Kolkata Knight Riders crushed Delhi Capitals by eight wickets on Friday, 8 May, with Finn Allen producing one of the most explosive innings of this IPL season, a 47-ball unbeaten century laced with 10 sixes and five fours.
The match itself had long been decided. With Kolkata needing just two runs to win and Allen six short of his hundred, Mukesh Kumar dropped a back-of-a-length delivery that Allen dispatched over deep midwicket. The ball sailed into the stands, bringing up both the victory and the milestone in one thunderous blow.
The celebrations in the dugout were immediate and unrestrained. Cameron Green, Allen’s partner at the crease, thrust his arms skyward before enveloping Allen in a warm embrace. Rinku Singh leapt to his feet, and the rest of the squad joined in with raucous applause. Allen himself, composed throughout, finally removed his helmet and raised his bat to acknowledge the crowd.
Kolkata overhauled their 143-run target with 28 balls to spare, and Allen walked away with the Player of the Match award.
This was Allen’s first century in the IPL and the seventh of his T20 career. Remarkably, three of those have come in 2026 alone. Earlier this year, he struck 101 off 53 balls in the Big Bash in January, then followed it up with an unbeaten 100 off just 33 balls during the T20 World Cup at Eden Gardens in March.
In doing so, Allen became the first New Zealander to score three T20 centuries in a single calendar year. He is also only the second Kiwi to register an IPL hundred, after Brendon McCullum, who achieved the feat twice: once for Kolkata in the tournament’s opening match in 2008, and again for Chennai Super Kings in 2015.
Allen’s hundred was the fourth ever scored by a Kolkata batsman in the IPL. Following McCullum’s effort, Venkatesh Iyer reached three figures in the 2023 edition, and Sunil Narine did so the following year. However, neither Iyer nor Narine, both of whom took 49 balls, nor McCullum, who needed 53, reached the milestone as quickly as Allen’s 47-ball effort, making it the fastest IPL century in Kolkata’s franchise history.
The damage was done chiefly against Delhi’s spin attack. Against pace, Allen scored 27 runs from 16 balls; against spin, he plundered 73 from just 31 balls, a brutal and clinical demolition.
