All those talks of South Africa being unbeaten in the T20 World Cup 2026, and looking favorites to lift their maiden trophy, have disappeared in thin air now. On Wednesday, during the first semifinal of the tournament in Kolkata — New Zealand landed a knockout punch on the Proteas. After restricting them to only 169 on a good batting wicket — Finn Allen smashed the daylights out of the opposition bowlers, scoring a 100 in only 33 deliveries.
Finn Allen sinks South Africa
This is the fastest 100 in a T20 World Cup match, any edition, that too by a big margin. After Allen, comes the record by Chris Gayle, 47 deliveries, which was set back in 2016. Allen’s hand ensured that there were no hiccups in New Zealand’s chase, despite the presence of some decent spinners in the SA XI. The keeper-batter reserved his very best for this match and went on to add 117 runs for the first wicket, along with Tim Seifert. The latter too scored a whirlwind fifty — 58 in 33 only.
- Fastest in T20WCs
- Fastest against a full-member side in T20Is
- Joint third fastest in all T20Is
- Joint fastest for a batter from FM teams, alongside Sikandar Raza vs Gambia, Nairobi (2024)
To further understand the magnitude of Allen’s innings — earlier, he had become the fastest Kiwi in any T20 World Cup, to score a fifty, surpassing Glenn Phillips’ effort in 22 deliveries vs Canada. In fact, this edition, Seifert had also scored one in 23 deliveries, against UAE. This only goes on to show the kind of cricket both Allen and his partner have played.
Allen-Seifert best opening pair
Further, this duo had also created a record of the second highest partnership for any wicket — 175 vs UAE, and have added over 450 runs in the tournament together. Earlier in the day SA batters batted poorly and were 77/5 at one stage. From there on Jansen played innings of a lifetime to score 53 from only 29 deliveries.
