Shakti Singh, Not Rishabh Pant, Fastest Centurion In Ranji Trophy History 1

The news of Rishabh Pant becoming the fastest centurion in Ranji Trophy made rounds the whole day on Tuesday. Well, why not?  A 19-year-old guy, who is in the form of his life, owned another record but a dubious one this time as unofficial stats and records suggest that it is the former batsman of Himachal Pradesh Shakti Singh and not Pant who is the fastest centurion in the history of one of the oldest tournament in Indian domestic cricket, Ranji Trophy.

Shakti Singh himself cleared the air surrounding the rumor as in an interview with TOI, he recalled the game and the day when he made the record.

“The unofficial stat is I got to my century in 42 balls. That was the time when there were no official scorers and scoring was done by the team members, I remember going in at number eight and started to hit my shots and it was only when I neared by fifty that they (team members) started to count,” Shakti Singh said.

“I got to my fifty in 18 balls with two fours and seven sixes. I went on to hit three more fours and five more sixes and hardly blocked four or five deliveries. But the number of balls was not recorded. However, my official time registered to get to the 100 was 59 minutes,” he added.
An official scorecard present online confirms he reached his half century in 18 just balls and scored in just 59 minutes but the scorecard to do not have a number of balls mentioned in it. According to the scorecard, he scored a total of 128 runs in that innings, his knock was decorated with seven fours and 14 sixes.
Looking at the scorecard and what Mr. Singh is saying, it seems that yes he is the one who owns the record but there are no official stats to confirm this.  At the end of the day, it’s the board who have to take a call upon this and clarify all the doubts over this dubious record which has come to notice again.