Canada teenager creates World Cup history in Chennai

As the ball raced to the fence behind the deep third area, the Canadian dugout had already begun celebrating as Yuvraj Samra created history against New Zealand in their ICC Men's T20 World Cup match against New Zealand in Chennai.

The 19-year-old from Canada became the youngest man to hit a World Cup century, across the T20 and ODI formats. His knock of 110 off 65 deliveries – which included 11 boundaries and six sixes – made him the third youngest centurion in men’s T20I history, but the first to do it against a full-member team.

This was also his first-ever international century. It was also the first ton scored by a batter from an associate nation in the history of the T20 World Cup.

In many ways, it seemed destined that Samra would achieve such a feat given that he was named after Indian legend Yuvraj Singh. In all his years of cricket, Yuvraj Singh was the man India had turned to when the team was in trouble.

On Tuesday, with Canada needing to put up a good performance against the Kiwis to keep their T20 World Cup hopes alive, the teenager came to the rescue with an impressive innings.

In the sixth over, he hit three consecutive boundaries and finished with a six over deep cover off James Neesham’s bowling. He brought up his century in just 58 deliveries and helped Canada get to 173/4 at the end of 20 overs.