Fastest century in professional cricket

Excluding “declaration bowling” designed to manufacture a positive result, South Australia opener Jake Fraser-McGurk’s (Australia) 29-ball century against Tasmania in The Marsh Cup at Adelaide’s Karen Rolton Oval on 8 October 2023 was the fastest ever in domestic or international T20, List A or first-class cricket. Fraser-McGurk launched 12 sixes and six fours (totalling 96 runs) to bring up a scintillating hundred that registered one ball faster than Chris Gayle’s 30-ball T20 ton for Royal Challengers Bangalore against Pune Warriors in Bengaluru on 23 April 2013.

Fraser-McGurk was the first man out, for 125 off 38 balls, but even his extraordinary, willow-wielding heroics couldn’t prevent South Australia (398 all out) from sliding to defeat by 37 runs. Tasmania’s 435 for 9 was the highest-ever team score in a domestic one-day match in Australia. The 21-year-old also set a new record for the fastest fifty in Australia’s domestic one-day competition, bettering Glenn Maxwell’s 19-ball effort in Victoria’s Ryobi One-Day Cup defeat of Tasmania on 9 February 2011. Fraser-McGurk made his first-class and List A debuts in the same week in November 2019, respectively for Queensland and Victoria, scoring fifties in both games.