Guptill smashes record 35-ball century in English T20 blast

Sports Desk: Martin Guptill struck 102 off just 38 balls to guide Worcestershire to a nine-wicket victory over Northamptonshire in the English county cricket’s T20 Blast on Friday.

Guptill reached his hundred in 35 balls – the fourth fastest in T20 history along with Rohit Sharma and David Miller.

The record for the fastest T20 hundred belongs to West Indies batsman Chris Gayle who scored a ton off just 30 balls for Royal Challengers Bangalore against Pune Warriors in the 2013 Indian Premier League.

Chasing a target of 188, Worcestershire won the encounter with nearly seven overs to spare thanks to brilliant batting shows by Guptill and Joe Clarke who scored an unbeaten 61 off 33 balls.

It did not take long for the experienced Guptill, who hit 12 fours and seven sixes, to get into his stride.

He got going in a Richard Gleeson over that cost 22 runs, a flick over midwicket for six, two hits down the ground for four and a flick wide of short-fine leg.

South Africa’s Rory Kleinveldt replaced Gleeson and he too gave up an over costing 22 as Guptill went to fifty in 20 balls.

Guptill swept left-arm spinner Graeme White to deep-backward square leg, only for Seekkuge Prasanna to step over the boundary before a second slog-sweep cleared deep midwicket.

Later, he drove Prasanna over long-on for six and wide of long-off for four as Guptill went to 90 before Kyle Coetzer was straight driven for four and flicked over midwicket for six to bring up the batsman’s century.

But trying to lift Gleeson over mid-on, he was well caught by Josh Cobb but by then the game was almost won.

Agencies


risingbd/Dhaka/July 28, 2018/Nasim