India's batting sensation Tilak Varma made history in the third T20I against South Africa at SuperSport Park in Centurion. He scored his maiden T20I century off just 51 balls. With this Tilak became the youngest Indian batter to hit a T20I century in overseas at the age of 22 years and 41 days. Apparently he shattered Suresh Raina's record as the former India batter scored a T20I ton against South Africa when he was 23 year old.
Youngest Indian to Score Overseas Century
TEST - Sachin Tendulkar (17yr 107d)
ODI - Yuvraj Singh (22yr 041d)
T20I - Tilak Varma (22yr 005d)*
The Hyderabad-based batter also became the second youngest batter after Yashasvi Jaiswal to hammer a century in the shortest format
Youngest Indian to Score T20I Century
21yr 279d - Yashasvi Jaiswal vs NEP
22yr 005d - Tilak Varma vs SA*
23yr 146d - Shubman Gill vs NZ
23yr 156d - Suresh Raina vs SA
23yr 307d - Abhishek Sharma vs ZIM
24yr 131d - KL Rahul vs WI
India, batting first, got off to a poor start as Sanju Samson was dismissed for a duck in the first over, bowled by Marco Jansen.
Not just this, Tilak also became the youngest batter to score a T20I century against a top-10 team. At the tender age of 22 years and 5 days, he surpassed Pakistan's Ahmed Shehzad's previous record of 22 years and 127 days. Shehzad had achieved this feat in 2014 against Bangladesh.
Tilak Varma's promotion in the batting order proved to be a masterstroke by captain Suryakumar Yadav. He formed a crucial 107-run partnership with Abhishek Sharma, taking India to 100 runs in just 8.1 overs.
South Africa fought back, dismissing both Abhishek and Suryakumar in quick succession. However, Tilak continued his impressive form, partnering with Rinku Singh to add 58 runs in 30 balls. While Rinku played a supportive role, Tilak was the dominant partner, contributing 45 runs to the partnership. Tilak ended up cracking a lighting 107 runs off 56 balls which was decorated with seven sixes and eight fours. Riding on Tilak's blistering knock India posted a colossal total of 219/6 in their stipulated 20 overs.
