Aaron Finch break his own record by scoring 172 runs against Zimbabwe in T20I

XtraTime Web Desk: Australian star batsman Aaron Finch exploded in the most destructive innings ever seen in international Twenty20 cricket as Australia set a total of 229 in its Twenty20 against Zimbabwe in Harare. The Aussies went on to crush Zimbabwe by 100 runs.

Zimbabwe was overwhelmed for the second straight match and restricted to 129-9 in 20 overs. Andrew Tye took 3-12 and Ashton Agar picked up 2-16. Australia sits on top of the table with two victories from two matches after it also defeated Pakistan by nine wickets on Monday.

The Aussie opener went ballistic as he smashed his own record with a merciless knock of 172 from 76 balls.

Finch previously held the record for the highest ever score in international Twenty20 with a knock of 156 against England in 2013.

He smashed that by 16 runs against the poor Zimbabwean attack, clubbing 16 fours and 10 sixes.




Opening bowler John Nyumbu wasn’t spared from the carnage and finished with 0/44 from three overs.

Solomon Mire only got one over and went for 21 when having to bowl to Finch.

Zimbabwe simply had no answers to his incredible hitting display

In the end he could only be stopped by himself — when he was dismissed hitting his own wicket when he lost his balance at the crease in the final over and knocked his off stump with his own bat.




He finished just three runs short of Chris Gayle’s record Twenty20 score of 175 — set in the IPL.

He did, however, smash a series of other records.

His partnership of 223 with Darcy Short (46) smashed the previous highest ever partnership in international Twenty20 cricket — Martin Guptil and Kane Williamson’s partnership of 171 in 2016 against Pakistan.

It was also the highest ever team total in an international Twenty20, the most fours scored in an innings by a sole batsman and the highest percentage of a team’s total ever scored by a sole batsman.

The man himself seemed pretty carefree about his own heroics, but did admit he knew he was just three runs short of Gayle’s record when he was dismissed.




“Not bad,” he said when asked how he felt after Australia’s innings.

“I knew about it. It’s just one of those days where things went my way and I hit it in the middle. It was nice.”

He may not have realised his own heroics, but the international cricket community erupted and said it for him.

Finch was a bit happier with his performance after accepting the man of the match award.

“This innings is right up there,” he said.




“They don’t happen very often, so very pleased with it. It was nice to get a few in the middle and break the record.”

Glenn Maxwell and Marcus Stoinis were left to see out the innings. Australia carried on from where they left off against Pakistan on Monday after opening their campaign with a nine-wicket victory.

It comes after being on the other end of a one-day series whitewash in England. Behind Finch’s two top scores, Maxwell is next on the all-time T20I record list after he belted an unbeaten 145 against Sri Lanka in 2016.