DESTRUCTIVE JACKS: HE DID IT IN BETWAY SA20 FIRST

Betway SA20 fans may have felt a sense of déjà vu while Will Jacks was hitting a 41-ball century for Royal Challengers Bengaluru in the Indian Premier League (IPL) on Sunday.

Three months ago, during Season 2 of South Africa’s premier T20 cricket league, the 25-year-old Englishman delivered an almost identical innings, a destructive 101 off 42 balls (his century came of the 41st ball he faced) for Pretoria Capitals against Durban’s Super Giants.

That day, at his favourite ground, Centurion, Jacks smashed 9 sixes and 8 fours on his way to claiming a new League record for fastest century. Against DSG, his first fifty came of 23 balls (including five sixes) while his charge to a hundred came off a further 18 – not quite the incredible 10 it took against Gujarat Titans (featuring David Miller and Noor Ahmad).

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Noor hadn’t yet arrived in DSG’s camp back on 18 January, but there is a common denominator in the two matches: Jacks’ fellow Englishman Reece Topley. While Jacks helped himself to 13 off four balls from Topley’s first over that day, the left-armer escaped the rest of the carnage by not bowling another ball at him. In fact, Topley’s figures of 3/34 saw him finish only behind Jacks in the CricViz MVP rankings for that match but would still have been pleased to be Jacks’ teammate rather than opponent this time around.