It’s the second edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) and more than 100 games have been played in this new T20 franchise format of the game. We’ve had 7 overseas stars scoring IPL centuries but no Indian player has reached that milestone but a young Manish Pandey turns up on 21st May 2009 to change this and go down in the IPL history books…
Before this day, Manish Pandey wasn’t known for much in the world of cricket, apart from being a part of the Indian squad led by Virat Kohli that won the 2008 U-19 World Cup in Malaysia. After this day, he was widely regarded as one of the youngsters to watch out for as he became the first Indian centurion in the Indian Premier League, in Match 56 of IPL 2009 which was taking place in South Africa.
While over the years we’ve had a number of IPL centurions each season, 2009 only saw two – one by local boy AB de Villiers and one by Pandey – the latter coming off the final round robin match of IPL 2009. Pandey was an unlikely opener for Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) at the time and all through that night, we could hear Danny Morrison going ballistic on air screaming ‘Pandee, Pandee’ with every boundary!
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To be precise, there were 10 fours and 4 sixes that flew off the bat of Manish Pandey who opened alongside Jacques Kallis for RCB that day at Centurion, ending the 20 overs unbeaten with 114(73)* and till date (updated Aug 2020), this knock remains the joint-longest IPL innings in terms of number of deliveries faced, tying with Brendon McCullum’s 2008 knock of 158(73)*.
RCB had already qualified and were fighting for a higher finish on the points table ahead of the IPL 2009 semi-finals. Winning the toss and batting first, RCB amassed 170/4 thanks to the Pandey ton, while a young Virat Kohli who came in at number #6 helped finish off the innings with 19(9)*, the latter later going on to score 5 of his own IPL centuries (updated until Aug 2020).
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Their opponents Deccan Chargers got off to a good start courtesy of Adam Gilchrist and Herschelle Gibbs, the latter scoring 60(43). However, RCB managed to get regular breakthroughs with Pandey contributing in the field too, taking the catch to dismiss Gibbs. Balachandra Akhil and captain Anil Kumble picked up 2-wickets each and eventually, RCB registered a 12-run victory in that game.
Pandey made his first entry into the list of all-time IPL centuries and 11 years later, it remains his only IPL century (updated until August 2020), though he has played for 4 different franchises since then in the IPL and has secured himself a regular spot in the Indian limited overs national side as well. For similar IPL and cricketing updates from around the world, you can stay tuned to ReadScoops.com…
