20-20 – The new definition of world cricket. Now days have gone where cricket fans used to spend long hours in a stadium or before television to see the result of a 50 over ODI or to test one’s patience with 5 day test matches. When the idea of 20-20 matches with 20 stipulating overs to test the real power of bat and ball was introduced, many cricket viewers thought that the idea won’t click. Everyone thought that none will come in between the fascination of 50 over match and sport lovers. But 20-20 matches proved all those speculations wrong. In a 20 over match, 200 is regarded as a comparative total and a myth existed that it’s not possible for a single batsman to score a century in stipulated 20- over match. This myth was broken a decade back by Australian batsman Ian Harvey when he scored 100 runs from 50 balls in a county cricket match held at Edge Baston. He scored a 20-20 hundred on June 23 2003 and now it’s one decade old. Now when we people are really crazy with sixes and fours of Chris Gayle in IPL, the notable innings played by Ian Harvey need special mention.

Now it’s Chris Gayle’s time and his opponents fear his bat a lot. He has created many new records in 20-20 winning millions of fans all over India. But years back, an Australian cricketer was there in the team with the name Ian Harvey. Through his explosive batting, he has also won cricket fans’ hearts who love big blows a lot. His full name is Ian Joseph Harvey and he is fondly known as ‘First century of freak of 20-20’ among his fans. Like Shane Watson of today, he was an all-rounder of Australian cricket team during 1997-2004. In 2004, he was elected as Wisden Cricketer of the year.  

First century of 20-20 happened on June 23^rd, 2004 and the match was between the clubs - Gloucestershire and Warwickshire. Warwickshire batted first and scored 134 runs with the loss of 8 wickets. Gloucestershire achieved the target with the loss of just 2 wickets, thus winning the match. Ian Harvey’s innings with 4 sixers and 13 boundaries played the most significant part in winning the match. He was not out too. It was only 9 days since he debut 20-20.

After that this cricketer has achieved 1470 runs from 54 20-20 matches. In Indian Cricket league 2007, long before the formation of IPL matches, he was selected as the Player of the tournament. His achievement of 266 runs and 9 wickets from 7 matches helped Chennai to win the tournament too.  

Article Posted By : Sandhya Rani  On July 02, 2013lView All Articles

Many cricketers have scored 100 in 20-20. But the first one is always special

Article Source :

http://www.veethi.com/articles/first-century-of-20-20-is-a-decade-old-now-article-2518.htm

Keywords :
First century of 20-20 , Ian Harvey , Ian Harvey century