Jason Sangha becomes youngest player since Sachin Tendulkar to score First Class century against England

Jason Sangha scored 133 runs before being dismissed by Mason Crane. (Source: Twitter)

Australian teenager Jason Sangha has become the youngest player since Sachin Tendulkar to score a century against England in a First Class game. Sangha is part of the Cricket Australia XI side that are playing England as warm-up for the Ashes in Australia. The 18-year-old and Matthew Short both put up a stand of 273 runs to frustrate England in Townsville. Sangha scored 133 runs before being dismissed by Mason Crane.

Tendulkar had scored struck an unbeaten 119 at Old Trafford in 1990 at the age of 17 years and 107 days while Sangha is 18 years and 71 days old. The Indian batting great is only behind Mohammad Ashraful and Mushtaq Mohammad in the list of youngest ever centurions in Test cricket. Sangha, on the other hand, is the ninth youngest Australian to score a first class century and the youngest since Ricky Ponting. Sangha and Short’s defiant stance denied England an innings victory in the warm-up match.

The two young Australians weathered an attack that featured the likes of Stuart Broad, Chris Woakes and Moeen Ali. Sangha was not fazed by the short pitched deliveries of the pacers and later revealed that he was ready for a few when he was walking out to bat. “Because I’ve always been a youngster, every time I walked out to bat … I always know I’m going to cop a few short ones,” he is quoted as saying by cricket.com.au, “I was trying to be gutsy. It didn’t really matter how I looked, it didn’t bother me. It was more about batting as long as I could. You learn a lot from these games, especially against international teams.”