New Zealand’s Finn Allen rewrote history books as the opening batter went berserk with a 51-ball 151, including 19 sixes while playing for San Francisco Unicorn in the opening match of the Major League Cricket (MLC) 2025 against Washington Freedom on Friday.
Batting first at the tournament newest venue – Oakland Coliseum – Allen clobbered the opposition bowlers from the outset, racing to 40 runs in just 14 deliveries with five sixes inside the Powerplay. It was just a trailer as the Kiwi opener reached his fifty in 20 balls before speeding away to his next fifty in another 14 deliveries to record the fastest MLC hundred in history. He reached 150 in just 49 balls.
Riding on Allen’s majestic innings, San Francisco Unicorn put 269/5 in 20 overs on board. In reply, Washington Freedom were bundled out for just 146 in 13.1 overs with Mitchell Owen (39), Rachin Ravindra (42), Jack Edwards (21) and Ben Sears (15 not out) reaching double figures.
List of T20 records broken by Finn Allen
19 sixes – Total number of maximums by Allen during his 151-run knock. In the process, Allen surpassed Chris Gayle (vs Dhaka Dynamites in 2017) and Sahil Chauhan (vs Cyprus in 2024) for most number of sixes hit in a T20 match. Both Gayle and Chauhan had hit 18 sixes each.
49 balls – Allen took just 49 balls to reach his 150 which is not the fastest in the history of T20 cricket. The previous best was held by Dewald Brevis, who had reached 150 in 52 balls against Knights in 2022.
134 runs off boundaries – Allen smashed five fours and 19 sixes, scoring around 80% of his runs in boundaries. Only three cricketers have scored more runs from boundaries than Allen.
151 – It is now the highest individual score in the history of MLC, bettering Nicholas Pooran’s 137 not out against Seattle Orcas in 2023 final. Notably, it was after Pooran’s innings, MLC got T20 status.
34 balls – Number of balls taken by Allen to reach his three figures. It was also the second fastest hundred in T20 franchise league after Gayle’s 30-ball century for Royal Challengers Bengaluru against Pune Warriors in IPL 2013.
