Mumbai, February 23 – West Indies batsman Shimron Hetmyer put on a dazzling display of power-hitting, scoring a record-breaking half-century in the T20 World Cup against Zimbabwe in their Super 8 Group 1 match at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai on Monday.
Asked to bat first, Hetmyer reached the milestone in 19 balls, hitting four boundaries and five sixes, breaking his own record for the fastest fifty by a West Indies batsman in the ICC Men's T20 World Cup.
Hetmyer had earlier scored a half-century in 22 balls against Scotland in the opening match of this World Cup at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata, breaking Chris Gayle's previous record of 50 in 23 balls at the Oval in 2009.
Hetmyer came to bat after Brandon King was dismissed in the third over, with the West Indies at 17/1. Hetmyer shared a 37-run partnership with captain Shai Hope (14).
Hetmyer started with a four off Richard Ngarava in the third over and another off Blessings Muzarabani in the next over. He got a reprieve when Tashinga Musekiwa missed a straightforward catch at long-leg off Muzarabani.
Hetmyer was on 10 at that time and then unleashed a barrage of shots, hitting back-to-back boundaries off Ngarava in the fifth over, sixes off successive balls off Graeme Cremer in the seventh over, the first one a swipe across the line that landed in the deep mid-wicket area and the next over the cow corner.
In the next over, he hammered Zimbabwe captain Sikander Raza for three sixes in four legal deliveries as the West Indies raced to 92/2 in the eighth over, reaching his half-century in 19 balls.
