Sensational David Warner on Friday became the first opener in T20I cricket to remain not-out in a series of at least three matches as Australia whitewashed Sri Lanka 3-0 with a seven-wicket win in the third and final outing at Melbourne.
Warner remained unbeaten on 57 as Australia reached the target, 143 runs, with 14 balls to spare. The 33-year-old had scored an unbeaten hundred at Adelaide and 60 not out at Brisbane.
In the process, he became the sixth batsman (2009) to breach the 2000-run mark in T20s, after Virat Kohli (2450), Rohit Sharma (2443), Martin Guptill (2285), Shoaib Malik (2263) and Brendon McCullum (2140) in T20Is.
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He took 1419 balls to reach the mark, which is quickest, ahead of Kohli (1467). Both McCullum and Rohit took 1476 balls each to reach 2000 T20I runs.
Since his last dismissal, for 25 runs against New Zealand at Auckland in February 2018, he has scored 217 runs, which is third most between two dismissals in T20Is, after fellow Aussie Aaron Finch's 240 and former South African opener Hashim Amla's 224.
Besides, Warner also joined Indian captain Virat Kohli and New Zealand's Colin Munro as the only batsmen to scored fifties in all three innings of a bilateral T20I series. Kohli scored 90 not out, 59 not out and 50 against Australia in 2015-16 and Munro scored 53, 66 & 104 against the West Indies in 2017-18.
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Warner, when on 39, also became the first Aussie batsman to complete 9000 T20 runs and the first Aussie to 2000 runs (when on 49). Overall, he is the fifth batsman to complete 9000 T20 runs, after Chris Gayle (13051), Brendon McCullum (9922), Kieron Pollard (9780) and Shoaib Malik (9120).
Warner hit four fours and one six during his 50-ball knock, and became the second Australian to smack 100 international maximums, after Adam Gilchrist (105).
