New Delhi: We live in an age of constant distraction. There’s always something on your computer, your mobile or your television. In some cases, it is thrust upon you, in others, it is a choice but the connection never breaks. It can be overwhelming.
Perhaps that is why despite consuming so much information, very little of it actually stays with you. You have the general gist but the details — of the kind you still remember from Sachin Tendulkar’s knocks in the 90s — are blurry.
Forgetting isn’t failure; the brain is designed to forget to help us learn complex patterns and avoid being overwhelmed. But despite all the clutter, some things stay with you in all their detailed glory even in this distracted world. New Zealand opener Finn Allen’s knock in the semi-final of the ICC T20 World Cup against South Africa was one of them.
Finn’s 33-ball hundred, achieved with a four off the final ball of the chase, was incredible. It was the fastest hundred by a player from a full-member country and it came against a team that had been unbeaten all tournament. In all T20Is, only Estonia’s Sahil Chauhan (27 balls) & Turkey’s Muhammad Fahad (29 balls) have scored faster hundreds. Unforgettable, even if you want to forget.
If it was in the slot, it was smashed. If it wasn’t, he adjusted and then smashed it. Ten fours and 8 sixes punctuated a knock of rare brutality. There have, of course, been other knocks but given the occasion, few can match this.
Everyone knew Finn is capable of this. He was the leading scorer in BBL 2025-26 with 466 runs at a strike-rate of 184.18. In Major League Cricket, he has a strike-rate of 200 across 23 matches. In PSL, his SR is 171.77 in 11 matches. Vitality Blast shows him striking at 165.44. The big hits come easy but it is the smartness that stays with you.
“There is a calmness in situations that he is understanding now,” NZ batting coach Luke Ronchi told Radio New Zealand’s Morning Report. “He can grasp situations of a game or an innings and… if there’s an impactful over or an impactful bowler coming on, he knows trying to get through and play certain shots can be massive in that moment and he’s been doing that beautifully.”
Since the last T20 World Cup, Finn has been striking at 192 in international cricket and he hits a boundary every 3.4 balls. During this period, only Abhishek Sharma, with an SR of 202 and a boundary every 3.0 balls, was better than him on the global stage.
Happiness takes different forms but even after all that madness in the middle, Finn cut a calm figure. A bit like Sanju Samson after that 50-ball 97 against the West Indies in India’s last match of the Super 8s. They almost seemed to be wondering what the fuss was all about. This, too, stays with you.
In the press conference after the game, he was asked what New Zealand might make of his knock: “I’m sure my parents are up watching the whole game. Hopefully they’re proud. But I think as a nation, I think hopefully everyone gets behind us and rallies around us for Sunday. Obviously, difficult time for people to watch back home but I’m sure people were keeping tabs on the game and hopefully they can get up and have a Monday off at work and watch the final.”
Lots of hopefully’s in that statement but his knock was built on way more than just hope. Much of the watching these days, even in stadiums, is done with a smartphone in hand. But as Finn went through the gears, one just wanted to take it all in… keep everything aside and focus, so that you don’t forget.
Some shots, like the six off Keshav Maharaj when he was batting on 69 off 26 balls, simply left all those watching awestruck. Social media is already buzzing with appreciation.
Finn bats deep in the crease against the spinners, this gives him time to get under the ball. But on this occasion, he seemed to read the length wrong. With his back leg stuck right in front of the stumps and the front foot off the ground, hopelessly out of position, he still swung his bat. The ball, hit without a solid base for power, sailed over the long-on boundary. Such was his timing.
We access cricket differently now but as Finn launched shot after shot into and over the boundary line, it made us go back to a simpler time when every stroke stayed with us. They leave a mark that even distraction struggles to smudge.
