David Warner of Australia bats during game three of the Men's International Twenty20 match between Australia and Sri Lanka at Melbourne Cricket Ground on November 01, 2019 in Melbourne
Australian opener David Warner once again proved far too hot for Sri Lanka as he single-handedly guided the hosts to an emphatic seven-wicket win at the Melbourne Cricket Ground in the third and final T20I match of the series. Warner scored an unbeaten 57 runs in the final tie with four boundaries and a solitary six to take Australia past the challenging total of 142/6 amassed by Sri Lanka. However, he had his separate struggles in his 50-ball knock. For the most part of the innings, he struggled to find a rhythm and was, in fact, battling at 37 from 36 at one time. Sri Lanka captain Lasith Malinga missed a spectacular effort to dismiss him while a ball from Lahiru Kumara had rebounded off his body and rolled down to touch the stumps but did not dislodge the bails. But it was eventually Warner who hit the winning run, slogging the final delivery towards deep backward square leg for four.
"I'm happy with my form personally. It helps to get back into form with the small total on the board. Fewer risks to take. We are looking ahead to take on Pakistan at the SCG, so looking forward to that. Lots of pace in that attack, and hopefully I'll find the gaps and not the fielders in the series," said Warner who was announced as the Man of the Series in Australia's 3-0 victory.
Here are some of the records that Warner scripted with his unbeaten 57 in 3rd T20I versus Sri Lanka…
2009 runs Warner's knock on Friday helped him become the first Australia to reach the 2000-run mark in T20I cricket and sixth overall. He now stands behind Virat Kohli (2450 runs), Rohit Sharma (2443 runs), Martin Guptill (2285 runs), Shoaib Malik (2263 runs), Brendon McCullum (2140 runs). The next Australian on the list on Aaron Finch with 1772 runs. He also became the first Australian to complete 9000 T20 runs and is not the fifth-highest run-getter in the format in the world.
2 Warner, with his solitary six in the innings, became the second Australian player to hit 100 international sixes in Australia after Adam Gilchrist (105).
3 Warner became the third cricketer to score fifty-plus runs in all three matches of a bilateral T20I series. Warner scored 100*, 60* and 57* in the series against Sri Lanka. Kohli (90*, 59* and 50 vs Australia in 2015/16) and Colin Munro (53, 66 & 104 vs West Indies in 2017/18) are two other batters on the list.
217 is the number of runs Warner has now scored since his last dismissal in the format. Only Finch (240) and Hashim Amla (224) have scored more runs between two dismissals in T20Is.
