Australia and Delhi Capitals (DC) opener Jake Fraser McGurk continued his brilliant run at the ongoing Indian Premier League (IPL), becoming the first batter to smash a half-century in 15 or fewer balls twice in a tournament. McGurk accomplished this feat during the match against Mumbai Indians (MI) at Arun Jaitley Stadium. In the match, McGurk smashed 84 in 27 balls, with 11 fours and six sixes. His runs came at a strike rate of 311.11. The Aussie batting sensation reached his half-century in 15 balls, equalling his own record of the fastest fifty for the franchise against Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH), which also came this season.
He is the only batter besides West Indies T20 giants Sunil Narine and Andre Russell to have smashed a half-century in 15 balls or less twice in T20 cricket.
McGurk has the third-highest strike rate by a batter in an IPL innings consisting of 20 or more balls. Suresh Raina has the highest strike rate in an IPL innings of 20 balls or more. His knock of 87 in 25 balls against Punjab Kings (PBKS) for Chennai Super Kings (CSK) in IPL 2014 has a strike rate of 348.00, which is still a record. Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) batter Yusuf Pathan scored 72 in 22 balls against Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) in IPL 2014, with a strike rate of 327.27.
Eighty of 84 runs scored by McGurk came through fours and sixes, which means 95.23 per cent of his runs came through boundaries, making it the fourth-highest percentage of runs through boundaries in an IPL innings (50 or more runs).
Raina occupies the top spot here too as 84 of his 87 runs during his iconic knock against Punjab back in 2014, came through fours and sixes, which makes it 96.55 runs via fours and sixes.
McGurk smashed 78 of his 84 runs in the powerplay, making it the third-most runs by a player in the powerplay. Raina once again occupies the top spot, scoring all his 87 runs in 25 balls against Punjab back in 2014.
In five matches this season, McGurk has scored 247 runs at an average of 49.40 and a strike rate of 237.50, with three half-centuries. His best score is 84.
DC was put to bat first after Mumbai Indians (MI) won the toss.
Delhi Capitals (Playing XI): Jake Fraser-McGurk, Kumar Kushagra, Shai Hope, Rishabh Pant(w/c), Tristan Stubbs, Abishek Porel, Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, Lizaad Williams, Mukesh Kumar, Khaleel Ahmed
Mumbai Indians (Playing XI): Rohit Sharma, Ishan Kishan(w), Tilak Varma, Nehal Wadhera, Hardik Pandya(c), Tim David, Mohammad Nabi, Piyush Chawla, Luke Wood, Jasprit Bumrah, Nuwan Thushara.
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