Young left-handed opener Yashasvi Jaiswal continued his brilliant T20 form from the IPL and smashed a maiden T20I century for India on Tuesday against Nepal in the quarter-final of the Asian Games 2023 in China.
India had earned a direct entry into the quarter-final round and kick-started their Asian Games campaign with a 23-run win over Nepal, not before being given a scare by the Nepal batters who went blazing in their chase of 203 runs. But the bowlers kept their cool in the end and propelled India in the semi-final.
A second-string Indian team is being led by Ruturaj Gaikwad, who won the toss and elected to bat first at the Pingfeng Campus Cricket Field in Hangzhou.
While Ruturaj Gaikwad batted steadily for his 25 runs in 23 balls, Yashasvi Jaiswal went about his way in his typical aggressive fashion. The southpaw smoked 8 fours and 7 sixes in his knock of 100 runs in 49 balls. The two openers added 103 runs in 9.5 overs.
After that, however, regular wickets fell and India were 150/4 in the 17th over and it felt they might miss the 200-run mark, which would be a shocker given the small size of the ground. Rinku Singh stepped up once again to give a clinical finish by whacking 37 runs in only 15 balls with the help of 4 sixes and 2 fours to take India to a total of 202 runs.
Yashasvi Jaiswal notched up his maiden T20I century in 48 balls, becoming the 3rd quickest Indian to the three-figure mark in the shortest international format. Only Rohit Sharma (35 balls) and KL Rahul (46 balls) have scored quicker T20I centuries.
Fans on Twitter hailed Yashasvi Jaiswal for his sensational maiden T20I century:
Chasing 203, four Nepal batters went past 20 but none of them could convert their starts. With the ball for India, Ravi Bishnoi and Avesh Khan took 3 wickets each while Arshdeep Singh took 2 wickets. R Sai Kishore made his T20I debut for India and returned with good figures of 1/25.
