Fastest century in T20 cricket: Estonia's Sahil Chauhan tops list

Scoring a century is one of the biggest feats for a batter in cricket. However, when it comes to Twenty20 or T20 cricket, the shortest of the three international formats of the sport, scoring a 100 is even more impressive, given the limited number of deliveries in each innings.

Estonia batter Sahil Chauhan holds the record for the fastest century in T20 cricket after racing to his 100 in just 27 balls against Cyprus in a bilateral series match in June 2024.

With two matches scheduled on the same day, Chauhan was dismissed for a duck in the first contest in Episkopi but dazzled in the second. Chasing Cyprus' score of 191/7, Chauhan smashed an unbeaten 144 off 41 balls to take his team home in the 13th over and six wickets to spare. The knock is also the fastest century in T20I cricket.

Chauhan also smashed 18 sixes during his innings, equalling Chris Gayle's record for the most sixes hit in a T20 innings.

Chris Gayle, in fact, held the record for the fastest century in T20 cricket before Chauhan. He registered the feat in the Indian Premier League (IPL) for the Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) against the now-defunct Pune Warriors in 2013.

Nicknamed the 'Universe Boss', Chris Gayle reached his hundred in only 30 balls. With it, the West Indian surpassed Australia’s Andrew Symonds’ 34-ball record which stood for almost nine years.

Chris Gayle went on to score 175 runs in 66 balls to become the highest individual run-scorer in an innings of a T20 match - a record that stands to date.

Chris Gayle’s 17 sixes and 13 fours helped RCB pile on 263/5 in 20 overs. RCB went on to win the game by 130 runs.

Gujarat's wicketkeeper-batter Urvil Patel scored the fastest T20 century by an Indian during the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy 2024 match against Tripura in Indore, reaching the mark in just 28 balls. Punjab's Abhishek Sharma would later go on to match Urvil Patel's record in the same tournament against Meghalaya.

Fastest century in T20

Rohit Sharma scored the fastest T20I century by an Indian batsman, reaching three digits in only 35 deliveries against Sri Lanka. The Indian opener scored 118 in 43 balls.

Dubbed as the 'Hitman' due to his ability to strike sixes at will, Rohit Sharma struck 10 sixes and 12 fours in his innings to accumulate 108 of his 118 runs in boundaries.

Fastest T20 century in women's cricket

In women’s T20 cricket, Sophie Devine, playing for Wellington Blaze against Otago Sparks in the Twenty20 Super Smash 2021, scored the fastest T20 century in 36 balls. Devine hit nine fours and as many sixes and went unbeaten 108 in 38 balls.

In women’s T20 internationals, West Indies batter Deandra Dottin holds the record for the fastest T20I century which she scored in 38 balls against South Africa at the ICC Women's T20 World Cup in 2010.

Dottin came in at No. 6 when the chips were down and propelled West Indies to 175/5 in 20 overs. The score proved to be enough as South Africa fell 17 runs short of the target.