Scoring a T20 century is difficult, and doing it in the Indian Premier League (IPL) is much more difficult.
In the shortest format, centuries are usually scored by a top-order hitter who gets to play the most balls. To reach the milestone, the batter must maintain the speed throughout his knock.
A T20 hundred comes into a losing cause extremely rarely, since the centurion not only accomplishes his personal milestone but also ensures that his side puts up a huge total.
Players like Chris Gayle, who has six IPL hundreds, have left their mark, as he still holds the most centuries scored by any batter in the IPL.
While there are many players who have had successful IPL careers but do not have a century to their name.
However, IPL 2023 has seen six centurions so far, with the majority of them resulting in a winning contribution.
This article examines three players who have recorded their maiden IPL century this season.
1) Shubhman Gill
Shubhman Gill was clearly dissatisfied after missing out on a well-deserved century against the Lucknow Super Giants in Ahmedabad. However, he made amends with a stunning maiden IPL hundred against the SunRisers Hyderabad at the same location.
With hot and humid weather in the forecast and an underused surface with a little moisture on offer, the batter hitting first on this surface was never going to be easy.
But it was Shubhman Gill’s brilliance that turned this pitch into a belter and raced away to a 22-ball fifty without taking any chances.
But then Gujarat starts losing wickets in bunches, and the pitch’s nature means Shubhman has to play as long as he can. He held one end and proceeded to play aggressively, completing his century in 56 deliveries.
This was a knock of the highest order, as seen by the fact that just six hitters from both teams scored in double digits or more, with no one managing to have a strike rate higher than 150, compared to Shubhman’s 174.14.
2) Suryakumar Yadav
If you want to watch a knock of unconventional pyrotechnics with swagger and quality written all over it, Suryakumar Yadav’s innings will not disappoint.
It had everything to be dubbed a spectacle: a comeback with percentage cricket, ball timing down the ground, building valuable partnerships without being outscored, taking on the opposition’s greatest bowler in Rashid Khan, and then casually destroying havoc in the final overs. You name it, and it’s in this inning.
MI needed a total that they could defend with their limited bowling attack on a belter of a pitch where 200+ runs are frequently chased down. Suryakumar’s fantastic century, laden with blistering power hitting, ensured they finished with a respectable score of 218/5.
The shot he hit to Mohammed Shami was the highlight of his innings, as Suryakumar went past the leg stump to create space for himself on a fullish ball outside off. Then, at the last second, he flicked his wrists to slice it to the third-man region for a 61-meter six.
1) Yashasvi Jaiswal
If there is one knock that everyone agrees deserves to be on the winning side this IPL, it has to be the whirlwind knock of the teenage prodigy Yashasvi Jaiswal, who destroyed Mumbai Indians batters like no other.
In the Rajasthan Royals innings, it was all about Jaiswal, with Jos Buttler finishing in second with 18 runs.
Jaiswal’s 124-run innings in 62 deliveries was packed with magnificent stroke play. In comparison to his teammates, he appeared to be batting on a different surface and hit out of his skin to take what would have been a 180-ball score to a formidable total of 212/7.
That was a knock of the greatest kind, one that will live on in the memories of every cricket fan, exemplifying Yashasvi Jaiswal’s brilliance and ball-hitting prowess.
However, the batting unit of the Mumbai Indians, particularly Chris Green, Tilak Varma, and Tim David, overshadowed this knock as they knocked down the mark with three balls to spare.
But every cricket fan knows that this was only one of the hundreds of similar innings from the elegant left-hander who has all it takes to become the next great thing in Indian cricket.
