This was published 12 years ago
Cricket's fastest centuries
Little-known batsman Australian Craig Simmons has smashed his way into cricket folklore with the fastest Big Bash century ever recorded.
Simmons cracked eight fours and eight sixes on the way to a 39-ball ton for Perth Scorchers, with the coming nine months after Chris Gayle scored the game’s quickest professional century off 30 balls in the IPL.
Former Australia allrounder Andrew Symonds scored a century from 34 balls for Kent in 2004, but it isn't widely known because it wasn't at international level.
Can you remember these master blasters? (Getty Images)
Gayle's 30-ball ton was also in a Twenty20 match.
Gayle's previous quickest century came from 50 balls against South Africa.
It was the second fastest international T20 ton, behind South Africa's Richard Levi (45 balls).
New Zealand's Brendon McCullum had equalled Gayle's T20 century from 50 balls.
Pakistan's Shahid Afridi has scored the fastest ODI century, off 37 balls.
Mark Boucher (South Africa) is second on the list with a ton off 44 balls.
West Indies great Brian Lara scored a century off 45 balls against Bangladesh.
Afridi also made triple-figures from 45 balls, in a match against India.
