Gujarat's Urvil Patel smashes 41-ball century in Vijay Hazare Trophy

A day after he was released by Gujarat Titans, Urvil Patel scored an unbeaten 41-ball 100 for his state side Gujarat in their Vijay Hazare Trophy match against Arunachal Pradesh in Chandigarh. Urvil's century was the second-fastest by an Indian batter in List A cricket.

Yusuf Pathan leads the list of fastest List A hundreds by Indians with a 40-ball ton for Baroda against Maharashtra in 2010. Abhishek Sharma and Suryakumar Yadav are third and fourth in the list, having scored tons off 42 and 50 balls respectively.

Opening the batting in a chase of 160, the right-hand keeper-batter slammed nine fours and seven sixes on his way to the landmark, and ensured that Gujarat reached their target in just 13 overs. With two wins in three matches, Gujarat are second in Group D, behind Rajasthan on net run rate. Gujarat's next fixture is against Uttar Pradesh on Wednesday,

Urvil, who made his debut in the 2017-18 season, has scored 204 runs in 10 List A innings at an average of 29.14 and a strike rate of 112.08. He has also played 41 T20 games, in which he has scored 847 runs at 21.17 and 155.41.

Titans signed Urvil, who hails from Mehsana in Gujarat, for INR 20 lakh during the 2023 IPL auction. With Wriddhiman Saha, KS Bharat and Mathew Wade ahead of him in the wicketkepeers' queue, Urvil did not get a chance to feature in IPL 2023. Titans finished the seasons as runners-up, losing to Chennai Super Kings in a thrilling final in Ahmedabad.