Cricket: Chris Gayle blasts century in 30 balls

WEST Indies opener Chris Gayle smashed the fastest-ever century yesterday and finished on 175 not out, the highest-ever Twenty20 innings.

Playing for the Bangalore Royal Challengers in an Indian Premier League match, Gayle reached his century off 30 balls and blasted 17 sixes and 13 fours off just 66 deliveries in all to take his team to a mammoth total of 263 for five.

The 33-year-old Jamaican’s 30-ball ton eclipsed the 34-ball hundred scored by Australian Andrew Symonds for Kent against Middlesex in 2004. The left-hander also posted the highest individual score in a Twenty20 game, going past New Zealander Brendon McCullum’s 158.

Flamboyant Pakistani Shahid Afridi holds the record of fastest international century in the 50-over format (37 balls) and South African Richard Richard Levi (45 balls) made the quickest international T20 hundred.

Meanwhile, the ICC has urged banned Pakistan duo Salman Butt and Mohammad Asif to “come clean” to its anti-corruption unit and help the fight against spot-fixing.

Butt and Asif had appeals against their minimum five-year suspensions dismissed by the Court of Arbitration for Sport last week and ICC chief Dave Richardson said: “The guilt of these men has now been established on three separate occasions.

“The time has now come for them to stop misleading the members of the public.”