Fastest century in T20 World Cup: Finn Allen’s 33 balls broke a record Chris Gayle held for a decade

The fastest century in a men’s T20 World Cup is Finn Allen’s, off 33 balls, for New Zealand against South Africa at Eden Gardens on 4 March 2026. He finished unbeaten on 100 from those 33 deliveries, with 10 fours and eight sixes, at a strike rate of 303.03.

It took 14 balls off a record that had stood for a decade. Chris Gayle’s 47-ball hundred against England at the Wankhede in 2016 had been the mark since, and before that Gayle’s own 50-ball effort from the very first tournament in 2007. Most versions of this list still name him.

Fastest century in T20 World Cup history

Balls taken to reach 100, men’s tournament proper, as at 20 August 2026.

Balls	Player	Score	For	Against	Date
33	Finn Allen	100*	New Zealand	South Africa	4 Mar 2026
47	Chris Gayle	100*	West Indies	England	16 Mar 2016
50	Chris Gayle	117	West Indies	South Africa	11 Sep 2007
51	Harry Brook	100	England	Pakistan	24 Feb 2026
51	Brendon McCullum	123	New Zealand	Bangladesh	21 Sep 2012
52	Rilee Rossouw	109	South Africa	Bangladesh	27 Oct 2022
52	Pathum Nissanka	100*	Sri Lanka	Australia	16 Feb 2026
58	Ahmed Shehzad	111*	Pakistan	Bangladesh	30 Mar 2014
58	Sahibzada Farhan	100*	Pakistan	Namibia	18 Feb 2026
58	Yuvraj Samra	110	Canada	New Zealand	17 Feb 2026
59	Suresh Raina	101	India	South Africa	2 May 2010
60	Alex Hales	116*	England	Sri Lanka	27 Mar 2014
60	Tamim Iqbal	103*	Bangladesh	Oman	13 Mar 2016
60	Sahibzada Farhan	100	Pakistan	Sri Lanka	28 Feb 2026
61	Glenn Phillips	104	New Zealand	Sri Lanka	29 Oct 2022
63	Mahela Jayawardene	100	Sri Lanka	Zimbabwe	3 May 2010

The one hundred missing from that table, and why

Jacob Bethell made 105 from 48 balls for England against India in the 2026 semi-final at the Wankhede, and it is not in the list above because the ball on which he reached three figures has not been published anywhere we can find. What is known is that he faced 48 in total, so his hundred came up in 48 or fewer, and that it was reported as the fastest by an England batter at any T20 World Cup — which puts it inside Harry Brook’s 51 from the same tournament.

So Bethell belongs somewhere between second and fourth on this list, and there is no honest way to place him more precisely than that. A table that gives him an exact number has guessed it. The same caveat applies, less interestingly, to Jos Buttler’s unbeaten 101 from 67 balls against Sri Lanka in 2021, which is too slow to trouble the top of the list either way.

Allen’s 33 balls, and how far clear it is

The gap is the story. Allen’s hundred is 14 balls faster than the record it broke, on a list where everything else is bunched together: the fifteen entries from second to sixteenth span 47 balls to 63, a spread of 16. The gap from first to second is almost as wide as the whole rest of the table.

He did it chasing in a semi-final at Eden Gardens, and the shape of the innings is the part that stands out: fifty from 19 balls, and the second fifty from 14. He got faster as he went.

The arithmetic is brutal either way. A hundred from 33 deliveries means 18 of them went to the boundary and 15 did not. Eight sixes and 10 fours account for 88 of the runs, so the other 12 came off the remaining 15 balls. New Zealand chased South Africa’s 169 in 12.5 overs and won by nine wickets; the full account is in our report on Allen’s hundred against South Africa.

It is also the only hundred in T20 World Cup history made at a strike rate above 300. The next best are Jacob Bethell’s 218.75 and Brendon McCullum’s 212.06, and no other centurion has cleared 210.

Only 18 centuries in ten tournaments

For all the scoring, the T20 World Cup hundred remains rare. There have been 18 in ten editions since 2007, and they are distributed nothing like evenly.

Edition	Centuries
2007	1
2009	0
2010	2
2012	1
2014	2
2016	2
2021	1
2022	2
2024	0
2026	7

Seven of the 18 came in 2026 alone — Allen, Bethell, Brook, Nissanka, Samra and two from Sahibzada Farhan. The nine tournaments before it produced eleven between them, and two of those nine, 2009 and 2024, produced none at all. The rows add to 18, which is the check worth running on any version of this table.

That is the same pattern the team scores show. Our page on the highest score in a T20 World Cup records seven of the ten biggest totals coming from that one month.

Gayle is no longer the only man with two

Chris Gayle made the first T20 World Cup hundred, 117 against South Africa in the opening match of the 2007 tournament, and his second at the Wankhede in 2016. From then he was the only player with two of them. Sahibzada Farhan joined him in 2026, with an unbeaten 100 against Namibia on 18 February and 100 against Sri Lanka ten days later.

The two records are not the same shape. Gayle’s are eight and a half years and four tournaments apart; Farhan made both inside eleven days, which makes him the only player to score two centuries in a single T20 World Cup. He also finished that tournament as its leading run-scorer with 383, a record of its own — the detail is on our page on the most runs in T20 World Cup.

The fastest T20 World Cup century by an Indian

Suresh Raina’s, off 59 balls against South Africa at Gros Islet on 2 May 2010, and it is unchallenged for a straightforward reason: he is the only Indian to have made a century at a T20 World Cup at all. Eighteen hundreds, and exactly one of them is India’s.

Raina finished on 101 from 60 balls at Gros Islet. No India batter has made a hundred at the tournament in the sixteen years since, and the closest anyone has come is Sanju Samson’s unbeaten 97 from 50 balls against West Indies at Eden Gardens in 2026.

Common questions about the fastest century in T20 World Cup

Who scored the fastest century in T20 World Cup history? Finn Allen of New Zealand, off 33 balls against South Africa at Eden Gardens on 4 March 2026. He finished 100 not out from 33 deliveries.

What was the record before that? Chris Gayle’s 47-ball hundred against England at the Wankhede in 2016, which had stood for ten years.

How many centuries have been scored in T20 World Cups? Eighteen, across ten editions. Seven of them came at the 2026 tournament, and none at all in 2009 or 2024.

Who has scored the fastest T20 World Cup century for India? Suresh Raina, off 59 balls against South Africa in 2010. He remains the only Indian to have made a hundred at the tournament.

Has anyone scored two centuries at a T20 World Cup? Chris Gayle and Sahibzada Farhan have two each. Farhan is the only one to have made both in the same tournament, in 2026.

More T20 World Cup records

• Most runs in T20 World Cup
• Highest score in T20 World Cup
• Most wickets in T20 World Cup
• Most matches in T20 World Cup
• T20 World Cup winners list

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Photo credit: Alamy