Habibur hits fastest T20 ton as a Bangladeshi batter

Opener Habibur Rahman Sohan became the fastest centurion as a Bangladeshi batter in recognized T20 cricket when he smashed a 35 ball-100 not out against Hong Kong in Bangladesh A team's Asia Cup Rising Stars tournament opening game at Doha, Qatar today.

He went past Parvez Hossain Emon who struck a hundred from 42 balls in a T20 game for Fortune Barishal in 2020.

Thanks to Habibur's swashbuckling knock, Bangladesh crushed Hong Kong by eight wickets to make a winning start to the tournament.

Bangladesh A are placed in Group A—with Afghanistan A and Sri Lanka A are the other two teams in this group.

Put into bat first, Hong Kong piled up 167-8, with Babar Hayat hammering 49 ball-63 and captain Yasim Murtaza hitting 40 off 22.

Bangladesh  A reached 171-2 for a victory with 54 balls to spare, courtesy to Habibur's pyrotechnique as he stayed unbeaten on exact 100.  Skipper Akbar Ali blasted 13 ball-41 not out with six sixes, including five sixes in an over.

Habibur who smote eight fours and 10 sixes in his knock, got off to the chase with three sixes in the first over after which plundered three sixes and one four in the next over as he raised his half-century off just 14 balls.

His fluent batting helped Bangladesh put on 107 runs in the first powerplay (first six overs) in which Habibur alone scored 88 runs off just 24 balls. 

After the power play Bangladesh lost Jishan Alam for 20 Zawad Abrar for 4 in quick succession but that mattered little as Habibur stood on the brink of being the fastest centurion in T20 cricket, eclipsing Estonia's Sahil Chauhan who holds the record with 27 ball-ton.

Habibur needed just two straight sixes to break the record but he was unable to do so. His last 12 runs came off 11 balls but that was enough to make him the fastest T20 centurion by a Bangladeshi batter. In addition he also holds the record by a Bangladeshi batter to hit a fastest century in List A cricket, smashing the century off 49 balls.