Andre Russell slams fastest half-century in CPL history: Key stats
Andre Russell entered the record books with an explosive knock in the Caribbean Premier League on Friday. Playing for Jamaica Tallawahs, Russell smashed the fastest half-century in the league history. He hammered a 14-ball 50 as Tallawahs registered a mammoth 255/5 against St Lucia Kings at Warner Park. Tallawahs later won the match by 120 runs. Here are further details.
A monstrous knock by Russell
Russell came to bat in the 18th over. The middle-order batter smashed 4 sixes and 1 four in the very next over delivered by Wahab Riaz. He raced to 30 runs off just eight balls in no time. Russell further struck 2 sixes and as many fours in the final over bowled by Obed McCoy. The former scored 48 runs from boundaries alone.
Fastest fifty in the CPL
Russell now holds the record for smashing the fastest CPL fifty (14 balls). The previous record was set by JP Duminy (15 balls), for Barbados Tridents against Trinbago Knight Riders in 2019. Evin Lewis (17), Sohail Tanvir (18), and Kieron Pollard (18) are the others.
Joint-most runs in last two overs (T20 innings)
Russell scored 49 runs in the last two overs of the innings. As per ESPNcricinfo, this is the joint-most tally of runs by any batter across the 19th and 20th overs of a T20 innings. Notably, Pakistan's Umar Akmal also scored 49 runs in the last two overs during his unbeaten 115 in 2016 (National T20 Cup).
A rare instance!
There is only one instance of a batsman coming to bat after 17 overs (in a T20 innings) and ending up with a fifty, other than Russell's. It was was first achieved by Abhay Negi, who scored 50* off 15 balls for Meghalaya in 2019.
A look at other interesting stats
Russell registered his 25th half-century in T20 cricket. He now has 6,275 runs from 370 T20s at an average of 26.93 (2 hundreds, 499 sixes). Meanwhile, Tallawahs registered the second-highest team total in CPL history (255/5). They later bowled out St Lucia Kings on 135. This was the biggest win in terms of runs (120) in CPL history.
