Martin Guptill, the New Zealand opener chasing Virat Kohli’s record from the first T20 international of the series, has finally taken over the former Indian T20I skipper. He achieved the milestone in the second T20I of the series, played in Ranchi on Friday.
Guptill missed out the milestone his own in the first match played in Jaipur, where he played a superb knock of 70 runs in just 42 balls. He was looking excellent in that inning and might have taken over Kohli if it wasn’t for Deepak Chahar, who made a comeback after getting hit for a six to taking Guptill’s wicket on the very next ball. Chahar and Guptill were also engaged in a staring battle which Chahar eventually won.
Guptill was ten runs behind Kohli at the start of the inning, who is rested for the series. And he achieved the milestone his own in the first over, as he smoked Bhuvneshwar Kumar for 14 runs. Later he went on to play a magnificent knock of 31 runs in 15 balls to become to add further 21 knocks to his name on the tally of highest international runs.
Guptill was playing his 111th match, in which he took over Kohli and now has 3232 runs against his name. His record might not stand for a long time, though, as the current Indian skipper Rohit Sharma is also chasing the record. Albeit he is 146 behind Guptill, and with at least two innings in hand, he is very likely to take over his teammate and Guptill in the third match of the series.
