He notched up a 39-ball century.
Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) batter Phil Salt was at his ruthless best during the second T20I against South Africa at his home ground, Old Trafford. The opener notched up the fastest ton by an Englishman in just 39 deliveries, ending on an unbeaten 141 in just 60 balls, comprising 15 boundaries and eight maximums, at a strike rate of 235.
Following the game’s conclusion, Salt told the broadcasters he was enjoying being at the crease and wanted to bat longer while maintaining a healthy strike rate. He said that he wants to be the best in the world.
“I want to take games as deep as possible while still batting at a high strike rate. The two don’t often go hand in hand, but that’s what I want to do as a player. The goal is to be right up there. I want to be the best in the world at this.”
Salt made an interesting point regarding achieving aggressiveness and consistency at the same time, for it’s hard in the shortest format. Whenever a batter tries to be aggressive, he has to give up consistency; the English opener is redefining the norms by maintaining both simultaneously and has been successful to a large extent, especially in the last couple of years across leagues and international cricket.
Currently, Phil Salt is among the finest T20I openers in world cricket, and his consistency has been remarkable, given the kind of attacks he has faced and the distinct challenges of conditions he has batted at the top. Since 2024, Salt has had 695 runs at an average of 38.61 and a strike rate of 172.88 in 22 innings, including three fifties and two centuries.
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Among all full-member teams’ batters with at least 15 T20I outings, he has the second-best average, after Tim Seifert (44.16), and third-best strike rate, only behind Abhishek Sharma (198.89) and Finn Allen (177.81). Clearly, Salt has managed to achieve a combination of consistency and high intent, as he stressed last night.
Even in top leagues like the Indian Premier League (IPL), he has been consistent and quick and is clearly among the finest openers in world cricket. The likes of Abhishek Sharma and Finn Allen have taken aggressive batting to the next level, and their reliability has varied, especially Allen, unlike Salt, who has become a bankable option at the top.
There are still areas for improvement, especially when there’s some movement early on, given his issues with the incoming deliveries. But such conditions are hardly available, and new-ball deviation disappears rather early these days, so he has managed to counter early threats easily across venues.
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