Will Jacks got to his half-century in 31 balls. Within next 10 balls, the 25-year-old Englishman had raced to his maiden IPL century via an astonishing demonstration of power hitting against both pace and spin. (As It Happened | Scorecard)
Jacks' stunning stroke play helped RCB get back-to-back wins as the 201-run target set by the Gujarat Titans in match number 45 of the Indian Premier League 2024 was breached in just 16 overs with 9 wickets left.
His 41-ball century also became the fifth-fastest IPL hundred of all time.
The power-hitting display from Jacks got even Virat Kohli's jaw dropped as an astounded former RCB skipper could only laugh as he saw the sixes being launched out of the Englishman's bat and landing rows back in the crowd.
The boundary-hitting procession began in the 15th over bowled by Mohit Sharma. At that point, GT were still hoping that a few wickets could turn the game as RCB required 53 off the last six overs.
The experienced Indian pacer was smashed for 29 runs in that over and the next over from Rashid Khan also went for the same number of runs and what looked like turning into a thriller became a one-sided win for RCB.
His scores of last 12 balls read: 4, 6, 6nb ,2 ,6 ,4 ,1 ,6 ,6 ,4 ,6, 6.
Facing Mohit Sharma and Rashid Khan, Jacks clobbered 56 runs of his last 12 balls as Kohli enjoyed from the non-striker's end.
Kohli finished with an unbeaten 70 off 44 balls. His innings was crucial as he kept RCB within the game when Jacks struggled early on in his innings against GT spinners. Jacks had only scored 16 in 16 balls at one point.
Earlier, RCB won the toss and invited GT to bat first on a little slow Ahmedabad surface.
Shahrukh Khan scored a 30-ball 58 and Sai Sudharsan finished with an unbeaten 84 to ensure GT finished right at 200/3 in 20 overs. The total looked decent before Jacks took GT bowling apart.
