Bradman still the 'Don' of scoring the fastest century

A few days ago, it was Chris Gayle who scored a 30-ball hundred to break all sort of records in professional cricket. And then there was Sir Donald Bradman, who scored an incredible 22-ball 100 during the course of a village game on November 2, 1931.

On the day, Bradman was invited to a game against Lithgow, along with his colleague from the New South Wales Sheffield Shield team, Oscar Wendell Bill. The game was being played as part of the inauguration of a new concrete pitch.

Clearly, the Don was in no mood to let up and absolutely hammered the Lithgow bowlers to bring up his century in 22 deliveries!

Don Bradman performed this historic feat in just three overs. Here is the break up of those overs:

1st over — 6, 6, 4, 2, 4, 4, 6, 1 (33, all to Bradman)

2nd over — 6, 4, 4, 6, 6, 4, 6, 4 (40, all to Bradman)

3rd over — 1*, 6, 6, 1, 1*, 4, 4, 6 (27 to Bradman, 2* to Wendell Bill).

This is what Bradman had to say on his hundred, “I don’t know whether my hundred in three overs is a record. All I can say is that I have never heard of anything similar.”

“I scored 33 in the first over,” he said. “Three sixes, three fours and a two – and then getting a single off the last ball which gave me the strike for the second over in which I made 40 with four sixes and four fours. This gave Wendell the strike for the third over. He made one, after which I hit two sixes and a single. Wendell made a single off the fifth ball and then I finished the over with two fours and a six.”

“It is important I think to emphasise that the thing was not planned,” Bradman said. “It happened purely by accident and everyone was surprised by the outcome no one more so than I. In fact I was unaware of the result until I subsequently read about it in the newspapers.”

In that match, Bradman made 256 in that innings, with 14 sixes and 29 fours. He kept the bat — a Sykes 4 Crown willow, with which he went to make dozens more records.