Not Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma or Babar Azam! Ireland star becomes 1st player to hit 400 fours in T20Is

Ireland star batter Paul Stirling achieved a massive feat in the history of the T20Is. The opening batter became the first-ever batter in the history to hit 400 fours in the shortest format of the game, achieving the feat well ahead of Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma and Babar Azam. 

Paul Stirling achieved the feat during the ongoing first T20I of the series against Afghanistan. The match between the teams is taking place at the Sharjah Cricket Stadium in Sharjah, where visitors lost the toss and were asked to bat first. 

Paul Stirling provided his team with a decent start. He played some crisp host in his innings and along with Andrew Balbirnie (22) added 38 runs for the opening partnership in quick time. The captain looked solid at the crease but cashed on the start he got. 

Paul Stirling played a decent innings of 25 runs off 27 balls. He batted with a strike rate of around 100. His innings were laced with 2 fours and 1 six. With the two boundaries that he hit, he completed 400 fours in the T20I career, becoming the first batter to do so. 

After Paul Stirling got out, Harry Tector took charge and made sure that he took his team to the competitive total. The batter slammed a magnificent half-century and remained unbeaten till the end. He scored 56 runs off 34 balls, batting with a strike rate of over 164 with 7 fours and 2 sixes to his name. 

Apart from him, Gareth Delany (16) and Mark Adair (10*) made handy contributions in the end as Ireland ended with a total of 149 runs on the board. After they lost wickets, it didn’t seem that they would even reach here thanks to the heroics of Harry Tector. 

For Afghanistan, skipper Rashid Khan was the pick of the bowlers with his figures of 4/19. Apart from him, Nangeyalia Kharote picked two wickets whereas Azmatullah Omarzai chipped in with a scalp as they restricted the opposition under a total of 150 runs.  Ireland would be hoping to kick start the T20I series on high. They suffered 2-0 loss in the ODI series and would want to make a comeback in the ongoing series.

Most fours in the T20Is, Ireland’s Paul Stirling tops the list 

Ireland skipper Paul Stirling tops the list of most fours in T20 Internationals. The opening batter now has 401 boundaries to his name. He is followed by former Pakistan skipper Babar Azam, who so far has hit 395 fours in his career. 

The Indian greats in Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma are next in the list with 361 and 359 boundaries respectively. Australia opener David Warner is 5th on the list as he has slammed 320 boundaries in his T20I career so far. 

Here’s the the full list: