India recorded their highest-ever men’s T20 World Cup total with 256 for 4 against Zimbabwe in Chennai, while also becoming the first team to register five 250-plus totals in T20 Internationals. The match added multiple statistical milestones for both sides in the tournament.
India’s 256/4 is the second-highest total in men’s T20 World Cup history. The only higher score remains Sri Lanka’s 260/6 against Kenya in the 2007 edition. India’s previous best in the tournament was 218/4 against England in Durban, also in 2007.
With this innings, India became the only team to record five 250-plus totals in T20Is. No other international side has more than three such scores. Across all T20 competitions, India now jointly hold the record for most 250-plus totals alongside Sunrisers Hyderabad.
Six Indian batters scored 20 or more runs in the innings, each at a strike rate above 150. Only once before has a team had six or more batters face at least 10 balls at a strike rate of 150-plus in a T20I innings, when Gibraltar achieved the feat against Bulgaria last year. India are also only the second team to have six 20-plus scores in a men’s T20 World Cup innings, after the Netherlands against India earlier in the tournament.
Abhishek Sharma’s 55 was the highest individual score in India’s 256. Notably, all previous 250-plus totals in men’s T20Is featured at least one individual score of 80 or more. Before this, only Jamaica Tallawahs had crossed 250 in a T20 innings without a batter scoring 60-plus.
Zimbabwe concede back-to-back 250-plus totals
Zimbabwe conceded 510 runs across their last two matches, after West Indies scored 254 against them at the Wankhede Stadium before India’s 256 in Chennai. They became the first team in men’s T20Is to concede 250-plus totals in successive matches.
India struck 17 sixes in the innings, their highest in a T20 World Cup match. Only the Netherlands (19 against Ireland in 2014) and West Indies (19 against Zimbabwe earlier in the tournament) have hit more in a single men’s T20 World Cup innings.
The match aggregate of 440 runs is the second-highest in men’s T20 World Cup history, behind the 459 runs scored in the England-South Africa clash at Wankhede in 2016. Both teams combined for 28 sixes, the third-highest total in a World Cup match.
Individual milestones
Zimbabwe captain Sikandar Raza crossed 3,000 runs in T20Is, becoming the first Zimbabwe player and the 14th overall to reach the milestone. He is also only the second cricketer to achieve the double of 3,000-plus runs and 100-plus wickets in T20Is.
Brian Bennett’s unbeaten 97 was Zimbabwe’s highest individual score in a T20 World Cup match and the fourth-highest by a Zimbabwe batter in men’s T20Is. Bennett has accumulated 277 runs in the current edition, the most by a Zimbabwe player in a single T20 World Cup.
For India, Arshdeep Singh moved to 35 wickets in men’s T20 World Cups, becoming the country’s leading wicket-taker in the tournament’s history, surpassing Jasprit Bumrah’s 33.
The Chennai match added to a growing list of high-scoring contests in this edition of the T20 World Cup, with several records falling in a single evening.
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