London: Adam Lyth hit the third highest score in Twenty20 cricket on Thursday when he smashed 161 playing for Yorkshire against Northamptonshire in the English county tournament.
Lyth’s score was only 14 short of the world record held by Chris Gayle of the West Indies set in the Indian Premier League in 2013 and just one shy of the second best made by Hamilton Masakadza in the Zimbabwe domestic event in 2016.
Lyth hammered seven sixes and 20 fours in his 73-ball innings to surpass Brendon McCullum’s previous English county best of 158 not out in 2015.
Yorkshire ended on 260 for four - just short of the world record made by Australia who piled up 263-3 against Sri Lanka in Pallekele in September 2016.
“I’m really happy with that,” Lyth told Sky Sports.
“It’s nice to get off to a good start and keep going. Hopefully, now the bowlers can do their job and hopefully we can qualify.”
