Glamorgan’s Twenty20 batting records tumbled like confetti at a wedding as Colin Ingram blasted a 46-ball hundred against the Sussex Sharks at Arundel Castle as the left-hander equalled his best-ever score in the short format for the Welsh county in making an unbeaten 101.
The man, who was voted last year by the Professional Cricketers Association as the Twenty20 Player of the Year, put aside his disappointment of a single figure score in his first innings for Glamorgan in their 2017 campaign by scoring the first hundred in the 2017 competition and in the process complete the fastest-ever for Glamorgan in the Twenty20 format.
Having arrived at the crease after 13 balls, and with his side on 5/1, he remained in the middle until the end of the 20 overs by which time Glamorgan had reached 198/3 with the southpaw adding 130 in 11.5 overs with Jacques Rudolph for the third wicket, before a feisty stand of 61 from the last 27 balls of the innings with Chris Cooke.
His innings spanned a total of 47 balls, with the details as follows:
dot - 1 - lb – 4 - dot - 4 - dot - 4 - 6 - 1 - 1 - 2 - 6 - 1 - dot - 1 - 4 - 1 - 1 - dot - 1 - 6 - 4 - 1 - 6 - 1 - 1 - 2 - 4 - 1 - dot - 4 - 1 - 2 - 1 - 4 - 1 - 1 - 6 - 6 - 1 - 6 - dot - 1 - 1 - 1 - 1
Colin’s 46-ball hundred was the fastest in any format of the game for Glamorgan and beat the previous fastest in the competition, made by Ian Thomas who reached his hundred from 50 balls before finishing unbeaten on 116 from 57 deliveries against Somerset at Taunton in 2004.
The fastest for Glamorgan in List A cricket is Robert Croft’s 56 ball hundred against Surrey in the Friends Provident Trophy match at The Oval in 2002, whilst in first-class cricket - where for many years minutes not balls faced was the yardstick – the fastest on record is believed to be Gary Butcher’s 100 from 64 against Oxford University at The Parks in 1997.
The fastest Twenty20 hundred worldwide is Chris Gayle’s remarkable 30-ball century for the Royal Challengers Bangalore against the Pune Warriors in Bangalore in 2013. Only ten batsmen have scored faster hundreds in terms of balls faced in domestic Twenty20 cricket in the U.K. with their details being as follows:
34 - Andrew Symonds for Kent v Middlesex Mote at Maidstone, 2004
37 - Scott Styris for Sussex v Gloucestershire at Hove, 2012
40 - David Willey for Northamptonshire v Sussex at Hove, 2015
42 - Brendon McCullum for Warwickshire v Derbyshire at Edgbaston, 2015
43 - Tom Kohler-Cadmore for Worcestershire v Durham at New Road, 2016
44 - Luke Wright for Sussex v Kent at Canterbury, 2007
44 - Graeme Hick for Worcestershire v Northamptonshire at Kidderminster, 2007
44 - Graham Napier for Essex v Sussex at Chelmsford, 2008
44 - Kevin O'Brien for Gloucestershire v Middlesex at Uxbridge, 2011
45 - Chris Gayle for Somerset v Kent at Taunton, 2015
Colin's 101* at Arundel is the joint third highest individual score for the Welsh county in Twenty20 cricket after Ian Thomas’ 116* against Somerset in Taunton in 2004 and Jim Allenby’s 105 against Middlesex at Richmond in 2014. Jacques Rudolph also made 101* against Gloucestershire at Bristol in 2015 whilst Colin also blasted an unbeaten 101 last summer against Essex at Chelmsford. He is therefore the first batsman to score two hundreds for the Welsh county in Twenty20 cricket.