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Indian batter Tilak Varma established a new world record on Saturday during his sensational knock of 72* during a tense run-chase against England at Chennai, continuing his incredible run in T20Is since his return from injury last year.
The last night witnessed one of the finest knocks from India's newly designated number three batter as he made a rock-solid 72* in 55 balls, with four boundaries, keeping calm in India's run-chase of 166, which turned ugly after a flurry of quick wickets in the first half of the innings. Now, Tilak has made 318 runs since he was last dismissed in T20Is, which is a new world record, overtaking 271 runs scored between two dismissals by New Zealand's Mark Chapman in 2023, as per Wisden. Since his dismissal for 20 runs against South Africa at Gqeberha on November 10 last year, Tilak has gone on to play knocks of 107*, 120*, 19* and 72*, which translates to 318 runs in four innings. Since his return from injury in the T20I set-up during November last year, Tilak has made 371 runs in six innings at an average of a massive 185.5, two centuries and a fifty. This has greatly helped Tilak's overall T20I statistics. In 22 matches and 21 innings, he has scored 707 runs at a remarkable average of 58.91 and a strike rate of 156.07, with two centuries and three fifties. Coming to the match, India won the toss and elected to bat first. Barring skipper Jos Buttler (45 in 30 balls, with two fours and three sixes), the England top order once again was struggling against spin. A couple of useful cameos from Brydon Carse (31 in 17 balls, with a four and three sixes) and wicketkeeper-batter Jamie Smith (22 in 12 balls, with a four and two sixes) took England to 165/9 in their 20 overs. Axar Patel (2/32) and Varun Chakravarthy (2/38) caused England the most trouble. In the run-chase, India suffered setbacks in the first half, as Abhishek Sharma (12), Sanju Samson (4), skipper Suryakumar Yadav (12), Dhruv Jurel (4) and Hardik Pandya (7) perished one by one. Tilak got assistance from Washington Sundar (26 in 19 balls, with three fours and a six), a 38-run partnership that let India cross the 100-run mark from a poor situation of 78/5. After Sundar and Axar (2) perished in quick succession with 40 runs left, Tilak had partnerships with Arshdeep Singh (4) and Ravi Bishnoi (9*) that helped India secure a win with two wickets and four balls left. Carse's brilliant spell of 3/29 and a strong spell of 1/14 by spinner Adil Rashid went in vain as India took a 2-0 lead in the five-match series. (ANI)
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