Namibia’s Loftie-Eaton smashes fastest T20I ton

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

Coming to the crease with his side in trouble at 62-3 in the 11th over, Jan Frylinck dismissed by an ungainly fumbling stumping, Loftie-Eaton needed just a single legal ball to get his eye in. Pushing a straight single off Nepal skipper Rohit Paudel to retain the strike, Loftie-Eaton hooked Gulshan Jha first ball over fine leg for six. The burly left-hander took two more boundaries off that over, going to 18 off 6 with an audacious reverse slog-sweep over fine leg for six.

Ably supported by Malan Kruger, who struck eight boundaries himself en route to an unbeaten half-century, Loftie-Eaton conducted a controlled demolition of the home attack in a display of uncontainable innovation and aggression. In an innings that contained 8 sixes, perhaps the most impressive shot was a reverse sweep off left arm slinger Avinash Bohara – laced through a barely perceptible gap behind square for four. The shot set the tone for what was to follow as Loftie-Eaton ran through a full repertoire of scoops, reverses, dabs, muscled pulls, booming drives, and knee-dropping slog-sweeps – each new innovation frustrating Paudel’s every effort to set field.

Loftie Eaton’s exploits were all the more remarkable as his hitting was done on a TU International square where the three sides had struggled to score batting first, just one 200+ first innings score posted over the course of the preceding CWC League 2 ODI series. But for the record setting ball the pitch hardly mattered, a full toss from offpsinner DS Airee that anyone could have hit for a boundary, floating into middle stump and helped round the corner for four. It was just the 33rd legitimate delivery Loftie Eaton had faced, making his maiden century the fastest in the history of T20 internationals, and the third fastest in recognised List A T20.

Having taken his side from 62-3 in the 11th over to 197-3 in the last, Loftie Eaton lasted two more balls, long enough to congratulate Kruger on his own half-century, before falling 4 balls from the end picking out short third with another manufactured reverse flick off Bohara to go for 101 off 36. In company of stand-in skipper JJ Smit, Kruger finished the innings with a flourish, taking back to back fours off the final two balls to set the hosts a target of 207 to take the honours in the series curtain-raiser.

The man whose record Loftie-Eaton had broken, young southpaw Kushal Malla, was on the field to witness his 34-ball ton against Mongolia at last years’ Asia games surpassed by one ball. In the Nepal reply he had a rare chance to break the record right back. Coming in at 20-2 after Ruben Trumpelmann had removed Kushal Bhurtel LBW with the first ball of the innings and Aasif Sheikh in the third over, Malla looked intent on doing so as he raced to 20 off his first 7 balls. But he slowed up after he saw his captain held at long on for 42 off the legspin of none other than Loftie-Eaton, and eventually fell for 32 miscuing a hittable delivery from left arm spinner Bernhard Scholtz to JJ Smit at long on.

The day’s drama was far from over however with DS Airee marshalling a lower-order fightback even as wickets fell around him. Airee kept the hosts in the hunt until the penultimate over, taking the home side to 186-8 with a 38-ball 48 before edging Trumpelmann behind on the pull looking for a third six. One ball later it was all over, Trumpelmann spearing one full and straight into the stumps as No. 11 Bohara backed away, closing out a 20-run victory.

Namibia can look forward to a well-earned rest-day tomorrow to celebrate Loftie-Eaton’s achievement before returning to action against the Netherlands on Thursday, while the hosts will have to bounce back right away when they take on the Dutch tomorrow.

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) by 20 runs

(Cricbuzz)