Matt Renshaw Breaks Virat Kohli 10 year old Record: Australian batsman Matt Renshaw has broken almost a decade old record of Virat Kohli in the Test match being played against South Africa in Durban. During his brilliant innings of 190 runs, Renshaw scored a total of 174 runs in partnerships with lower order batsmen. After 2002, this is a new record in terms of runs scored while batting with the lower order in a Test innings.
This achievement before Virat Kohli K, who added 171 runs with the lower order during the 235-run innings against England at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai in 2016.
Australia returns with a score of 124/6
Matt Renshaw’s inning proved to be very important for Australia at a time when the team was in trouble after losing six wickets for 124 runs. From here, Renshaw along with the lower order batsmen took over the innings and played an important role in taking the team to a strong score.
Renshaw made a partnership of 86 runs for the seventh wicket with captain Pat Cummins, in which his contribution was 41 runs. After this, he added 20 runs with Mitchell Starc and scored 12 runs in it. These partnerships gave Australia a chance to recover from the initial setbacks.
134 run partnership for the ninth wicket with Nathan Lyon
The most important part of Renshaw’s innings was his partnership with Nathan Lyon. Both added 134 runs for the ninth wicket. In this partnership, Renshaw alone contributed 100 runs, while Lion supported him by scoring 27 runs in 92 balls.
After this, Renshaw also made a partnership of 26 runs with Josh Hazlewood, in which 21 runs came from his bat. Thanks to these partnerships with lower order batsmen, Australia was all out after scoring 390 runs in its first innings. By the end of the second day’s play, the team came out of the difficult situation and put pressure on South Africa.
190 runs on 397 balls, Renshaw missed double century
Matt Renshaw faced 397 balls in his marathon innings. He hit 21 fours and one six. He was only 10 runs away from his first Test double century when Simon Harmer dismissed him.
This innings of Renshaw was not limited to just personal achievements. By forming long partnerships with the lower order batsmen, he took Australia out of a situation where it was difficult to make a big difference in the first innings due to the team’s score being 124/6. Captain Pat Cummins also made a useful contribution by scoring 43 runs.
Renshaw made a new record in Durban also
Renshaw’s inning of 190 runs also created two important records at the Kingsmead ground in Durban. He became the Australian batsman to play the biggest individual innings in Test cricket on this ground. He left behind Philip Hughes’ record of 160 runs made in 2009. Apart from this, this is the highest score batting at number five or lower in Tests at this ground. Renshaw overtook Sri Lankan Kusal Perera’s unbeaten inning of 153 runs in 2019.
South Africa starts its first innings, 363 runs behind
In response to Australia’s 390 runs, South Africa had scored 27 runs for one wicket by the end of the second day’s play. The team was still 363 runs behind Australia. Josh Hazlewood gave the first blow to South Africa by dismissing Ryan Rickelton without opening the account. At the end of the day’s play, Aiden Markram was at the crease with 15 runs and David Bedingham with 12 runs. The game had to be stopped early due to bad light.
For Australia, Renshaw played a big role with the bat, while for South Africa, Wiaan Mulder was the most successful bowler. He took four wickets for 68 runs. Marco Jansson took three wickets and Enrique Nortje took two wickets.
Renshaw’s innings of 190 runs not only broke Virat Kohli’s old record, but also became the highest Test score for Australia in Durban and the highest Test innings scored at number five or lower.