SCO vs AUS 2024, 1st T20I Stats Review: Highest powerplay total in T20Is and other stats from Scotland vs Australia opening T20I

Travis Head (Source – Photo by Mark Scates/SNS Group via Getty Images)

Australia preyed on a hapless Scotland to romp home in the first T20I between the two sides at Edinburgh. The ruthless one-sided show by the kangaroos established their reputation as a fearsome T20 side to take note of. Australia have now made a winning start to their tour of Scotland and the UK.

Australia won the toss and elected to field, in a decision that was looking like it could backfire when George Munsey (28 off 16) launched a counterattack into the Australian bowlers. But once Munsey was dismissed near the end of the powerplay, none of the other Scottish players got going with Xavier Bartlett (2 for 23), Sean Abbott (3 for 39), and Adam Zampa (2 for 33) all doing their part to restrict Scotland to 154/9 in their 20 overs.

Australia’s chase didn’t get off to the best start as debutant Jake Fraser-McGurk collected a 3-ball duck, but what followed after that was simply bedazzling. Travis Head (80 off 25) continued his big hitting T20 form this year to completely rout Scotland. He was supported by his captain Mitchell Marsh (39 off 12) who also hit 30 runs in one over at one point to complement Head’s rage hitting. Mark Watt (2 for 13) dismissed them both in the same over, but the damage had been done at point and Josh Inglis (27* off 12) finished the job.

Also Read: Twitter Reactions: Travis Head gets into SRH mode to blow away Scotland in first T20I

Here are the top numbers from the game:

110 – Jake Fraser McGurk became the 110th player to play T20Is for Australia. Of these 110, two made their debuts for a country other than Australia – Dirk Nannes for the Netherlands and Tim David for Singapore.

3 – Jake Fraser-McGurk became the third Australian to score a duck on T20I debut. The other two – Ashley Noffke and Jhye Richardson, were primarily bowlers though.

17 – Travis Head reached his fifty within 17 balls, the joint fastest for Australia in T20Is. The other player to score a 17-ball fifty for Australia was Marcus Stoinis against Sri Lanka in the 2022 T20 World Cup.

113 – Australia’s 113 is the highest powerplay total in T20Is. The previous highest was 102 by South Africa against West Indies at Centurion in 2023, a match remembered for South Africa’s successful chase for 259.

73 – Travis Head’s score at the end of the powerplay. It is the highest individual score at the 6-over mark in T20Is.

4 – Mitchell Marsh smashing Jack Jarvis for 30 runs in an over was the fourth instance of an Australian doing so in T20Is. Ricky Ponting had hit New Zealand’s Daryl Tuffey for 30 in an over in the first ever T20I.

Helped with a no-ball, Aaron Finch and Glenn Maxwell combined to score 30 runs off Pakistan’s Bilawal Bhatti in the two teams’ T20 World Cup fixture in 2014.

Against Bangladesh at Mirpur in 2021, Daniel Christian hit Shakib al Hasan for five sixes in an over.

5 – This was the fifth instance of Travis Head reaching fifty within the powerplay in T20s. Among Australian batters, only David Warner with 6 has more.

58 – Australia required only 58 balls to complete their chase. For a minimum target of 150, this is the least number of balls required to successfully chase the total and the joint lowest in all T20s. When Sunrisers Hyderabad chased down their target of 166 in 9.4 overs against Lucknow Super Giants at Hyderabad in IPL 2024, Travis Head was in the thick of things making an unbeaten 30-ball 89.

320 – Travis Head’s strike rate of 320 in his 25-ball 80 is the highest by a full member batter in a T20I innings of 80 runs or more. It is the only such innings by a full member batter to be made at a strike rate above 300.