England openers Jos Buttler and Alex Hales on Thursday scored the highest partnership in the history of the ICC T20 World Cup event. The two attacking batters accomplished the landmark during the semifinal against India at the ongoing 2022 edition of the tournament. Chasing 169, Buttler and Hales unleashed carnage on Indian bowlers, smashing them all over the park. They chased down the total without losing their wicket. England finished with 170/0 on the board with four overs to spare. Buttler scored 80 of 49 balls with nine fours and three sixes and Hales scored 86 of 47 balls with four boundaries and seven sixes.
With this, they have surpassed South Africa batters Quinton de Kock and Rilee Rossouw, who had put on a stand of 168 runs for the second wicket against Bangladesh in the ongoing tournament.
They are followed by Sri Lanka batters Mahela Jayawardene and Kumar Sangakara, who put on 166 run stand against West Indies in 2010. After this comes the Pakistan pair of Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan, who put on 152 run stand for the opening wicket against India in the 2021 edition of the tournament.
It is also the second-highest partnership against India in the shortest format for any wicket. The highest partnership against India in T20Is is the fourth wicket stand of 174 runs put by Quinton de Kock and David Miller (South Africa) in the second T20I of the three-match series in October.
Buttler-Hales also put up the second-highest partnership for England in T20I cricket. The highest partnership in T20Is for any wicket for England was put on by Dawid Malan and Eoin Morgan (182 runs) against New Zealand in 2019.
The target of 169 is also the second-highest target chased by any team without losing a wicket. Previously in England's tour of Pakistan, the home team had chased down a total of 200 set by England in the second T20I of the series at Karachi.
Coming to the match, Buttler and Hales made a mockery of the 169-run target as they took their side to a 10-wicket victory in just 16 overs.
Put to bat first, the Rohit Sharma-led side lost three wickets in 12 overs, with only 75 runs on the board. Later, Hardik Pandya, along with Virat Kohli, took the charge and completely changed the momentum of the innings. Pandya smashed 63 runs off 33 balls while Kohli scored 50 off 40 balls to take the team's score to 168/6 in 20 overs.
Later, no Indian bowler was spared by the English openers as the target of 169 runs was chased without much challenge. For England, Chris Jordan scalped three wickets while Chris Woakes and Adil Rashid took one wicket each.
With this win, England have booked a spot in the final of the 2022 T20 World Cup against Pakistan.