A number of records were broken during the clash between Nepal and Mongolia on Wednesday in the men’s cricket competition of the Asian Games in Hangzhou, China.
Batting first, Nepal scored an astonishing 314-3 in 20 overs but Mongolia were dismissed for only 41 runs in 13.1 overs.
Nepal's Kushal Malla played a blistering knock and scored the fastest T20I century in only 34 balls. The previous record of fastest hundred in T20I cricket was jointly held by South Africa’s David Miller, India’s Rohit Sharma and Czech Republic's Sudesh Wickramasekara, who took 35 balls each.
Malla remained unbeaten on 137 runs in 50 balls with the help of eight fours and 12 sixes.
Meanwhile, Nepal's Dipendra Singh Airee only took nine balls to smash the fastest fifty in T20I cricket. The record was previously held by Yuvraj Singh, who achieved the feat in 12 balls.
Nepal's margin of win, 273, against Mongolia was also the highest in terms of runs in all T20s. The previous biggest margin was Czech Republic's 208-run victory against Panama in 2021.
Airee's strike-rate, 520, in his unbeaten innings of 52 off 10 balls was the first time in T20s when a batter has scored at a 500-plus strike rate in an innings of 10 or more balls. The record was previously held by Malcolm Waller, with a strike-rate of 430 against Matabeleland Tuskers in 2016 Zimbabwe's domestic T20 competition.
Nepal also hit the most sixes, 26, in a T20 international by a team. The previous highest were 22, by Afghanistan against Ireland in Dehradun in 2019 and by West Indies against South Africa in Centurion earlier this year.
