Follow UsHitting a century in the Indian Premier League (IPL) is not an easy job. If you don’t believe it, ask MS Dhoni and many other superstars like Yuvraj Singh, Gautam Gambhir and Shreyas Iyer, too. It is so hard that only 65 players have been able to score in 17 seasons of the league.
But even among those 65 century makers, there are some names which nobody could have imagined having hit a century in the shortest format, let alone achieve the feat in the most competitive league in the world. These are a few of the greatest Test players.
Steve Smith is one of the best Test players ever to have graced the game. He has got every shot in the book, although he plays them in a unique way. But his strike rate in the shortest format hasn’t really been that great.
But what if we tell you that nine ago, Smith hit a century in the IPL, and it came in just 54 balls against the Gujarat Lions? However, Smith’s team, the Rising Pune Super Giants, lost that game on the last ball after the Lions chased down 196.
Sri Lanka’s Mahela Jayawardene, one of the finest Test and ODI players, smashed a century in the 2010 edition of the IPL against the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR), hitting an unbeaten 110 off just 59 balls. Thanks to this innings, Punjab chased down 201, the third-highest successful chase till 2010 in IPL history. Till 2018, it remained one of the top 10 most successful chases in the league’s history.
While Smith and Jayawardene scored one century each in their IPL careers, Hashim Amla hit two centuries and had a score of 96 to his name and that too in a span of just two seasons and a 16-match-long career in the league.
Amla scored those centuries in a gap of 17 days. Both his scores were identical: 104 runs off 60 balls. Amla remained unbeaten in his first knock against Mumbai Indians, taking 60 balls to get there. However, he was out for 104 in the last game of his IPL career, which came against Gujarat Lions in 2017.
Earlier, Amla had smashed 96 against Sunrisers Hyderabad in IPL 2016.
