South Australia opener smashed 10 fours and 13 sixes to finish with 125 off 38 balls

Alex Malcolm08-Oct-2023South Australia batter Jake Fraser-McGurk broke AB de Villiers’ record for the fastest century in a List A game, plundering a 29-ball hundred against Tasmania at Karen Rolton Oval in Adelaide after the visitors had posted the highest total in Australian domestic one-day history of 435 earlier in the day.Opening the batting in South Australia’s run chase, Fraser-McGurk, 21, reached his century in the ninth over of the innings, going past de Villiers’ previous mark of 31 balls which he set against West Indies in an ODI at Johannesburg in 2015. He eventually holed out in the 12th over, finishing with 125 from 38 balls, with 10 fours and 13 sixes.”I went out there with some good intent, had my plans and process, and seemed like everything went my way,” he said. “I’ve made a few 30s playing in twos [2nd XI] and stuff, felt like I’ve been hitting them reasonably well but probably not that well so definitely surprised myself.”Asked if he’d ever played like that before, he joked: “Maybe a video game or something. Definitely not in real life, that’s for sure.”Tasmania captain Jordan Silk, whose own century ended up on the winning side, said: “It’s probably an innings I’ll never see maybe ever again. It was some of the cleanest ball-striking I’ve seen and sometimes you’ve just got to tip your cap to players like that that can do that. Whilst it was frustrating to watch it was also amazing to watch.”Fraser-McGurk only faced one of the first 12 balls of the chase, scoring just a single. But in the third over he unleashed a furious display of ball-striking. He took 32 off Sam Rainbird’s second over of the innings including four sixes and two fours.He raced to 50 off 18 balls to set a new mark for the fastest half-century in Australia’s one-day domestic competition, breaking Glenn Maxwell’s previous mark of 19 balls.He kept going. In the ninth over he smacked three consecutive sixes off Billy Stanlake to three different quadrants of the ground. He then struck a boundary and a single to bring up his century.In the 10th over, he smashed four consecutive fours and a six off left-arm orthodox Paddy Dooley before falling two overs later. It is Fraser-McGurk’s first century at domestic level having only once passed 50 in his previous 13 List A innings, and that came on debut for Victoria in 2019 as a 17-year-old. He has passed 50 just once in 16 first-class innings, which also came on debut in 2019, but has not done so in 24 T20 innings.His spectacular innings had put South Australia on course for a record chase but eventually they fell 37 runs short.