New Zealand opener Finn Allen smashed the fastest century in a T20 World Cup game to help the Kiwis defeat favourite South Africa by nine wickets in the first semi-final on Wednesday night.
Allen’s unbeaten 100 off 33 balls featured 10 fours and eight sixes and propelled New Zealand to 1-173 from just 12.5 overs to end South Africa’s hopes of reaching a second consecutive final.
Allen’s power-hitting saw the right-hander smash Marco Jansen for 4, 4, 6, 6, and 4 in what proved the final over to reach one of the most memorable hundreds in the tournament’s history and lift New Zealand to only its second final.
West Indies great Chris Gayle had the previous record with his 47-ball hundred against England in the 2016 tournament.
New Zealand’s Finn Allen roars after hitting a century.Credit: AP
South Africa, which came into the playoffs on the back of seven straight wins in the tournament, including a seven-wicket win over the Kiwis in the group stage, had used Jansen’s unbeaten 55 off 30 balls to reach 8-169 at Eden Gardens.
“Just tried to get in good positions and perform for the team,” Allen said. “We wanted to start well and put them on the back foot early. Easy for me when Timmy is going like that … Training is really important to get a feel of the wicket. We knew it would be black soil; we had that intel.”
And the chase was all over inside the first six overs when Allen and Tim Seifert (58) raced New Zealand to 0-84. Both batters smashed Jansen for two sixes and three boundaries in the left-armer’s first two overs, and then Allen rounded off the power play by smashing Corbin Bosch for 22 runs in the sixth over.
The return of Kagiso Rabada and left-arm spinner Keshav Maharaj also couldn’t stem the flow of runs as the pair pushed the opening stand to 117 in only nine overs. Rabada got the consolation wicket of Seifert, but Allen kept taking on the bowlers with his amazing power-hitting.
Jansen was punished by Allen and Seifert as the left-armer conceded 53 runs off his 2.5 overs. Bosch gave away 35 of his two overs while Maharaj (0-33) and Lungi Ngidi (0-22) were smashed for 55 runs off their five combined overs.
“Massive credit to Finn Allen’s knock and Seifert’s knock to kill the game off as early as they did,” South Africa captain Aiden Markram said. “We expected the wicket to play really well, looked really good to the eye. Maybe we had to try and scrape our way to 190, and we’d be in the game.”
Allen was part of the Perth Scorchers team that won the 2025/26 Big Bash League, hitting 36 off 22 in the final against the Sydney Sixers in January.
AP
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