Maharashtra’s Kiran Navgire has set a new record in women’s T20 cricket by scoring the fastest century off just 34 balls during the Women’s T20 Trophy match against Punjab in Nagpur on Friday. She remained unbeaten on 106 from 35 deliveries, leading her team to victory with eight overs remaining.Navgire’s explosive innings surpassed the previous record held by New Zealand’s Sophie Devine, who had scored a 36-ball hundred for Wellington against Otago in January 2021. Her remarkable strike rate of 302.86 makes this the only women’s T20 century scored at a strike rate exceeding 300.The power-hitting opener dominated the chase completely, forming an unbroken 103-run partnership for the second wicket where her partner Mukta Magre contributed just six runs. Navgire’s innings included 14 fours and seven sixes.Maharashtra’s successful chase of 113/1 in eight overs set another record as the lowest team total featuring an individual century in women’s T20 history. This broke the previous record of 123 in a CSA T20 match where Annerie Dercksen scored 106 not out.Navgire, who hails from Mire in Maharashtra’s Solapur district, first gained attention in the 2022 Women’s T20 Trophy while representing Nagaland. During that tournament, she hit 35 sixes and became the first Indian woman to score over 150 in a T20 match with her 162 against Arunachal Pradesh.She made her India T20I debut against England in Chester-le-Street in 2022 but hasn’t played for the national team since the Women’s Asia Cup later that year. In her six T20I appearances, she has batted four times, scoring 17 runs from 19 balls with one not-out innings.Navgire identifies MS Dhoni as her idol and attributes her power-hitting abilities to her childhood experiences working on her family’s farm and participating in multiple sports.In the Women’s Premier League (WPL), she has been an important player for UP Warriorz, accumulating 419 runs in 24 innings at a strike rate of 140.13, though her average remains under 18.
