Travis Head equalled an Australia T20I record against England at the Utilita Bowl today (September 11), smashing 30 runs off Sam Curran's first over of the match.
Head got Australia off to another flyer in the opening match of the white-ball series. After carving Jofra Archer for consecutive fours in the third over of the powerplay, he set Curran in his sights when he came on to bowl the fifth. Sent down a short-pitched slower-ball first up, he pulled it wide of mid-on and managed to muscle it down to the boundary despite not completely timing it. He then dispatched a short, wide delivery well outside off, through the covers for another four.
With his eye now well in, he went bigger off Curran's next ball. It was another one dropped in short, inviting Head to pull into the leg side, getting it well over deep-square leg and into the crowd. That also brought up Australia's 50 off the 27th ball of the innings.
Head once again went for it off Curran's following delivery, which was fuller and into the stumps, but still heaved over wide long-on for another maximum. It was three in three of the next ball of the over, this time over deep point. A one-bounce four through the off side off the final delivery made it 30 runs in the over.
By smashing six consecutive boundaries off Curran, Head equalled an Australia record for the most runs hit off a single over in a men's T20I. Ricky Ponting was the first Australia player to hit that many off one over in the format, doing so against New Zealand pacer Daryl Tuffey in 2004. It took 10 years for that to be emulated, with Aaron Finch and Glenn Maxwell doing so off Bilawal Bhatti in the 2014 World T20. Dan Christian took Shakib Al Hasan for 30 in 2014, before Mitchell Marsh equalled the record just last week in Australia's first T20I against Scotland.
After completing his pasting of Curran, Head put Saqib Mahmood in his sights, hitting him for three boundaries in four balls. However, Masood had the last laugh, Head top edging the final delivery of his over to Jordan Cox, who took a diving catch. Head was out for 59 off 23 deliveries. Curran was kept out of the attack until the 17th over of the innings, which was a tidier one, conceding six runs and getting the wicket off Josh Inglis.
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