Video - Phil Salt’s 39-ball century rewrites the history books in Manchester

Manchester witnessed the most brutal form of assault on a visiting team ever as RCB’s star wicket-keeper, Phil Salt, opening for England in the second T20I, laid waste to the Proteas. Starting his innings with a hattrick of fours, Salt laid down the marker for the upcoming burst of brilliance.

1-0 up in the series, England wanted to get their priorities straight. Salt welcomed Marco Jansen with a hoick over deep point and followed it up with another whack through fine leg. Salt completed the boundary hat-trick with a shot straight down the ground as Jansen was no match for the speed of the ball.

Sadly, for the lanky pacer, Salt wasn’t still done with his rampage in the opening over. An over-pitched delivery from Jansen to conclude the over was sent flying over the bowler’s head into the stands. Markram’s attempt to try and change Jansen with Lizaad Williams didn’t make any difference either. The treatment from Salt remained the same, as the English hard-hitter was only focused on squeezing out the boundaries.

From Marco Jansen to Bjorn Fortuin, from Lizaad Williams to Kwena Maphaka, no South African bowler was spared. Salt reigned supreme in his most vicious avatar ever as England continued the assault for fun. Phil brought up his half-century in just 19 balls and did so in style, smacking Williams down the ground for an electric off-drive.

For the ones who believed that he had plans of slowing down after that fifty, it was quite the contrary. The very next ball from Williams was tonked over extra-cover for a ginormous maximum. And the following delivery was parked across the rope again albeit a couple of bounces reduced it to a four instead of a six. Nonetheless, Salt claimed 21 runs off the bat from that over.

Soon enough, Salt rewrote the history books, scoring the quickest T20I century for England from just 39 balls, leaving the African bowlers in utter disarray. In the remaining seven overs, he didn’t really get much strike to compound his truculence but England broke the record books with the first-ever 300 against an ICC full member team in the history of T20I cricket.

Salt stayed unbeaten for 141 from just 60 balls, beating his own previous record of the highest score by an England batter in T20Is.

You can watch Salt wreaking havoc here.