AB de Villiers,Chris Gayle,David Hookes? Jake Fraser-McGurk has made a faster hundred than all of them.
Unwanted by Victoria,Fraser-McGurk blasted his way through all manner of records,including the world record for fastest century,by posting three figures off just 29 deliveries. Ultimately,he finished with 125 from 38 balls and finished up on the losing side for South Australia against Tasmania.
The Redbacks had offered 21-year-old Fraser-McGurk a lucrative state contract in the winter,terms that Victoria were unwilling to match after a pair of underwhelming seasons. This was his first chance to play a white-ball game for SA at the pocket-sized Karen Rolton Oval.
Opening the batting after Tasmania had posted a gargantuan 435 batting first – an Australian domestic one-day record score in itself – McGurk took 32 runs from the second over of the chase,bowled by Sam Rainbird,and ran to 50 from 18 balls before he really got going.
In the space of 11 balls,McGurk scored six,six,dot,dot,six,six,six,six,six,four to sprint to his century,beating de Villiers’ 31-ball century for South Africa against the West Indies in Johannesburg in 2014-15 for the fastest ever hundred in a 50-over game.
“Maybe in a video game,” Fraser-McGurk quipped when asked if he had ever scored as freely as that before. “Our plan was to be 240 in the 30th over and maybe we could chase it then. But I just went out there with some good intent and had my plans and my processes,and it just seems like everything went where I wanted it.
“I’ve made a few 30s and things,playing in[second XI] made a couple of nice scores,I felt like I’ve been hitting reasonably well,but probably not that well. I definitely did surprise myself.”
At 29 balls,Fraser-McGurk also surpassed Gayle’s 30-ball century for Royal Challengers Bangalore against the Pune Warriors in the Indian Premier League in 2013,the fastest in Twenty20 records.