{"id":803586,"date":"2026-07-16T08:48:09","date_gmt":"2026-07-16T08:48:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/803586\/"},"modified":"2026-07-16T08:48:09","modified_gmt":"2026-07-16T08:48:09","slug":"insane-smith-breaks-all-time-t20-chase-record-as-absurd-40-ball-century-saves-teams-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/803586\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Insane\u2019 Smith breaks ALL-TIME T20 chase record as absurd 40-ball century saves team\u2019s season"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Steve Smith has produced one of the most explosive innings of his career, blasting an unbeaten century to lead the Ricky Ponting-coached Washington Freedom to a record-breaking T20 run chase in the Major League Cricket Eliminator.<\/p>\n<p>Set a daunting target of 267 by defending champions MI New York, Washington recovered from 2-10 inside three overs to complete the highest successful chase in T20 history, reaching the target in just 18.4 overs.<\/p>\n<p>Watch England vs India T20 &amp; ODI Series LIVE &amp; EXCLUSIVE on Fox Cricket, available on Kayo |<a href=\"https:\/\/kayosports.com.au\/en-AU\/welcome\/cricket?extcamp=fsaeditoriallinkcricket-edt-fsp-lnk-awr-grc-cri-kyo&amp;channel=fsa&amp;campaign=fsacontra\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\"> New to Kayo? Join now and get your first month for just $1.<\/a><\/p>\n<p><img class=\"i-amphtml-fill-content i-amphtml-replaced-content\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/poster-fallback.png\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Smith was at the heart of the remarkable turnaround, smashing 110 not out from 48 balls and bringing up the fastest century of his career from just 40 deliveries.<\/p>\n<p>But he was not alone.<\/p>\n<p>The Washington captain combined with wicketkeeper Andries Gous for a staggering 241-run third-wicket partnership from only 89 balls, rescuing their side from early trouble.<\/p>\n<p>Smith struck 7 fours and 9 sixes, while Gous was even more destructive, hammering 132 from 51 balls with 10 fours and 12 sixes.<\/p>\n<p>Their stand ultimately overshadowed a record-breaking innings from MI New York captain Nicholas Pooran, whose 31-ball century was the fastest in MLC history and helped lift the defending champions to 9-266.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking after the match, Smith admitted he had the perfect view as Gous launched into one of the great innings in the competition\u2019s history.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt was insane striking up the other end. \u2018Gousey\u2019 was unbelievable from ball one,\u201d Smith said.<\/p>\n<p>India hand England historic ODI loss | 01:09<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe just came out and it felt like he didn\u2019t miss the middle of the bat the whole night, and everything just kept flying over the rope. I had the best seat in the house up there.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe obviously got off to a little bit of a shaky start, and then the ball just started to hit the middle of both of our bats.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFortunately, they kept going over the rope and we gave ourselves a chance at the back end.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt was a great partnership with \u2018Gousey\u2019 and to chase down 267 anytime, that\u2019s a special achievement.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Washington\u2019s successful chase surpassed the previous T20 record held by the Punjab Kings, who chased down a target of 265 against the Delhi Capitals during the 2026 Indian Premier League season.<\/p>\n<p>The match also became the first in T20 history to feature three individual centuries, with Smith, Gous and Pooran all reaching triple figures.<\/p>\n<p>Gous also made history as the first domestic player to score a century in Major League Cricket.<\/p>\n<p>The victory keeps Washington\u2019s title defence alive and sets up a Challenger clash with the San Francisco Unicorns, captained by Australian Matt Short, on Friday.<\/p>\n<p>The winner will advance to Sunday\u2019s final against the Los Angeles Knight Riders.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Steve Smith has produced one of the most explosive innings of his career, blasting an unbeaten century to&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":803587,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[564],"tags":[64,63,740,85],"class_list":["post-803586","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cricket","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-cricket","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/803586","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=803586"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/803586\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/803587"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=803586"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=803586"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=803586"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}