WATCH | Century-seeker Sam Curran notches maiden T20 century with biggies

07/19/2024

‌In a team sport like cricket, individual milestones are mostly undervalued when they come at the expense of the team's success and overall strategy. Although Sam Curran's maiden T20 hundred in the ongoing Vitality Blast did not harm Surrey’s winning chances, it didn’t go down well with pundits.

Winning the coin-flip and opting to field first, Surrey got early breakthroughs as Jordan Clark and Matt Dunn made the most of the new ball. With three wickets down inside the powerplay. Toby Albert’s 66 revised Hampshire to reach a total of 183 in 19.5 overs. In response, the Surrey side lost three wickets inside the field restrictions, similar to their counterparts. However, Sam Curran stood against Hampshire as he counter-punched the opposition to eventually bring up a dazzling century.

Curran was on 89 off 54 balls when the home side needed nine runs to win from the last ten balls. Subsequently, Brad Wheal dished a short ball around the leg stump line that the left-handed batter managed to swivel pull towards the fine leg region. A fielder in the deep attempted to pull off a great catch with balletic movement but failed to keep the ball inside the field of play. Curran denied running in the next ball after pulling it towards deep square leg before retaining strike for the last over with two runs required. With James Fuller bowling the next ball in the slot outside the stumps, Curran smoked it over long on for a huge six and notched up his maiden T20 ton. The fact that Curran’s blistering ton assisted Surrey to retain the top spot in the points table added to his jubilation and the Twitterverse was divided.