Two matches were slotted on Monday’s opening day of the six-match bilateral series in Episkopi, and while Estonia won both, Chauhan’s time with the bat was as mixed as it could be. In the first game, the 32-year-old Chauhan was dismissed for a first-ball duck even as his team chased down Cyprus’ 195 for 7 in the last over.
But he came into his own in the second game, which started not long after the first one got over. Batting first again, Cyprus scored 191 for 7. Estonia’s start was terrible, with both openers falling inside eight balls with just nine runs on the board.
Chauhan, however, took off straightaway, hitting 6, 4 and 6 in the first three legal deliveries he faced, from Buddika Mahesh. Stuart Hook, his partner, and Steffan Gooch fell soon after, leaving Estonia at 89 for 4 in the seventh over, but by that time, Chauhan was on 66 from 17 balls, with five fours and three sixes.
The mayhem started in the previous over, the sixth of the chase, where Chauhan hit Mangala Gunasekara for four sixes and a four, getting to a 14-ball fifty in the process. This was not a record, though, which instead stands in the name of Dipendra Singh Airee (nine balls). There have also been two other quicker T20I half-centuries, including Yuvraj Singh’s 12-ball show against England in the inaugural T20 World Cup in 2007.
Chauhan continued to deal in sixes, hitting four more off Chamal Sadun in the eighth over, and then hit three more in the next, off Neeraj Tiwari, the last one taking him to his century. The big hits continued, till Chauhan finished off the chase with a four off James Chialoufas off the last ball of the 13th over. Chauhan scored his runs at a scarcely believable strike rate of 351.21.
For Estonia, Bilal Masud, Chauhan’s partner for the fifth wicket, was the second-highest scorer with an unbeaten 21.
The corresponding record for women’s T20Is belongs to Deandra Dottin, the West Indies allrounder, who had got to the mark in just 38 balls in a game against South Africa in 2010.
