Glamorgan’s first-ever visit to Merchant Taylors’ School was always going to be a special one for Chris Cooke as the long-serving wicket-keeper batter, just a day after his 37th birthday, played in his 137th game for the Welsh county in T20 cricket and broke Mark Wallace’s Club record for the most appearances in the short-format. But it became a red-letter day in other ways for Chris as he completed the fastest-ever hundred on record for the Club as he raced to three figures from just 38 balls, and shared in a new competition record for the fourth wicket as, together with Colin Ingram, the pair added 187* in 13.1 overs to lay the foundation for a 29-run over Middlesex. (writes Andrew Hignell)
In a remarkable passage of play which saw Glamorgan score 88 runs in the last four overs, Chris raced from 50 to 100 in the space of just a dozen balls with his 38-ball hundred being the fastest in any format of the game for Glamorgan - in terms of balls faced - and eclipsing Colin Ingram’s 46-ball century against Sussex at Arundel in 2017. Only sixteen batters have posted faster hundreds in T20 cricket worldwide and Chris was just four balls away from the competition best set by Kent’s Andrew Symonds in 2004 and a week ago by Sean Abbott for Surrey.
Chris’ career-best innings of 113* included 12 fours and 7 sixes with his tally of 19 boundaries surpassing the 18 (7 x 6, 11 x 4) which Ian Thomas struck against Somerset at Taunton in 2004 when he made 116*, which despite Chris’ fireworks at Northwood remains the individual score for the Club in T20 cricket, with only Colin Ingram with 114 against Essex at Chelmsford in 2017 having scored more in a T20 innings for the Welsh county.
Chris also joins Colin, Jacques Rudolph and Jim Allenby in being the only batters in the Club’s history to have scored hundreds in all three formats - first-class, List A and T20 cricket
His boundary-laden partnership with Colin Ingram was also the highest-ever stand for the fourth wicket in the T20 competition beating the previous best of 159* added by Luke Wright and Matt Machan for Sussex against Essex at Chelmsford in 2014. It was also just 20 runs away of the highest for any wicket in the Vitality Blast - 207 made by Joe Denly and Daniel Bell-Drummond for Kent against Essex at Chelmsford in 2017. It was also just sixteen runs short of beating the best-ever fourth wicket stand in any T20 and beating the unbeaten 202 added by MC Juneja and A Malik for Gujarat against Kerala at Indore in 2012/13.
It was also the highest-ever stand in T20 cricket for Glamorgan, beating the 150 added by Sam Northeast and David Lloyd, also against Middlesex at Sophia Gardens last summer, as well as surpassing by an astonishing 104 runs the previous best for the Welsh county for the fourth wicket in the short-format, beating the stand of 83 which the pair had shared against Essex at Chelmsford in 2017.