Pause, rewind, play: When Rohit Sharma slammed the joint-fastest T20I century – a 35-ball spectacle

On December 22 2017, Indore witnessed history.

Rohit Sharma smashed 12 fours and 10 sixes on his way to the joint-fastest T20I century of all time. In white-ball cricket, Rohit Sharma was already a batsman with very few peers in this generation. Against Sri Lanka at the Holkar Stadium on that December night, he took it up another notch as he blitzed his way to a 35-ball century before finishing on 118 off 43 balls.

It was a breathtaking display of T20 batting.

Rohit Sharma’s innings against Sri Lanka in Indore (December 2017):

0, 0, 4, 0, 4, 0, 1, 1, 6, 0, 1, 4, 0, 4, 6, 1, 1, 4, 1, 4, 4, 1, 6, 6, 4, 4, 1, 1, 4, 0, 6, 6, 6, 6, 4, 0, 0, 0, 1, 6, 4, 6, OUT.

Not long after his third double century in one-dayers in Mohali, in the second T20I against Sri Lanka, Rohit scored the joint fastest century in T20 internationals to help India clinch the series with one match to spare.

In the first four overs of the match, Rohit had faced eight balls for just 10 runs. His fifty came up off the 23rd ball he faced, with a six. When he reached 73 at the end of the 10th over of the innings, it seemed as if the fastest century record might just elude him. After 30 balls, he was on 73. He needed to have the perfect run from there to get to a century in the next five deliveries.

Well, what did we know. With four sixes in one Thisara Perera over and a four off Angelo Mathews, Rohit created history by reaching his century off the 35th delivery he faced. David Miller’s effort in 35 balls against Bangladesh had come earlier in the same year.

In all T20 cricket, this was the joint-fifth fastest century of all time.

Pause, rewind, play: Rohit Sharma’s three ODI double tons – a record unlikely to be broken soon

And the way he went about scoring those 118 runs, many would have thought that Rohit could well be on his way to become the first double centurion in the shortest format of the game. Such was his dominance on the night as he got to the three-figure mark just after halfway stage. It was not to be.

Rohit Sharma’s innings progression:

1st 10 balls: 16 runs (16 off 10)
Next 10 balls: 26 runs (42 off 20)
Next 10 balls: 31 runs (73 off 30)
Next 10 balls: 35 runs (108 off 40)
Last 3 balls: 10 runs (118 off 43)

“I was thinking of scoring runs, not any particular target. In all the formats, I don’t look to get to a particular milestone. My job is to go out there and score as many as possible. Not just 100s or 200s or 300s. I go out there to make sure I get my team into a good position. My job is to do that. There are times when you don’t get runs. There are times when you get runs. Never do I ever walk out thinking that I want to score a century or a double-century. I just want to give my best and get the team a victory,” he said of the win.

In the age of power-hitting and range-hitting, Rohit is a bit old-fashioned because he relies purely on timing to clear the fence. He does that with sensational regularity too.

“I definitely don’t have so much power. I rely a lot on timing the ball more than anything else,” he had said that night in Indore.

“I know my strengths and my weakness. I try and play with the field a lot. When the field is spread after six overs, I try and see where I can find my boundary options. I want to score all around the park and not just one area. It’s important that I try and explore the fielding the opposition keeps for me. In all formats, I try and do that. You can’t just hit in one area. You become predictable then. It’s always important to score runs all over the field and that’s my strength.”

As of December 2020, it remains the Rohit Sharma T20I innings with the best strike rate: a whopping 274.41.

Highlights of Rohit Sharma’s innings:

Rohit Sharma’s press conference:

Match highlights:

All stats courtesy Statsguru and Scroll.in research