Irish star batsman Paul Stirling achieved a great feat in the history of T20Is. The opener became the first batsman in history to hit 400 fours in the shortest format of the game, achieving the feat well ahead of Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma and Babar Azam.

Paul Stirling achieved the feat during the first T20I of the ongoing series against Afghanistan. The match between the teams will take place at the Sharjah Cricket Stadium in Sharjah, where the visitors lost the toss and were asked to bat first.

Paul Stirling gave his team a good start. He played a good host in his innings and, along with Andrew Balbirnie (22), added 38 runs to the opening partnership in quick time. The captain seemed solid in the playing area, but he took advantage of the start he had.

Paul Stirling played a decent innings of 25 runs off 27 balls. He batted with a strike rate of around 100. His innings consisted of 2 fours and 1 six. With the two boundaries he hit, he completed 400 fours in the T20I career, becoming the first batsman to do so.

After Paul Stirling came out, Harry Tector took charge and made sure to take his team to the competitive total. The batsman made a magnificent half-century and remained unbeaten till the end. He scored 56 runs off 34 balls, batting at a strike rate of over 164 with 7 fours and 2 sixes to his name.

Apart from him, Gareth Delany (16) and Mark Adair (10*) made useful contributions in the end as Ireland finished with a total of 149 runs on the scoreboard. After losing wickets, it didn’t look like they would get this far thanks to the heroics of Harry Tector.

For Afghanistan, captain Rashid Khan was the pick of the players with his figures of 4/19. Apart from him, Nangeyalia Kharote picked two wickets while Azmatullah Omarzai contributed a scalp as they restricted the opposition to a total of 150 runs. Ireland will be hoping to kick off the T20I series on a high. They suffered a 2-0 defeat in the ODI series and would want to make a comeback in the ongoing series.

Ireland’s Paul Stirling, with the most fours in T20Is, tops the list

Ireland captain Paul Stirling leads the list for most fours in T20 internationals. The opening batsman now has 401 boundaries to his name. He is followed by former Pakistan captain Babar Azam, who has hit 395 fours in his career so far.

Indian greats Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma are next on the list with 361 and 359 boundaries respectively. Australia opener David Warner is fifth on the list as he has smashed 320 boundaries in his T20I career so far.

Here is the full list: