New Delhi: Delhi wicketkeeper batsman Rishab Pant, abruptly sacked from captaincy a week ago, gave another example of his rare talent by blasting a record 32-ball hundred in a North Zone match against Himachal Pradesh, here on Sunday.
Pant pummelled the opposition attack with the fastest century by an Indian to fire his team to a 10-wicket win in the Syed Mushtaq Ali T20 Trophy.
Pant remained unbeaten on 116 off 38 balls. His breathtaking knock comprised 12 sixes and eight fours as Delhi raced to the 145-run target in 11.4 overs.
His brutal innings was also the second fastest hundred in T20s, only behind Chris Gayle, who hammered 100 off 30 balls against Pune Warriors in the 2013 Indian Premier League.
The southpaw also surpassed Rohit Sharma, who hit a 35-ball hundred against Sri Lanka in T20 International at Indore last month. In 2016, Pant had smashed India’s fastest first- class hundred off 48 balls.
Pant’s performance left a handful of spectators at the Ferozshah Kotla awestruck, including Yuvraj Singh, who witnessed a special knock by another left-hander before taking the field for Punjab. “Just witnessed some outstanding hitting by @RishabPant777 scintillating ton,” tweeted Yuvraj.
For Delhi, it was their third win in four matches with their last league match to be played against Services on Tuesday.
In the afternoon, Jammu and Kashmir stunned Punjab by 23 runs after posting a competitive 164/3. Punjab could only manage 141 in response with Manan Vohra scoring 53.
