258 runs without a wicket in 20 overs! Not a neighborhood cricket, but not a match between two teams, but an international match.
China, Japan, and Hong Kong are the hosts of the East Asia Cup. In the opening match of this T20I tournament, Japan’s Lachlan Imamomoto Lackey and Kendall Kadowaki Fleming scored a continuously 258 runs against China. This is now the highest run-scoring partnership for any wicket in T20 International history.
Hazratullah Zazai and Usman Ghani of Afghanistan was the previous highest ranking. That too in the opening pair. Jazai and Ghani made a partnership of 236 runs against Ireland in Dehradun in 2019.
At the Mission Road Ground in Mongkok today, Fleming and Lucke both scored hundreds of runs en route to set world records. 21-year-old Lucke scored 134 off 68 balls with 8 fours and 12 sixes while 28-year-old Fleming was unbeaten on 109 off 53 balls with 3 fours and 11 sixes. Chinese captain Wei Guo Lei could not break this pair despite using 8 bowlers.
This is the second time in T20 International that both openers of a team scored centuries in the same innings. LackeyโFleming was preceded by centuries in the same innings by Czech Republic’s Sabun Davizi and Dylan Steyn, against Bulgaria in 2022.
It was only the second time in T20 International history that a team batted the entire 20 overs without losing a wicket. The first such record was in 2022 in the Valletta Cup, a six-team tournament, when Gibraltar’s two openers, Avinash Pai and Lewis Bruce, created an unbroken 213-run partnership at the Marsa Sports Club field in Malta against Bulgaria. However, neither of them got a century that day. Bulgaria’s bowlers gave 28 extra runs!
Highest runs for any wicket pair in T20 Internationals
| Run | Pair | Wicket | Team | Opponent | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 258* | Lachlan Lackey-Kendall Fleming | 1st | Japan | China | 15 February 2024 |
| 236 | Hazratullah Jazai-Usman Gani | 1st | Afghanistan | Ireland | 23 February 2019 |
| 223 | Darcy Short-Aaron Finch | 1st | Australia | Zimbabwe | 3 July 2018 |
| 220 | Saboun Davizi-Dylan Stein | 1st | Czech Republic | Bulgaria | 12 May 2022 |
| 213* | Avinash Pye-Lewis Bruce | 1st | Gibraltar | Bulgaria | 13 May 2022 |
Today’s 258 runs are Japan’s team’s highest in T20. The squad’s greatest outcome came in 2022 against South Korea, when they scored 218.
Thanks to Lackey-Fleming, Japan made a record for the the second-highest sixes in an innings in T20 Internationals. Lucke and Fleming hit 23 sixes together. Now only Nepal is above Japan. Against Mongolia in the Asian Games in Hangzhou last year, Nepal’s batsmen hit 26 sixes. The Himalayan nation scored 314 for 3 in that match, the team’s highest in T20 International history.
Read also:Why England will start batting against India with a score of 5/0
Need we say more about the result of the match on the day of Japan’s world record for highest runs by any wicket pair? China lost by 180 runs after becoming all out for just 78 runs in 16.5 overs. This is Japan’s biggest margin of victory in their international cricket history.
