Sahil Chauhan
, who hails from a village in Haryana but found his cricket calling only after he moved to
Estonia
, was an unknown entity until a few days ago when his fastest century in T20s made him a global star.
Born in India, Chauhan says his inspiration has been India captain and opening batsman
Rohit Sharma
. In a record-breaking performance against
Cyprus
, Chauhan smashed the quickest T20 century ever, which came in just 27 deliveries.
In his unbeaten knock of 144 off 41 balls on Monday, the 32-year-old Chauhan hammered an astonishing 18 sixes and six fours. His incredible innings surpassed the previous record for the fastest century in all T20 cricket, which was held by Chris Gayle, who had scored a 30-ball century in the Indian Premier League.
Additionally, Chauhan's achievement also eclipsed the record for the fastest T20 International century, previously held by Namibia's Jan Nicol Loftie-Eaton, who had reached the milestone off 33 deliveries.
"I've been a big Rohit Sharma fan since I watched him play. Ge's a brilliant player who doesn't take any pressure. Regardless of the situation, he always plays his game. I have learned a lot from him. His hook shots are my favourite," said Chauhan, who is a native of Haryana's Manakpur Devilal village, was quoted as saying by FanCode.
Reflecting on his journey and experiences, Chauhan acknowledged the pleasant surprise of being presented with such an opportunity in Estonia.
"My uncle was the reason I moved to Estonia. He has a small restaurant business and that is where I work," he said. "I started playing here in 2019. I was really bored, so I started searching on Google for cricket in Estonia (and) I found a team's contact information and called them. I asked, 'Are you playing cricket?' They replied, 'yes'...That's how I started playing the game here,"
Chauhan's record-breaking innings came when Estonia had slipped to 40 for 3 while chasing chasing 192 against Cyprus,and he walked in to bat at No. 5. His eventual whirlwind knock took his team to a six-wicket win with seven overs to spare..
"I was just thinking about the innings and the target we had to chase. I just played to the merit of the ball, and that's it. The ball was coming nicely onto the bat, and I was just playing my shots," he said..
English (US) ·