4th wicket partnership record in T20 international: The South African pair powered the team to an emphatic victory last night.
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South Africa batters Rassie van der Dussen and David Miller entered the record books after putting together a match-winning 63-ball 131-run fourth-wicket partnership in the recently concluded first T20I against India at the Arun Jaitley Stadium last night.
United in the ninth over when needing 131 runs off 68 balls to win the match, van der Dussen and Miller didn’t look comfortable at all in the initial phase of their partnership.
Having scored just 29 (24) when needing more than 13 runs per over to win the match, it was Miller who first hit a four and six off India pacer Harshal Patel to show first signs of aggression. In the next over, Miller attacked his former Kings XI Punjab teammate Axar Patel as a four and two sixes reduced the required run rate to less than 13.
Despite Miller hitting Bhuvneshwar Kumar for a four and a six in the 15th over, South Africa still needed 56 runs in four overs to stage a victory. It was at this point in time that van der Dussen finally entered a boundary-hitting spree after having scored a struggling 30 (32).
Taking the onus on himself, van der Dussen hit three fours and four sixes in the next two overs off Harshal and Bhuvneshwar to bring down the equation to needing 12 runs in two overs.
With both van der Dussen and Miller completing their seventh and fifth T20I half-centuries respectively by now, a mere formality was left for them to register South Africa’s highest-ever T20I run-chase.
4th wicket partnership record in T20Is (table has been updated)
| Batters | Runs | Team | Opposition | Ground | Year |
| Quinton de Kock & David Miller | 174* | South Africa | India | Guwahati | 2022 |
| Bikram Arora & Varun Thamotharan | 166* | Malta | Gibraltar | Albergaria | 2021 |
| David Warner & Glenn Maxwell | 161 | Australia | South Africa | Johannesburg | 2016 |
| Ali Masood & Stuart Hook | 140* | Estonia | Switzerland | Kerava | 2022 |
| Ben Duckett & Harry Brook | 139* | England | Pakistan | Karachi | 2022 |
