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Bangalore batsman Devdutt Padikkal, on Thursday, April 22, became the third-youngest player in the history of the Indian T20 League to score a century. The 20-year-old scored an unbeaten 101 off 52 balls as Bangalore defeated Rajasthan by 10 wickets to win their fourth game of the 2021 Indian T20 League.

At 20 years and 289 days, Padikkal sits third in the list of youngest centurions in the league. The current Hyderabad batsman, Manish Pandey scored an unbeaten 114 in 2009 when he was 19 years and 253 days. Rishabh Pant, at the age of 20 years and 218 days, scored 128* against Hyderabad in 2018. Meanwhile, Padikkal is now the youngest player to score a ton in the Indian T20 League during a chase. He surpassed Quinton de Kock (23y 112d) when the South African scored 108 against Bangalore in 2016.

While Padikkal is now the fifth Bangalore player to score a century in the Indian T20 League, he is the first player from his team to do so against Rajasthan.

Padikkal was explosive right from the very beginning and made the likes of Riyan Parag and Rahul Tewatia his prey. Amongst all the bowlers he faced during his century, he hit Parag for 12 runs in four balls and Tewatia for 19 runs in seven balls. Here’s the detailed bifurcation of who he hit the most. 

Devdutt Padikkal vs Rajasthan bowlers
Bowler Runs Balls Boundaries Strike Rate Balls/Boundary Run %
Chetan Sakariya 19 12 3 158.33 4.00 18.81%
Chris Morris 14 8 2 175.00 4.00 13.86%
Mustafizur Rahman 23 14 4 164.28 3.50 22.77%
Rahul Tewatia 19 7 3 271.42 2.33 18.81%
Riyan Parag 12 4 2 300 2.00 11.88%
Shreyas Gopal 14 7 3 200 2.33 13.86%

Padikkal’s partnership of 181 runs with his captain Virat Kohli is the highest partnership in the league while chasing. The previous best was 144 between Gurkeerat Singh and Shimron Hetmyer for the fourth wicket against Hyderabad in 2019. It is also the second-highest partnership in the league by an Indian pair. Punjab’s KL Rahul and Mayank Agarwal still hold the record with a partnership of 183 runs against Rajasthan.

Padikkal and Kohli’s effort guided Bangalore to a 10-wicket win which is their fourth victory by this margin. No other team has managed to match the feat on more than two occasions. While Padikkal left no stones unturned, Kohli did his job with mere perfection too and became the first player to reach the 6000-run mark in the history of the Indian T20 League.

Featured photo: Twitter / IPL

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