In the Major League Cricket 2023 final, MI New York's stand-in captain Nicholas Pooran set the field alight and led his team to victory with an unbelievable 137 not out off 55 deliveries.
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Chasing 184 in the final, Pooran's innings was laced with 10 fours and 13 sixes as his team got home with four overs to spare. Pooran himself reached his hundred off just 40 balls. Was it the fastest hundred in T20 history?
History in the making! 🌟
— Major League Cricket (@MLCricket) July 31, 2023
MI New York triumphs as the first-ever MLC champions! 🏏 🎉 #MLCFinal #MLC2023 pic.twitter.com/kF7gUOI5CB
MORE: Nicholas Pooran smashes ton as MI New York win Major League Cricket title
Who has scored the fastest T20 hundred?
The record for the fastest T20 hundred belongs to another West Indian left-hander, Chris Gayle. Gayle scored a century off 30 balls for the Royal Challengers Bangalore against the Pune Warriors India in 2013.
💥 #OnThisDay in 2013: Chris Gayle smashed the fastest 100 in history off just 30 balls, hitting 175* in a T20.
— The Sportsman (@TheSportsman) April 23, 2021
THE MAN IS A MONSTER.@henrygayle | @RCBTweets pic.twitter.com/9iQ6JcWT2i
He finished on 175 not out off 66 balls in that game as RCB scored a massive 263 in 20 overs, batting first.
What are the top 10 fastest T20 hundreds?
Batting on 91 off 32 balls, Pooran would have fancied his chances of breaking into the top 10 for fastest T20 hundreds. 40 balls is the 10th fastest in terms of deliveries faced, but 24 players have scored a quicker hundred.
Here is the list of the top 10:
| Rank | Player | Balls | Venue | Year | Final Score | 4s | 6s |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Chris Gayle | 30 | Bangalore | 2013 | 175* | 13 | 17 |
| 2 | Rishabh Pant | 32 | Delhi | 2018 | 116* | 8 | 12 |
| 3 | Wihan Lubbe | 33 | Paarl | 2018 | 102 | 5 | 11 |
| =4 | Andrew Symonds | 34 | Maidstone | 2004 | 112 | 18 | 3 |
| =4 | Sean Abbott | 34 | The Oval | 2023 | 110* | 4 | 11 |
| =6 | Louis van der Westhuizen | 35 | Windhoek | 2011 | 145 | 14 | 12 |
| =6 | David Miller | 35 | Potchefstroom | 2017 | 101* | 7 | 9 |
| =6 | Rohit Sharma | 35 | Indore | 2017 | 118 | 12 | 10 |
| =6 | Martin Guptill | 35 | Northampton | 2018 | 102 | 12 | 7 |
| =6 | Khushdil Shah | 35 | Rawalpindi | 2020 | 100 | 8 | 9 |
| =6 | Dewald Brevis | 35 | Potchefstroom | 2022 | 162 | 13 | 13 |
