Virat Kohli’s massive T20 record broken by Ireland opener Paul Stirling

During Paul Stirling’s impressive knock of 40 off 35 balls against the UAE, he hit four fours and managed to overtake Virat Kohli to attain the record for hitting maximum fours in T20 cricket.

Ireland opener Paul Stirling (left) and Virat Kohli. (Source: Twitter)

Indian skipper Virat Kohli holds plenty of records in all three formats of the game. On Sunday (October 10), Kohli lost one of his precious T20 records to Ireland opener Paul Stirling. The Irish star smashed a T20 world record in a game against the UAE ahead of the T20 World Cup 2021, which till now belonged to Kohli.

During Stirling’s impressive knock of 40 off 35 balls against the UAE, he hit four fours and managed to overtake Kohli to attain the record for hitting maximum fours in T20 cricket. Stirling has now hit 288 fours in T20 format, while Virat has hit 285 fours in his T20 career so far.

Stirling and Kohli are followed by New Zealand’s Martin Guptill, who has the record of hitting 256 fours in T20 cricket. Team India’s vice-captain Rohit Sharma, and possibly the new India T20 captain, is at No. 4 on the list with 252 fours and Australia T20 skipper captain Aaron Finch is at No. 5.

Most fours in men's T20I cricket

1 Paul Stirling: 288
2 Virat Kohli: 285
3 Martin Guptill: 256
4 Rohit Sharma: 252

Congratulations, Stirlo! Another record broken @ITWSports pic.twitter.com/ChHKsaxdDs — Cricket Ireland (@cricketireland) October 10, 2021

Stirling has hit the most runs for Ireland in the shortest format of the game. The opener has scored 2,495 runs in 89 T20 matches, including a century in this format as well.

In the sixth match of the ‘UAE Summer T20 Bash 2021’, Stirling came out to open with all-rounder Kevin O’Brien. The Irish openers gave their team a great start, putting on 85 runs in 11.3 overs for the first wicket.

O’Brien smashed 54 off 45 balls with one four and two sixes. However, the team could not take advantage of this excellent start and could only manage 134 runs in the allotted overs.

UAE, in reply, cruised to a seven-wicket win in 16.1 over with opener Waseem Muhammad scoring an unbeaten 107 off 62 balls with four sixes and 14 fours.