David Warner may not have gotten his side London Spirit, over the line, but he did leave Virat Kohli behind on the run-scoring leaderboard of T20 cricket during his 71-run knock against the Manchester Originals in the ongoing edition of the Hundred. Warner required 70 runs to go past Kohli and break into the Top 5 on the run-scoring chart. The former Australian scored just one more to take his tally to 13,545 runs in T20 cricket in 418 innings, ahead of Kohli.
If Warner scored 27 more in the next game for the Spirit, he would move up by one more place, into the fourth spot, ahead of Pakistan's Shoaib Malik (13,571). Warner would be gutted that his effort didn't result in a win for the Spirit as the Originals prevailed by 10 runs in a high-scoring contest at Old Trafford.
Most runs in T20 cricket
14,562 - Chris Gayle (455 innings)
13,854 - Kieron Pollard (629 innings)
13,814 - Alex Hales (499 innings)
13,571 - Shoaib Malik (515 innings)
13,545 - David Warner (418 innings)
13,543 - Virat Kohli (397 innings)
With Virat Kohli's next likely tryst with T20 cricket still at least nine months away, Warner has an opportunity to build a decent lead over the Indian batting stalwart. After being dismissed cheaply against the Oval Invincibles in the tournament opener, Warner has come back strongly with a couple of 70-odd scores, but now would hope that his form helps the Spirit in winning some games, having lost two out of the three played so far.
The Spirit bowled well in the latter half to restrict the Originals to 163, which seemed like a chaseable score, but Sonny Baker, Josh Tongue and Co. dried up runs in the powerplay not giving any scoring deliveries to either Warner or Kane Williamson. Williamson struggled to play a run-a-ball 19 before Warner upped the ante. However, after a slow start, the other Spirit batters were playing catch-up.
Jamie Overton with some lusty blows in the end, did renew some hopes for the Spirit, but 70 off 30 was always going to be a tough proposition. Overton ensured that the margin was down to 10, but Spirit would have to address the elephant in the room as soon as possible, given they still have a few games left.
