Teenager Rishabh Pant rewrites record in first class Cricket

Thiruvananthpuram: As if 309 off 326 balls , 100 off 82 balls, century in each innings of Ranji Trophy cricket match, all in the first seven matches, was not enough. Rishabh Pant, the 19-year old Delhi wicket-keeper batsman on Tuesday hit a record smashing 100 off only 48 balls in Ranji Trophy match against Jharkhand.

The ton not only the fastest century of the Ranji but the fastest-ever by any Indian in the first class cricket, a no mean feat for a boy who is playing in his 7th Ranji match. The century of Rishabh was studded with six fours and 10 sixes. He was eventually dismissed for 135 off 67 balls but not before registering his fourth century in seven first class matches with a staggering average of about 90 with strike rate of near 100, a true successor of Sehwag in Delhi side.

He, in the process, has broken the record of another wicket-keeper batsman Naman Ojha who had scored hundred in 2015 Ranji match off 69 balls.

Graduating from junior cricket, Rishabh was vice captain of Under-19 India team before being chosen in the IPL where he showed his skill as a free-hitting batsman. The Ranji selection was the one he was waiting for and a series of stroke-filled innings followed by record-breaking hundred was a testimony of the enormous talent he has got.

It should be a matter of time when he gets the attention of Indian team selectors but his style of batting will enthrall the cricket-lovers for a long long time. His earlier effort of almost a run-a-ball triple hundred in a Ranji match had already stamped his class but the Tuesday's record would be something more than that. Incidentally, his first innings ton was also the third fastest century which has now been relegated to fourth position because of his own 48-ball hundred.

Here is the list of cricketeres hitting fastes tons in first class Cricket:

1. Rishabh Pant (48 balls)
2. Rajesh Bora and VB Chandrashekhar (56 balls)
3. Naman Ojha (69)
4. Eklavya Dwivedi (72 balls)
5. Rishabh Pant (82 balls)
6. KS Bharat (86 balls)
7. Dinesh Karthik (89 balls)
8. Abhilash Mallick (94 balls)
9. Dinesh Karthik (96 balls)
10. Laxmi Shukla (107 balls)
11. GH Vihari (109 balls)

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