Rishabh Pant hits record breaking 48-ball century for Delhi, Jharkhand claim three points

Thumba (Kerala): Delhi youngster Rishabh Pant grabbed eyeballs by blazing his way into the record books with a 48-ball century - the quickest by any Indian batsman in first-class cricket - even as Jharkhand secured three points from their Ranji Trophy Group B match here today.

The 19-year-old Pant, who also struck a century in Delhi's first innings, smashed a staggering 13 sixes and eight boundaries during his knock, which ended at 135 off 67 balls, at the St Xavier's College Ground.

En route his century, Pant eclipsed a 28-year old record set by former Tamil Nadu opener VB Chandrasekhar, who reached the three-figure mark in 56 balls against Rest of India during the Irani Cup match of the 1988-89 series.

Delhi were 480 for six in their second innings when the stumps were drawn on the fourth and final day.

It was Jharkhand, though, who came out of the match with three points to Delhi's one, on the basis of taking the first-innings lead.

Delhi were all out for 334 in their after innings after Jharkhand, who were sent into bat, notched up 493.

Having taken a huge first-innings lead of 159 runs, Jharkhand skipper Saurabh Tiwary asked Delhi to follow-on.

Resuming on 165/1, Delhi were served well by skipper Unmukt Chand's 91 and half centuries by Milind Kumar and Manan Sharma, but the day truly belonged to Pant.

He had hit 117 off 106 balls in the first innings, with the help of nine fours and eight sixes.

Pant's tally of 21 sixes in a game is the second-most in first-class cricket, behind New Zealand's Colin Munro who blasted 23 sixes in his knock of 281 from 167 balls for Auckland against Central Districts in 2015.

The young lad from Delhi is going through a dream season having amassed 799 runs from seven innings at an astounding average of 133.16 and a strike-rate of 113.17.

This is his fourth hundred of the season. He had already hit 44 sixes this season from 5 games. His sequence of scores this season read 146, 308, 24, 9, 60, 117, 135.