Ingram rewrites PSL records in breathtaking hundred

Ingram is now the holder of the highest individual score in PSL history, bettering Sharjeel Khan’s 117 in 2016.

Ingram’s breathtaking performance, underpinned by 12 fours and eight sixes, resurrected a faltering Kings chase of 187, dramatically turning the tables on the season’s most dominant team.

Gladiators had laid the stone for a fifth successive victory when Ingram walked in at 4/2 in the second over of a tall chase. As is common in such situations, Ingram was cautious to start off, collecting 17 runs from his first 16 balls. A pulled four through mid-wicket off a Fawad Ahmed googly to close out the Powerplay marked the shift in gear, as in the next 16 balls, Ingram raced to his fifty.

With that first milestone crossed off, Ingram laid into the Gladiators attack, launching a savage assault. The most brutal part of Ingram’s innings unfolded in the span of twelve balls, across overs 13 and 14. Pacer Ghulam Mudassar and left-arm spinner Mohammad Nawaz were the unfortunate recipients as Ingram demonstrated the full range of his strokes.

Mudassar was scooped over short fine leg, lofted over cover, and slashed away to third man in an 18-run 13th over. In the next over, Nawaz was paddle-swept through fine leg, thumped over wide long-on, dispatched to the roof of the grandstand, and slog-swept over mid-wicket to be taken apart for 24 runs. By the end of that over, Ingram had moved to 93 just like that.

"To be honest, I wasn’t thinking of my own scores I was just looking at the runs and balls and trying to squash those and trying to come close and close," Ingram said after the match.

"Probably at a stage when (Mohammad) Nawaz was bowling and I thought that this is good time to take it on and fortunately it came off and that got momentum going."

The hundred came off his 50th ball, with a back-foot punch. Against the run of play, an air-borne Sohail Tanvir snaffled a brilliant, one-handed catch on the follow-through next ball to send back Liam Livingstone and end a 91-run stand.

But Ingram continued undeterred, punching Mudassar for a four and six in the next over – the 17th of the innings – before repeating the sequence against Anwar Ali to seal the win with eight balls to spare.

The left-hander had scores of one, 16, 21 and five in his previous four outings and recalled an advice from his father that helped him turn things around. "I know there were certain things I wanted to do in my own game when I came to bat. I did not have runs in the last few innings. My confidence was a bit low," Ingram said.

"My dad used to tell me as a kid ‘its never a good time to panic’ in such situations. So, I suppose just try to stay calm and fortunately a few options that I took early on that worked and got me boundaries and that sort of got me rolling."