New Zealand opening batter Finn Allen turned on the beast mode as he absolutely wreaked havoc in the opening match of the third edition of the Major League Cricket (MLC 2025) season on Thursday, June 12, batting for the San Francisco Unicorns against the defending champions, Washington Freedom, at the Oakland Coliseum.
In a destructive batting assault, Allen smashed 19 sixes to bring up his 150 in only 49 balls, the fastest-ever 150 in T20 cricket. The New Zealander also broke Chris Gayle's and Estonia's Sahil Chauhan of 18 sixes in a men's T20 innings each. In the MLC 2025 opening match, Allen gave the crowd a night to remember. The match was played at the MLC's newest venue. After winning the toss, Freedom inserted the Unicorns in. They must have been ruing with the decision to field first as the Allen storm hit them.
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It all started in the power play, with the 26-year-old hitting five sixes. Allen scored 40 runs off 14 balls in the power play. From there on, the right-hand batter kept on hitting sixes reaching one milestone after another. Allen reached 50 off just 20 balls and then reached his fourth T20 hundred off only 34 balls. It was the fastest MLC century and the quickest T20 hundred by a New Zealand batter.
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Finn Allen smashes record, as MLC 2025 off to a cracking start
Overall, Allen has amassed 4,100 runs in 151 career innings, with a batting strike rate of 173.27. The 26-year-old's strike rate is the best for the New Zealand batter. The opening batter also broke the record of Brendon McCullum's New Zealand T20I record of 137 runs off 62 balls against Pakistan. Allen also equaled 16 sixes, equaling Afghan Hazratullah Zazai's for the most sixes hit by a batter in a single player in T20I innings.
Allen has built a strong reputation as a franchise-based T20 batter. Today's MLC innings, truly showed why franchises all over the world want him in the team.
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