The 22-year-old Namibia batter smashed the fastest T20I century during the first match of the Nepal-Namibia-Netherlands t20 tri-nation series.
Jan Nicol Loftie-Eaton smashes fastest T20I century
The Namibia batter Jan Nicol Loftie-Eaton broke the record for the fastest T20I century at Kathmandu during the match against Nepal on the T20 tri-series. He reached the milestone in just 33 balls.
He broke the records of Nepalese cricket Kushal Malla who smashed century in 34 balls during the T20I match against Mongolia.
South Africa’s David Miller, India’s Rohit Sharma, and Czech player Sudesh Wickramasekara stand third in the list for smashing a century in 35 balls in the short format.
Nambia, Nepal, and the Netherlands are set to play a tri-nations T20I series starting on February 27.
The first T20I match was played between Namibia and Nepal where Namibia won by 20 runs. Winning the toss first, Namibia chose to bat where Michael Van Lingen and Malan Kruger opened for their side.
The side had a good start as they scored 36 runs for the first wicket. Van Lingen was dismissed for 20 runs on the last ball of the sixth over.
Kotze came to bat where he scored 11 runs and got dismissed in the over by Nepal captain Rohit Paudel. He again picked the wicket of the Frylinck on the 11 over of the match.
Despite the fall of wickets, Malan Kruger was steadily increasing the scores. With the entry of Nicol, Kruger joined the partnership to score 135 runs for the fourth wicket where Nicol smashed his fastest ton.
He hit 11 fours and 8 sixes in the match and scored 101 runs on 36 deliveries with an impressive strike rate of 280.56. Abinash dismissed Loftie on the second ball of the last over.
With Malan Kruger on the pitch, Smith joined him to help the side reach the 200+ target. Malan Kruger was impressive with his half-century as he hit 59 runs on 48 deliveries which included 6 fours and 2 sixes.
Finally, Namibia scored 206 by the end of 20 overs losing four wickets. With the target of 207 runs, Nepal openers Kushal Bhurtel and Aasif Sheikh started their innings where the former was sent out on a golden duck by Ruben Trumpeimann.
Following the dismissal, he dismissed another opener in the fifth ball of the third over. Despite a poor start from Nepal, the captain Rohit Paudel and Kushal Malla joined forces to balance the innings.
Their partnership brought up a half-century before the dismissal of Rohit Paudel. Kushal Malla was dismissed by Bernard for 32 runs.
After the fall of Dipendra Singh for 48 runs, Nepal’s batting order crumbled as Sundeep and Bibek were dismissed for single-digit runs.
With Sompal Kami’s 26 runs Nepal gave up a tough fight to Namibia. After Abinash’s dismissal, Nepal scored 186 runs losing all 10 wickets in the 19th over.
Ruben dismissed four batters while Bernard, Frylinck, and Nicol dismissed two batters each. Nicol Loftie-Eaton was named the Player of the Match for his heroic deeds in the match.
The second T20I match of the tri-nation series will be played between Nepal and Netherlands on February 28 at Tribhuvan University International Cricket Ground.
