Namibia’s Loftie-Eaton smashes fastest T20I hundred

Namibia’s Jan Nicol Loftie-Eaton bettered the record for the fastest T20I hundred at Kathmandu in the series opener of the Nepal-Namibia-Netherlands T20 tri-series, reaching the landmark off just 33 balls.

Walking out to bat with his side in a spot of bother, Loftie-Eaton needed just a single legal delivery to get his eye in. Pushing a straight single off Nepal skipper Rohit Paudel to retain the strike, the burly left-hander hooked Gulshan Jha first ball over fine leg for six. He peeled off two more boundaries in that over, going to 18 off 6 with an audacious reverse sweep over fine leg for another maximum.

The man whose record Loftie-Eaton had broken, young Kushal Malla, was on the park to witness his 34-ball ton against Mongolia at last years’ Asia games eclipsed by one ball.

Brief Scores: Namibia 206-3 in 20 overs (JN Loftie-Eaton 101, MB Kruger 59; RK Paudel 2-30) beat Nepal 186 in 18.5 overs (DS Airee 48, RK Paudel 42; R Trumpelmann 4-9) by20 runs