ESPNcricinfo Awards 2024 men's T20I batting winner: Rohit Sharma goes for broke

It had been barely a year since India's ODI World Cup final defeat had made Rohit Sharma cry. And here he was again, facing down another World Cup final in a format that could be even more unforgiving.

How did he feel when he woke up that morning, knowing the future could be hiding more heartbreak? Maybe it never crossed his mind. He got to his fifty in 19 balls; India were on 52. He was carrying them in an ICC tournament, playing shots like he had forgotten they could get him out.

India have been burned by being conservative before, but here Rohit was flying blind. Fifteen of the 20 boundaries until about halfway through the 12th over, when he was out, had come from his blade. That was only four fewer than India's entire count, in 50 full overs, in the 2023 ODI World Cup final.

Everybody else was playing cricket. Rohit was erasing painful history.

In Mitchell Starc's second over, Rohit took him for 29 runs in seven balls - 6, 6, 4, 6, 0, wd, 6 - and there needed to be seven balls because, by the end, Starc wasn't too keen on bowling straight.

India could only score five boundaries in their last six overs. Rohit probably knew something like that would happen as the ball got older and the field spread out, so he took it upon himself to go early and go hard. This innings wasn't just about power-hitting. It was about clear thinking.

52 India's total when Rohit reached his half-century, the lowest to feature an individual fifty in a men's T20I innings (where ball-by-ball data is available)

4 The number of sixes Rohit hit off Starc in the third over. Starc had never previously conceded more than two sixes in a single over in any format of international cricket

"It is quite satisfying [to beat Australia] especially when you play like that."
- Rohit Sharma

"Such a shame but take a bow Ro. Milestones don't matter anymore and that's the takeaway."
- R Ashwin, former India offspinner, on X

Finn Allen
137 vs Pakistan, third T20I, Dunedin
This too was a first-innings knock by a batter who simply saw no reason to hold back. Setting a total in this format can be tricky, especially for an opener. Like Rohit, Allen decided it was better to live with a mistake than die wondering. Allen's 137 - New Zealand's highest individual score in T20Is - came at a strike rate of 220.96 and his 16 sixes that day were a joint world record at the time.