Who Scored the Fastest IPL Century

In the sixteen seasons of the Indian Premier League (IPL), the world’s largest franchise-based cricketing tournament; lots of records have been made and broken. The standard of cricketing excellence is at a new high after every season with the batters and bowlers alike shining at the global stage. The tournament started with Brendon McCullum’s fiery century and afterwards has seen some more great hundreds. Here we will discuss who scored the fastest IPL century.

1. Chris Gayle (30 Balls), 2013

The Jamaican giant Chris Gayle, also known as the Universe Boss holds the record for the fastest IPL century, hitting 175 runs in 66 balls while opening the batting for Royal Challengers Bangalore against Pune Warriors in 2013. Gayle breached the 50-run mark in just 17 deliveries and took just 13 more balls to get to the 3-figure mark.

Gayle finished the innings unbeaten scoring 13 fours and 17 sixes. It is the highest-ever individual innings in T20 cricket with Gayle’s 17 hits out of the park being the IPL record for most individual sixes hit in an innings.

2. Yusuf Pathan (37 Balls), 2010

The Rajasthan Royals’ right-hand middle order batter scored one of the most brutal hundreds in IPL history against a strong Mumbai Indians side. The match was played at Brabourne Stadium in Mumbai with the home side winning the toss and electing to bat first putting 213 to win for Rajasthan Royals. The visitors lost 3 wickets for 40 inside the 7th over when Yusuf entered the fray and smashed the bowling attack comprising Zaheer Khan, Lasith Malinga, Ryan McLaren, Sanath Jayasuriya etc. to all parts hitting 100 in 37 deliveries. He was run out with 40 more runs to win in 17 deliveries but the lower order couldn’t muster the runs and fell short by 4 runs.

3. David Miller (38 Balls), 2013

During the league game in 2013 at Mohali, Kings XI Punjab won the toss and opted to bowl first against RCB. Chasing 191, KXIP found themselves in trouble at 51/3 in the 8th over. Enters the South African left-hander David Miller who played a whirlwind knock of unbeaten 101 in 38 deliveries hitting 8 fours and 7 sixes to take the team to a 6-wicket win with 12 deliveries to spare.

Miller got a reprieve on 42 with Virat Kohli dropped him. But he was unfazed and launched an assault taking 26 runs off the next RP Singh over. He added 130 runs for the fifth wicket with Rajagopal Sathish whose contribution in the partnership was a mere 27 in 18 balls.

4. Adam Gilchrist (42 Balls), 2008

The left-handed opening wicketkeeper batter Adam Gilchrist had proven his worth in Tests and one-day internationals but with this century, he owned the centre stage in T20 cricket as well. In the opening edition of the Indian Premier League against Mumbai Indians in Navi Mumbai, the Deccan Chargers were chasing a gettable total of 155.

Opening the chase with VVS Laxman, Adam Gilchrist smashed the likes of Shaun Pollock, Ashish Nehra, Dwayne Bravo and others to all parts of the ground scoring the fastest 100 of the tournament and adding 155 unbeaten for the first wicket. Laxman’s contribution was 37 in 26 balls in the partnership. The Chargers took the game with 48 balls and all wickets in hand.

5. AB De Villiers (43 Balls), 2016

Fondly known as Mr. 360° for his ability to play textbook strokes and unorthodox hits, the South African right-hander was on fire against the Gujarat Lions in the 2016 edition of IPL. Batting first, the Lions bowlers contained the RCB opening pair of Gayle and Virat Kohli to just 19 in 3.5 overs also dismissing Gayle for 6 in 13 deliveries.

Enters de Villiers at number 3 and smashes the experienced bowling attack of Praveen Kumar, Dhawal Kulkarni, Pravin Tambe, Ravindra Jadeja and Dwayne Bravo all over Chinnaswamy Stadium finishing unbeaten with 129 in 52 deliveries comprising of 10 fours and 12 sixes. Kohli also ended with an unbeaten 109 with the duo adding 229 runs for the 2nd wicket, a world record in T20 cricket for the 2nd wicket. De Villiers got to his 50 in 25 deliveries and scored the next 50 runs in only 18 balls with RCB winning the match by 144 runs.

6. David Warner (43 Balls), 2017

The Sunrisers Hyderabad captain played a whirlwind innings against a strong Kolkata Knight Riders side in the 10th edition of IPL. After losing the toss and put to bat first at the Rajiv Gandhi Stadium in Hyderabad, the southpaw scored a magnificent 126 in 59 deliveries hitting 10 fours and 8 sixes in the effort. He added 139 runs with Shikhar Dhawan for the first wicket with the latter scoring only 29 runs.

Warner reached his half-century in 20 balls and used another 23 deliveries to breach the 3-figure mark. Sunrisers totaled 209/3 at the end of 20 overs and thanks to a combined effort from the bowlers, won the game by 48 runs.

7. Sanath Jayasuriya (45 Balls), 2008

The Matara mauler Sanath Jayasuriya scored his only T20 hundred against the Chennai Super Kings at the Wankhede Stadium playing for Mumbai Indians. Winning the toss, the Mumbai Indians decided to have a bowl and restricted CSK to 156/6. Opening the innings with Sachin Tendulkar, Jayasuriya cut loose early and helped the team to get to 78 inside the powerplay.

Jayasuriya got to 50 in 25 balls hitting 3 fours and 6 maximums and hitting 5 more sixes finishing unbeaten for 114 in 48 deliveries. Tendulkar could only score 12 in the opening partnership of 82 runs completely dominated by the Lankan Lion. Mumbai won the game by 9 wickets and 37 balls to spare.

8. Mayank Agarwal (45 Balls), 2020

Playing for the Kings XI Punjab in the 2020 edition of IPL, Mayank Agarwal scored a tidy 106 in 50 balls, bringing up his century in 45 deliveries. Rajasthan Royals won the toss at Sharjah and elected to bowl first.

Opening the innings with captain KL Rahul, Agarwal added 183 runs for the opening wicket, getting to his 50 in 26 balls and was dismissed for 106 by Tom Curran in the 17th over. Mayank hit 10 fours and 7 sixes in his innings with a strike rate of 212 helping Punjab to 223/2 at the end of the innings. Despite scoring a strong total, the Punjab bowlers failed to defend with Rajasthan Royals taking the victory by 4 wickets in the final over.

9. Murali Vijay (46 Balls), 2010

In a high-scoring encounter at MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai, CSK’s Murali Vijay opened the batting in the first innings with Matthew Hayden and scored his first-ever IPL century finishing with 127 in 56 balls. He hit 8 fours and 11 sixes, the most in an individual IPL innings at that time, to take CSK to 246/5 which was also the highest team innings total in IPL of that time.

It was a six-hitting masterclass in the leg side from Vijay who smacked 8 sixes out of 11 in the region between long on and midwicket. The opposition bowling attack comprised some big names such as Shane Warne, Shaun Tait, Shane Watson and Yusuf Pathan to name a few.