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Follow UsAnother day, another record broken. This time around, it’s the record of the fastest ever List A hundred, that was held by AB de Villiers (31 balls).
For years, no one had come close to AB’s record, forget toppling it. But on Sunday at the Karen Rolton Oval in Adelaide, 21-year-old Jake Fraser-McGurk created history by becoming the first batter in cricket history to smash a white-ball ton (both 50-over and 20-over) in under 30 balls.
The South Australia batter got to the landmark in 29 balls to overthrow AB and etch his own name in the record & history books alike.
What makes this record-shattering event even more interesting is that it came from a pretty unlikely candidate.
Fraser-McGurk has always been rated highly, but power-hitting and six-hitting is something that’s never been associated with him.
The 21-year-old has a T20 strike rate of 103.33 and, heading into Sunday, had hit only a total of 6 sixes in List A cricket and 8 sixes in T20 cricket in 270 balls.
Below is his year-by-year record for Renegades, for whom, largely batting in the middle-order, Fraser-McGurk struggled to impact matches.
Fraser-McGurk went from hitting 8 sixes across four different years in the BBL to hitting 13 SIXES IN THE SPACE OF 38 BALLS!
The ton was also unlikely in the sense that a three-figure score in professional cricket was something completely alien to Fraser-McGurk. Prior to Sunday, Fraser-McGurk had batted professionally 53 times and passed fifty ONLY twice. He had NEVER posted a score higher than 54 in any format.
On Sunday, the 21-year-old ended up with 125 runs to his name.
Taking the whole ‘breaking new ground’ phrase to a completely different level.
Fraser-McGurk has always been a player to watch out for
The now South Australia batter was part of Australia’s U19 World Cup squad in 2020. In the 2019/20 Marsh Cup season, as a 17-year-old, the right-hander began his career with a 50 on List A debut for Victoria and then followed it up with a 41* off 34 in his very next match.
The early promise Fraser-McGurk showed was one of the reasons why he got handed his maiden BBL contract at just the age of 18.
On the back of his knock on Sunday, expect him to get more contract offers — not just from the BBL but everywhere across the world.
Fraser-McGurk has evidently worked on his power-hitting game during the off-season
Fraser-McGurk’s historical record might say that he’s a pretty unlikely candidate that ended up breaking de Villiers’ record, but the 21-year-old clearly seems to have worked on his power-hitting game during the off-season.
Prior to Sunday, he’d batted three times this season and in those games, his scores read as follows: 37 (23), 29 (20) and 15 (12). The first two knocks came in the Sheffield Shield batting lower down the order, but you could see that something was brewing. Or, to say it the modern way, you could see that Fraser-McGurk was cooking something.
Either way, the move from Victoria to South Australia is already paying dividends for the 21-year-old, who would be hoping to take his game to the next level.
