By B Shrikant
Hyderabad, Sep 25 (IANS): He was promoted as an opener as a gamble in the absence of bigwigs David Waner and Mitch Marsh but Cameron Green made the spot his own during the 2022 T20I series in India, hitting the third fastest half-century in the shortest format of the game for Australia.
Green, who opened the innings with Aaron Finch for the third consecutive match in the 3rd T20I at the Rajiv Gandhi International Cricket Stadium, Uppal, here on Sunday, raced to fifty off 19 balls, hitting seven boundaries and three sixes.
This is the third fastest half-century for Australia in T20Is behind David Warner and Glenn Maxwell, both of who achieved it off 18 deliveries. In terms of runs, this is the second fastest as Warner struck his fifty off 18 balls and Maxwell did that twice.
Warner scored his half-century against the West Indies in Sydney in February 2010 while Maxwell did it first against Pakistan in Mirpur in 2014 and then repeated it against Sri Lanka at R Premadasa Stadium in Colombo in 2016.
India's Yuvraj Singh holds the record for the fastest fifty in T20 Internationals. He blazed to a half-century against England off 12 balls at Durban in the T20 World Cup in 2007, the same match in which he hammered Stuart Broad for 6 sixes in an over.
On Sunday, Green was eventually out for 52 off 21 balls (4x7, 6x3), caught by KL Rahul off Bhuvneshwar Kumar in the last ball of the fifth over.