Phil Salt put his name into the England T20 history books with an incredible display of batting against South Africa.
The opener hit England’s fastest T20 international century in a brutal demonstration of power hitting, as the hosts also beat their own record T20 score to break the 300-run barrier.
Salt’s century in the space of just 39 balls surpassed Liam Livingstone‘s record.
Livingstone hit an incredible T20 century against Pakistan in July 2021 at Trent Bridge in Nottingham.
It seemed unlikely anyone would be able to break that, but on his home ground at Old Trafford, Salt managed to beat it by three deliveries as England thrilled the Manchester crowd.
Their previous high score in a T20 was 267-3, which they got against West Indies in 2023, but they obliterated that here with 304-2, making it the third-highest score in an international T20.
It is also the highest score against a full member country, meaning it was a night of records in Manchester.
Salt later went on to beat his own record for England’s highest score in T20s as well, which was 119 from his innings against the Windies.
In the end, he made a whopping 141, including 15 fours and eight sixes.
Strangely, it didn’t look as if Salt would be the man to break any record at the start, with Jos Buttler well placed on 65 from just 24 deliveries.
The former captain struck at a ridiculous strike rate of 276, ending on 83 from 30 balls.
Buttler’s innings saw him hit eight fours and seven sixes.
But as he fell, Salt took his place and upped his scoring even more.
There weren’t as many sixes as Buttler, but Salt racked up over ten fours to brutally smash a record and ensure he’s in English cricket history forever.
The strangest thing about Salt and England’s performance is that South Africa won the toss and decided to bowl.
Response from England
England lost the ODI series to South Africa 2-1, and Harry Brook‘s team were also beaten in the opening contest against the visitors in the T20 series.
In a hugely rain-impacted game, the contest was initially reduced to nine overs, starting over two hours later than the initial 6:30pm time.
South Africa managed to get to 97-5 before rain struck again 7.5 overs in.
As a result, England were given five overs to chase the revised target of 69 from five overs.
But they could only reach 54-5, with Brook and Salt going for ducks, and Buttler top scoring.
After the contest, Brook wasn’t happy at all.
He said: “It was a bit of a shambles really, wasn’t it? There was so much going on. You can’t take much from it and it wasn’t worth it.
“It was a long, long day. I don’t think we need to make any excuses up.
“We probably didn’t execute as well as we should have done with bat and ball. It’s bloody hard when you only bat for five overs.”
Given the short turnaround, it would have been easy for England to have some sort of hangover from the evening, but there has been no sign of that.
South Africa have now been set a mammoth score to get, which would be a record chase, while it’s an evening Salt and those in the ground will never forget.
