As many as three players had held the mark for the fastest men’s T20I century, but teenager Kushal Malla has now broken it as Nepal made history on Wednesday by hitting the greatest total ever against Mongolia at the Asian Games. With Nepal amassing a staggering 314/3 from their 20 overs against Mongolia at the Asian Games, Malla beat the 35-ball centuries by Rohit and David Miller from 2017 and Sudesh Wickramasekara from 2019. Malla accomplished this feat in Hangzhou.
Afghanistan (278/3 vs. Ireland) and the Czech Republic (278/4 vs. Turkey) held the record for the greatest T20I total with their own significant scores from 2019. During their remarkable innings, Nepal hit a total of 26 sixes, with 12 of those maximums coming from Malla’s bat and the remaining eight from Dipendra Singh Airee.
When Malla entered the crease at the conclusion of the fifth over, his team was 42/1, and despite the loss of opener Kushal Bhurtel with the score at 66, he didn’t let up on the gas. In less than 11 overs, the left-hander and captain Rohit Paudel (61 off 27 deliveries) put on a 193-run partnership, and in the final few overs, Airee (52* off 10 balls) joined in the celebration to beat Yuvraj Singh’s record and score the quickest T20I fifty ever in just nine deliveries. With Mongolia all out for 41 in response, Malla scored an undefeated 137* to lead Nepal to a decisive 273-run triumph.