Alex Hales was thrilled to be part of a ‘special’ world record T20 powerplay partnership of 106 alongside Riki Wessels as the Notts Outlaws crushed the Durham Jets.
The opening pair hammered 11 fours and seven sixes in the first six overs at Trent Bridge as the hosts went on to win by five wickets and go top of the NatWest T20 Blast North Group table on run-rate.
Durham batted first and posted 183-7, with Ish Sodhi, Samit Patel and Steven Mullaney taking two wickets each, but the hosts cruised to 184-5 to win with 37 balls to spare.
“It was special to be part of that. It’s one of the best batting wickets in the world this place, with small boundaries and a flat wicket,” said Hales.
“Today was one of those days where everything fell into place for Riki and I.”
Hales went on to score a remarkable 95 off 30 deliveries – including nine boundaries and nine maximums – and came up just short of equalling Chris Gayle’s fastest T20 hundred world record.
That was set in April 2013 when the West Indian crashed three figures off 30 balls for Royal Challengers Bangalore against Pune.
“I obviously wasn’t thinking about Chris Gayle’s record at the start of the innings. I only found out when their keeper (Stuart) Poynter told me when the leg-spinner was bowling his over.
“That’s when he said to me I had five balls to get the record so I thought: ‘He who dares wins, I might as well go for it’.
“It was disappointing to get within one shot of it, and I had a chance to get it, but it wasn’t to be.”
Hales now has the most runs in this year’s NatWest T20 Blast with 445 from 10 matches, while Wessels is third in that list with 425 from 10.
On why the two players have clicked so well in this competition this summer – they have five fifties stands from seven attempts – Wessels joked: “I just get to the other end and watch him smash it around the park really!
“He’s carved it all around the ground, not just for us but for England as well. He’s a great player to bat with and takes so much pressure off you. I just tick along and block the other end up.”
The Outlaws have now moved onto 14 points at the top of their group, level with the Northamptonshire Steelbacks, but with a run-rate of 0.495 compared to 0.299.
It puts the team in a strong position for the knock-out quarter-finals, but Wessels is taking nothing for granted.
“It’s nice to go to top of the table, but there is still a bit of cricket to go and we need a couple more wins to make sure we qualify,” he said.
“It’s definitely different to when we started the comp with two losses, so we’re pretty happy with that.”