Andre Russell claims a hat-trick, scores 121* off 49 in one-man show

For the better part of the night, Andre Russell must be thinking he would have better had he played a racquet sport or tried his hands on athletics like his home-town legend Usain Bolt, instead plying his trade in a team sport like cricket. It was only towards the latter part of the second innings that he made him and millions of others believe that a cricket match can be won single-handedly.

For the better part of the night, Andre Russell must be thinking he would have been better of playing a racquet sport or trying his hands on athletics like his home-town legend Usain Bolt, instead of plying his trade in a team sport like cricket. It was only towards the latter part of the second innings that he made him and millions of others believe that a cricket match can be won single-handedly.

Producing one of the most outstanding one-man shows, Jamaica Tallawahs captain Andre Russell got his side over the line in an improbable chase against Trinbago Knight Riders in a Caribbean Premiere League match at Trinidad on Saturday.

Russell smashed an unbeaten 121 off just 49 balls – the fastest hundred of CPL – to lead the Tallawahs to a four-wicket win with three balls to spare. This was after he had taken a hat-trick with the ball, returning with figures of 3 for 38 in his 3 overs. Russell became only the second man to score a century and record a hat-trick in a T20 after England’s Joe Denly did it in last month.

It was only fitting that Russell ended the match with a towering six off Sunil Narine in the last over of the match after he had hit broken the most sixes record in a CPL inning. Russell hit 13 sixes, scoring at a strike rate of 249.

The Trinbago fans, including team owner Shah Rukh Khan, could only watch in despair as Russell took giant strides towards becoming one of the legends of the shortest format of the game.

Tallawahs were reeling at 41 for 5, chasing an enormous target of 224 when Russell walked into bat. At best he could have reduced the margin of defeat with another one of is entertaining cameos. But no, Russell is not a mere a contributor used to boost the run rate. He is, like Ian Bishop aptly pointed out, a proper batsman and a match-winning one in T20 cricket.

Having said all this, the story could have been entirely different had young Ali Khan held onto Russell’s top edge in his first ball of the innings. A neutral would say thank god the catch was spilled, for what followed it was simply breathtaking.

Russell hammered his way depositing Shannon Gabriel, Sunil Narine, Dwayne Bravo into the stands, one by one, with brute power and precision. The Tallawahs captain put on a 161-run stand for the sixth wicket with Kennar Lewis (51) who struck an important half-century.

Earlier, Russell picked up the wickets of McCullum, Bravo and Ramdin in the last over to complete a fine hat-trick.