Tilak Varma continued his imperious form and went on a record-breaking spree on the opening day of the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy 2024-25. The left-hander smashed a stunning 151 off just 67 deliveries against Meghalaya. It was his third consecutive hundred in T20 cricket.
He became the first player in the history of T20 cricket to rack up three successive centuries. In fact, he also became the first Indian male player (and second overall after Kiran Navgire who scored 162 in the Senior Women’s T20 Trophy in 2022) to scale a score of 150 or more in the shortest format.
Varma has been in fabulous touch with the bat recently. He smacked an unbeaten 107 off 56 balls in the third T20I against South Africa in Centurion. That knock included eight fours and seven sixes. He followed that up with a stupendous 120 which came off just 47 balls in Johannesburg. He struck 10 sixes along with nine fours in a knock where he got the third-fastest T20I hundred by an Indian.
The 22-year-old left-hander won the Player of the Series award for his performances against South Africa. It also helped him to move to No. 3 in the T20I rankings for batters. He carried his magnificent form and started the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy with a rockling 151.
Tilak Varma outscores Meghalaya massively
Playing for Hyderabad against Meghalaya at the Saurashtra Cricket Association Stadium C, Varma walked into bat in the first over (fifth ball of the innings) and was dismissed on the last. In between he faced 67 balls and scored nearly 61% of the team’s score. He struck 14 fours and 10 sixes in his innings. In fact, he outscored Meghalaya who were bowled out for 69. Tanmay Agarwal was the other batter who did well as he made 55 off 23 balls as Hyderabad mounted 248/4 which is the fifth-highest total in the history of India’s domestic T20 competition.
Varma’s 151 is now the highest-ever individual score by a batter in the history of the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy and also by an Indian batter in T20 cricket. Shreyas Iyer held the previous record when he got 147 off 55 balls against Sikkim in the 2018-19 season.
Tilak was one of the five players to be retained by Mumbai Indians (MI) ahead of the IPL 2025 auction. He has been in the MI squad for a couple of years now and has been highly impressive. His good returns in the IPL combined with solid shows in domestic cricket has helped him earn a spot in the Indian T20I side. He has played 20 T20Is so far, scoring 616 runs at an average of 51.33 and a strike-rate of 161.25.
