Watch: Finn Allen, playing his first T20 World Cup game, smashed two fours and one six off Mitchell Starc to get the Super 12 off to a flying start in Sydney.
Allen made his intentions clear from the get-go, muscling the ball over the infield and using his feet audaciously against Australia’s new-ball trio of Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood and Pat Cummins. The whirlwind innings began with a brisk start in the opening over, where he struck two fours and one six off Starc.
Off the second ball – delivered in his arc – Allen swung hard, depositing it to the long-on boundary on one bounce. He made it better in the ball that followed, hitting the same shot but cleaner, sending it over cow corner with ease. A dot ball followed, but Allen capitalised on the fifth delivery, clattering it past the bowler and the umpire’s head, to bring up another boundary to make it 14 off the over.
The destruction continued beyond Starc’s opener, as Allen meted similar treatment to Hazlewood and Cummins, helped along by his opening partner Devon Conway. Marcus Stoinis’ introduction, though, slowed things down, and Hazlewood followed it with the scalp of Allen in the fifth over. By then, the 23-year-old had exacted 42 off 16, five fours and three sixes included, the strike rate reading 262.50.
