This piece of article is not intended to belittle the high and professional standards of international cricket in general and international cricketers in particular even in the very new format of Twenty20, but ongoing Arizona Twenty20 witnessed such a carnival of runs by a cricketer this weekend that deserves a noteworthy praise and mention.

Karan Wittke (32) of Intraedge Kings team of the valley blasted a super fast, action packed whirlwind T20 century off only 34 balls helping his team plunder 238/7 in 20 overs. When he arrived in to bat, his team had already lost 6 wickets for 80 runs in about 8 overs. Even though the team run rate was okay, the way the opponent team, Valley Eagles, were constantly getting the wickets at regular intervals, his team’s survival for the full quota of 20 overs was in serious doubts with team’s top order already back to the pavilion. Valley Eagles bowlers did leak the runs but they were able to use the conditions beautifully mixing the faster deliveries with the slower ones and thereby deceiving the top order and fooling them around. However, this man had different way to counter the sluggishness of the bare grassy pitch where the ball was stopping and coming onto the bat and also do not forget to keep in mind the unpredictable bounce that comes as a surprise package when you play in Arizona’s never rolled 22 yard length pitches.

Karan’s main weapon seemed to be ruthless aggression without any caution. If at all he was cautious at times, he was just making sure that he is dispatching the ball hard enough to clear the ropes comfortably so that he is not leaving a single room for being dismissed. His first half century came off in just 12 balls that included 5 towering sixes and 3 fluent boundaries off which the 5 sixes were consecutive in one over, the only ball of the over (first ball) that was not hit for a six was mistimed for a double. In the next over his lesser mortal partner Chirag Vyas who eventually went on to score an undefeated and comparatively kind and humble 38 off 26 balls, sensing the mood of his partner took a smart single and gave the strike to his partner and Karan once again dispatched the ball over the ropes, making it six 6s in a row. For him at the moment, the bowler didn’t matter as he was too busy in collecting those runs. Once he equaled the 12 ball 50 of Yuvraj Singh, he kept scoring at almost the same rate and completed his century in no time off only 34 balls, 16 balls lesser than what Chris Gayle of West Indies took to make the only century of Twenty20 world cricket so far. He was eventually cleaned in the 20^th over for 105 but by then he had hit 13 towering sixes and only 5 boundaries thus scoring his 98 off 105 runs (93.33% of his total) in boundaries. I believe many of us believe that 20-20 is all about sixes and fours. Don’t we?

Scoring at such unbelievable high pace would be tough and rare at any level. I searched whole of cricinfo and couldn’t find a faster innings. If you do happen to find something like this, please kindly notify me. I would be glad to know that. On another note, I believe this was a challenging task given the nature of the pitch; unrolled pitch, unpredictable bounce, and the grass all over it. The size of the ground when compared with an international one might be questioned, but would everyone agree that the repetition of the same feat is highly unlikely on another day on the same ground if at all the size does matter so much. For the same reason, I would hardly blame the bowlers of the opponent teams as Valley eagles holds the respect as a team which has risen fast in Arizona cricket and are very enthusiastic about their cricket. Probably, the cliché that has been often said for Laras and Tendulkars, that when the man is in such a mood, nothing can stop him, was so true for this Arizona Cricketer on that Sunday evening.