Hardik Pandya, who is captaining the Gujarat Titans in 2022, on Monday became the quickest Indian, in terms of balls, to hit 100 sixes in the IPL. The 28-year-old hit his first fifty of this season against the Sunrisers Hyderabad at the DY Patil Stadium, Navi Mumbai. 

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Pandya remained unbeaten on 50 off 42 balls as the Gujarat Titans posted a 163-run target for Kane Williamson and co. He hit four boundaries and one maximum during his stay at the crease. Abhinav Manohar made 35 runs off 21 balls. For SRH, Bhuvneshwar Kumar and T Natarajan came back with two wickets as South Africa’s Marco Jansen dismissed one batter. 

Pandya took 1046 balls to reach a century of sixes in the IPL. Rishabh Pant, who is the next Indian on the list, had taken 1224. Yusuf Pathan had taken 1313 balls and Yuvraj Singh 1336. 

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The fastest to 100 IPL sixes is Andre Russell. The Kolkata Knight Riders player had achieved the feat in 657 balls. His compatriot Chris Gayle did it in 943 balls. Pandya is next on the list followed by Kieron Pollard (1094) and Glenn Maxwell (1118). 

On Monday, Sunrisers Hyderabad asked the Gujarat Titans to bat forst. Pandya first rescued his team with a 40-run stand for the fourth wicket with David Miller (12). He then  added 50 runs with Abhinav Mahonar. 

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Manohar, who got three lives, hit five boundaries and one six in his short stay and particularly launched into T Natarajan (2/34) in the 18th over, where Gujarat amassed 13 runs.

Earlier, opener Matthew Wade earned his first boundary, courtesy a thick outside edge in the first over, where Bhuvneshwar Kumar (2/37) conceded 17 runs, 12 of them extras.

But Gujarat lost Wade (19), Shubman Gill (7) and one-down batter Sai Sudarshan (11) cheaply.