IPL 2019: David Warner misses out on a unique record in the game against Rajasthan Royals

The 'pocket dynamo' David Warner missed out on a unique record in the recent IPL 2019 match between Sunrisers Hyderabad and the Rajasthan Royals. He was so close to breaking the record of most consecutive half-centuries in an IPL season, which is being held by Virender Sehwag and Jos Buttler. Both these players have scored 5 consecutive half-centuries in an IPL season.

Sehwag achieved the milestone in the 2012 season when he scored 57 (against Pune Warriors), 87 (against Pune Warriors), 73 (against Mumbai Indians), 63 (against Rajasthan Royals) and 73 (against Rajasthan Royals).

Buttler achieved the same during the last season when he scored 67 (against Delhi Daredevils), 51 (against Kings XI Punjab), 82 (against Kings XI Punjab), 95 (against Chennai Super Kings) and 94 (against Mumbai Indians)

David Warner's last 5 scores before this game read: 70 not out vs Kings XI Punjab, 51 vs Delhi Capitals, 50 vs Chennai Super Kings, 67 vs Kolkata Knight Riders and 57 vs Chennai Super Kings.

Against the Royals, Warner was caught by Steve Smith off Oshane Thomas when he was batting on 37, which triggered a middle-order collapse that eventually led to their defeat. David Warner, who is the only player with more than 600 runs in this season of the IPL, is the holder of the Orange Cap too. This is the third successive season where he is scoring in excess of 600 runs. He scored 848 runs from 17 matches in 2016 and 641 runs from 14 matches in 2017 (he didn't play in 2018).

There are only two more players in T20 cricket who have scored five consecutive half-centuries - Hamilton Masakadza of Zimbabwe (53 vs NZ, 62 vs NZ, 62 vs Bangladesh XI, 55 vs South Africa XI, 56 vs Bangladesh XI) and Kamran Akmal of Pakistan (52 vs Karachi, 63 vs FATA, 65 vs Rawalpindi, 52 vs Peshawar, 150 vs Islamabad).