Devdutt Padikkal smashes fastest century by uncapped player in IPL history!

Mumbai, April 23: Royal Challengers Bangalore young opener Devdutt Padikkal scored his maiden century last night in the ongoing IPL leading his team to a comprehensive 10-wicket victory over Rajasthan Royals in Mumbai.

 

The 21-year-old smashed 4x11 and 6x6 in the 178-run chase and completed his ton in just 51 balls to score the fastest century by an uncapped player in IPL history.

 

 

 

The unbeaten century by the young lad became only the third uncapped player in IPL to slam a century. Manish Pandey was the first uncapped player to achieve the milestone in 2009 while playing for Royal Challengers Bangalore. While Paul Valthaty did it in 2011 for Punjab Kings.

 

 

The 20-year-old had a shaky start after recovering from COVID-19 as he scored 25 and 11 in his first two innings of the season. But the innings on Thursday showcased his comeback to the game as he was in full control throughout the chase.

 

 

Meanwhile, Padikkal shared a 181-run stand alongside skipper Virat Kohli for the opening wicket to take his team to the victory in just 16.3 overs. The magnificent duo shared the highest partnership for the first cricket in Royal Challengers Bangalore history. Kohli also scored fluent 72 runs off 47 balls as he was seen motivating Padikkal throughout the chase.

 

In the last season, Padikkal was the leading run-scorer for RCB with 473 runs in 15 matches as the team qualified for the play-offs. Now, RCB are the only unbeaten side in IPL 2021 so far and are on a four-match winning streak as the leaders of the points table. After the match, skipper Kohli hailed his opening partner for the brilliant century and was happy that he puts the accelerating debate about his batting put to rest.

 

 

“It was an outstanding innings. He batted really well for his first season last time. There was a lot of talk about him not accelerating after getting to 30s. He’s put all that to rest. It was a good pitch to bat on, to be honest, and him being tall meant that bowlers struggled with their lengths,” Kohli said in the post-match presentation.

 

Further both the players talked about Paddikal getting the century. Kohli revealed, "We spoke about it (on the 100). He told me to finish it off, I told him to get to it first. He said many will come, I said yea you can say that after you get to the landmark. "

 

Bagging the Man of the Match, Padikkal in post-match presentation, said, "(Whether he was worried about the 100) Not really, that's what I was telling Virat to go for it. For me it's not about getting to a hundred, I wouldn't mind missing out on hundreds as long as I contribute to team's wins."