101*. Coming to the match, West Indies was put to bat first by England, who won the toss and opted to field first. West Indies kept losing wickets regularly, however, knocks from Nicholas Pooran (38 in 29 balls, with two fours and three sixes), Romario Shepherd (35* in 22 balls, with three fours and two sixes), Gudakesh Motie (33 in 14 balls, with four boundaries and two sixes) and Andre Russell (30 in 17 balls, with four sixes) took WI to 182/9 in their 20 overs. Saqib Mahmood (4/34) and Adil Rashid (3/32) bowled fine bowling spells for England. Jamie Overton and Liam Livingstone got a wicket each. In the run-chase, Salt (103* in 54 balls, with nine fours and six sixes) along with a half-century from Jacob Bethell (58* in 36 balls, with five fours and two sixes) powered England to an eight-wicket win with 19 balls left. Motie and Shepherd took a wicket each for WI. England is 1-0 up in the five-match series and Salt secured the 'Player of the Match' award. (ANI)
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