England wicketkeeper-batter Jos Buttler etched his name into the record books on Wednesday by surpassing West Indies legend Kieron Pollard to become the highest run-scorer in T20 history. Following the milestone, Buttler backed India’s teenage batting sensation Vaibhav Sooryavanshi to one day eclipse his record.
Buttler achieved the historic feat during Manchester Super Giants’ Men’s Hundred clash against Welsh Fire, smashing an unbeaten 51 off just 20 balls, including two fours and six sixes, at a blistering strike rate of 250.00.
In 522 T20s, Buttler has now scored 14,833 runs with nine centuries and 105 fifties, outdoing Pollard (14,803 runs in 746 matches with two centuries) and a long-time record-holding West Indies titan Chris Gayle (14,562 runs in 463 matches with 22 centuries and 88 fifties).
After setting the record, Buttler, as per Cricinfo quoting Sky Sports, said he was proud to become the highest run-scorer in T20 cricket but said that the record would eventually be broken, adding that the likely person to surpass it could be Vaibhav Sooryavanshi.
“It’s really cool, actually, to think you’ve got the most T20 runs out of anyone. Someone will surpass it one day – and his name’s probably [Vaibhav] Sooryavanshi – but it’s a proud moment,” Buttler told Sky Sports as per Cricinfo.
At just 15, Sooryavanshi enjoyed a remarkable run in T20I cricket, scoring 151 runs in three matches against Zimbabwe to claim his maiden Player of the Series award as India completed a 3-0 clean sweep. His success came on the back of a stellar ICC Men’s Under-19 Cricket World Cup campaign earlier this year, where he amassed 439 runs and was named Player of the Tournament, further highlighting his immense potential.
Buttler said he would have liked to overtake Pollard while playing against MI London with Pollard watching as the head coach, and expressed pride at joining a list of T20 greats.
“We played against MI London last game and it would have been nice to get past Polly while he was there sat in the dugout, but there’s some great names on there, some special players, so I’m really proud of that,” Buttler said.
Coming to the Men’s Hundred match, Welsh Fire elected to bat first at Manchester. Knocks from Matt Short (71 in 47 balls, with eight fours and two sixes) and Phil Salt (48 in 37 balls, with three fours and three sixes) steered them to 155/4 in 100 balls.
During the chase, MSG came out all guns blazing, with Tim Seifert (62* in 36 balls, with 10 fours), Paul Walter (37 in 18 balls, with four boundaries) and Buttler (51* in 20 balls, with two fours and six sixes) chasing the total with nine wickets to spare. (With Inputs From ANI)
