World record of 41 year old cricketer…Became the oldest person to score a century in T20, 9 year old world record broken

New Delhi. It is often said on the cricket field that age is just a number, and former South African captain Faf du Plessis has once again proved this to be true. At the age of 41, while most of the players have said goodbye to the game or are looking for a career in coaching, Du Plessis has registered his name in golden letters in the pages of history with his captaincy and explosive batting. Du Plessis, who was captaining Texas Super Kings in the inaugural match of Major League Cricket, played a historic innings against Seattle Orcas, which made him the oldest player in the world to score a century in the history of T20 cricket.

In this match played at Grand Prairie Stadium in Dallas, Seattle Orcas, batting first, had set a huge target of 221 runs in front of Texas Super Kings. Captain Faf du Plessis himself came to open for the Texas team, which was chasing such a big score. He played an unbeaten and match-winning inning of 113 runs in just 52 balls while hitting fours and sixes all around the field. During his explosive innings, he hit 9 fours and 7 skyscraper sixes. Thanks to this storm of Du Plessis, Texas Super Kings achieved the mountain-like target of 221 runs in just 18.3 overs by losing 4 wickets and registered their first win in the tournament. On the day he accomplished this feat, his exact age was 41 years and 340 days.

Paul Collingwood’s 9 year old record broken
With this inning, Faf du Plessis broke the almost nine-year-old world record of former England captain Paul Collingwood. Collingwood made England win the first T20 World Cup under his captaincy in 2010. On 30 July 2017, while playing for Durham at Worcester ground in a match of NatWest T20 Blast, he scored unbeaten 108 runs in 60 balls while batting at number 3 against Worcestershire. At that time Collingwood’s age was 41 years and 65 days. Now Du Plessis has reached the top of this list by scoring a century at a much older age. In this unique list, the name of England’s former middle-order batsman Graeme Hick comes at the third place. Graeme Hick, playing for Worcestershire at Kidderminster on 29 June 2007, played a stormy innings of 110 runs in just 49 balls against Northamptonshire. At that time Hick was 41 years and 37 days old.

The only batsman in the world to score three centuries after the age of 40.
This achievement of Faf du Plessis is also special because he has scored his third century in T20 cricket after crossing the age of 40. He is the only player in the world who has scored more than one T20 century after the age of 40. Earlier, last year in MLC 2025 itself, he had played century innings twice. On June 29, 2025, he scored unbeaten 103 runs on 53 balls against MI New York in Dallas at the age of 40 years and 351 days. Just a few days before that, on June 20, 2025, he had played an inning of 100 runs in 51 balls against San Francisco Unicorns at the age of 40 years and 342 days.
The name of England’s Ravi Bopara is also included in this list, who, while playing for Northamptonshire, scored unbeaten 105 runs on 46 balls against Surrey at the age of 40 years and 122 days. But at present there is no one close to Du Plessis’s three centuries.

First player to score 1000 runs in MLC
Thanks to this century scored against Seattle Orcas, Faf du Plessis has made another big record in his name in Major League Cricket (MLC). He has become the first and only batsman in the world to cross the 1,000-run mark in the history of this American T20 league. Du Plessis has played a total of 20 matches in MLC so far, in which he has scored 1,001 runs and his best score is 113 not out. After Du Plessis, New Zealand’s aggressive batsman Finn Allen, who represents San Francisco Unicorns, is second in the list of batsmen who have scored the most runs in the league. Allen has so far scored 639 runs in 18 matches, in which his best score has been 151 runs. After him comes America’s Monank Patel, who plays for MI New York, who has scored 611 runs in 20 matches. At the fourth position is Quinton de Kock, who has added 543 runs in 19 matches while playing for both MI New York and Seattle Orcas. Whereas West Indies’ explosive batsman Nicholas Pooran is at fifth position in this list with 540 runs in 20 matches.