Starting My Cricket Stats Deep Dive
So I was sitting at home yesterday, totally bored, and cricket popped into my head. Specifically, T20 matches and how batsmen sometimes just explode. I started wondering: how many dudes actually managed to score a century in less than 50 balls? The FASTEST ones. Like, the absolute rockets. Figured it’d be a quick Google search, piece of cake. Boy, was I wrong.
Hitting Roadblocks Right Away
First thing I did? Typed “fastest T20 international centuries” into my browser. Bam! Tons of articles came up, all claiming different things. ESPN said one thing, ICC mentioned another, cricket fan forums argued back and forth. Total chaos. Nobody agreed on the exact numbers or the order. One site swore Chris Gayle was fastest, another page screamed it was this guy Miller. Even the balls taken didn’t match up! Some listed 45 balls, others 47, 35… my head started spinning. Felt like trying to catch smoke.
Switching Gears to Official Sources
Got frustrated real quick with that useless junk. Decided to skip the blogs and head straight for the big guns. Went over to the official ICC rankings site, their stats section. Dug deep into the T20 records archive. Scrolled past career averages, team records… Finally found the batting milestones section. Clicked on “Fastest Hundreds”. Held my breath.
- Saw a list pop up, nice and official looking.
- Each entry had the player’s name, country, date, and the balls faced.
- Started counting them down.
- Chris Gayle – sure, expected him.
- Miller – yep, makes sense.
- Then came the surprises, names I barely remembered.
Took me a good 20 minutes of squinting at the screen and double-checking each name against my own old memory of watching these matches. Had to filter specifically for men’s T20 Internationals only, not leagues like IPL. Easy to get that mixed up.
Finally Nailed Down the Number
After counting, recounting, and even writing the names down on a sticky note to be sure, I got it. Exactly five players have pulled off this insane feat. Just five guys! In all these years of fast and furious T20 cricket worldwide, barely a handful managed to reach that ton faster than 50 balls in a proper international match. Kinda crazy, huh? Felt like digging for gold and actually finding a little nugget. Took way longer than I thought, and my tea got cold, but hey, got my answer.
You’d think with all the power hitting nowadays, more would crack it. But the stats don’t lie. Only the absolute beasts managed it. The rest? Still trying, I guess. Gives you serious respect for those five names, even if you hate their teams. Might go watch Gayle’s 47-ball fireworks again tonight just for kicks.
