Srinagar: Gujarat Titans opener Sai Sudharsan shattered the massive record of cricket legend Sachin Tendulkar on way to his maiden IPL century during Gujarat Titans vs CSK match in Ahmedabad on Friday.
Sai Sudharsan got to his century off just 50 balls. Sudharsan, who is GT’s reigning highest-scorer of the current season, was promoted to open the innings with Shubman Gill. The duo of Gill and Sudharsan put up the joint-highest opening partnership (210) in the history of IPL.
Sudharsan, who smashed his maiden IPL century, became the fastest Indian to 1000 runs in the IPL. The left-hander, who took only 25 innings to reach a thousand IPL runs, beat the legendary Sachin Tendulkar and Ruturaj Gaikwad to the milestone. Tendulkar and Gaikwad jointly held the record for scoring 1000 runs in the IPL in 31 innings.
The third in the list is Mumbai Indians bater Tilak Varma who took 33 innings to score 1000 IPL runs.
In the overall list, Sudharsan is fourth. The record for the fastest 1000 runs in IPL history still stands with Australia’s Shaun Marsh, who had taken only 21 innings, followed by West Indies opener Lendl Simmons (23) and Australia great Matthew Hayden (25). Sudharsan went past England’s keeper-batter Jonny Bairstow, who had taken 26 innings.
Fewest innings to 1000 IPL runs
21 – Shaun Marsh
23 – Lendl Simmons
25 – Matthew Hayden
25 – Sai Sudharsan*
26 – Jonny Bairstow
Sudharsan was 69 runs short of the milestone when he started his innings on Friday. The left-hander started off slowly – four of his first seven balls were dots – but the moment he hit his first six of the night off Shardul Thakur, there was no stopping him. Sudharsan hit another biggie in the next over off Tushar Deshpande to make his intentions crystal clear.