Kevin O’Brien hit one of the fastest centuries ever seen in England yesterday -- breaking a bucketful of records along the way.
In an hour of brutal hitting, the Irish all-rounder got back to the form that saw him almost single-handedly beat England at the Cricket World Cup in March.
This time the Railwayman was playing for Gloucestershire, and his 119 off 52 balls led the county to the highest score ever made in a twenty20 match in England.
The total of 254-3 was only six off the world record set by South Africa against Kenya. O’Brien reached fifty in 23 balls, and passed 100 off 44, the seventh fastest of all-time.
When he was out for 119 he had hit 11 sixes, a total only beaten twice before. His team’s total of 17 equaled the world record. Ironically, it was O’Brien’s first score over fifty in 36 games of twenty20.
He has played seven times for Gloucestershire this summer without ever dominating an attack like he did yesterday, and had totaled just over 100 runs. O’Brien’s epic knock against Middlesex was completed in a world record stand of 192 for the first wicket with fellow Irish player Hamish Marshall, who made 102.
It is the first time two hundreds have been scored in the same innings of a twenty20 match - and both players are available to Phil Simmons. Former Kiwi Marshall, who is yet to make his Irish debut, reached his own century after 53 balls.
Kevin said: “I think my previous highest Twenty20 score was 39 for Ireland. I haven’t played that many games in the format and I’m just pleased to have delivered the sort of innings the club signed me for.
“You can’t go out and smash every ball from the start so we took an over or so to assess the pitch and the bowling. Then I started teeing off and it was just my day.
“I had a bit of luck as a couple of catches went down, but you always need that in 20-over games. It was a smallish ground and I kept managing to clear the ropes.
“Hamish was great in giving me the strike early on, but by the end of my innings I was looking to give him an equal share because he was playing so well.
“We had no idea about the records. I just tried to hit straight and give myself the best chance of making good contact with the ball.”
Hamish was even more modest. “For a time I just stood back and played second fiddle as a big Irishman produced some of the cleanest hitting I have ever seen,” he said.
“I nudged the ball around and tried to get Kevin facing as often as possible. He has big shoulders and was clearing the rope by a long way with a lot of his sixes.
“It was just amazing to watch. As time went on I started hitting the ball pretty well myself and things went our way.”
It was a timely boost for Ireland as the ICC annual meeting got under way in Hong Kong yesterday. The ruling body is expected to decide tomorrow whether to expand the next World Cup to include non-test nations.
Ireland’s Intercontinental Cup game against Namibia, due to start tomorrow, was canceled yesterday after the Africans failed to secure visas to visit Belfast. Citizens of Namibia don’t need a visa to enter the UK, but the visitors include players born in South Africa and Zimbabwe.
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Topic: Middlesex v Gloucestershire T20 (Read 1024 times)