Tilak Varma returned to form in the most destructive way possible in IPL 2026 on Monday. After battling through a series of low scores such as 20, 0, 14, 1 and 8, Varma was back to his best as he slammed an unbeaten 101 off 45 balls. What made the innings special was the way it progressed. He was very slow off the blocks, scoring just 19 off the first 22 balls he faced. Over the next 23 deliveries, however, he smashed 82 runs. His innings included seven sixes and eight fours. At the end of the 14th over, when Varma was on 19, Hardik Pandya gave him an animated message on the pitch.
While it is not known what Pandya said, something clearly triggered Varma to unleash his destructive side. In the 15th over, bowled by Prasidh Krishna – before which Varma had not hit a single boundary – the left-handed batter began his assault, smashing one six and two fours. From there, there was no looking back.
Fastest hundreds for MI in IPL (by balls)
45 – Sanath Jayasuriya vs CSK, Wankhede, 2008
45 – Tilak Varma vs GT, Ahmedabad, 2026
47 – Cameron Green vs SRH, Wankhede, 2023
49 – Suryakumar vs GT, Wankhede, 2023
Before Monday’s innings, Tilak’s poor form was one of the major talking points, as he had managed only 43 runs across his previous five outings. In all, he struck eight fours and seven sixes on the day, including a few over cover and several hits straight down the ground.
Pandya (15 off 16 balls) pushed Tilak to keep attacking but did little of note himself during their 81-run stand off just 38 balls. The final six overs yielded 96 runs, largely due to the ever-inconsistent Prasidh Krishna (1/54 in four overs), who conceded 41 runs in his final two overs.
This came after Kagiso Rabada (3/33 in four overs) got the ball to seam at a lively pace, blowing away the top order inside the powerplay to ensure that it was yet another below-par performance for the five-time champions, who had looked completely out of sorts.
Rabada, regarded as one of the legends of his generation alongside Pat Cummins, Jasprit Bumrah and Josh Hazlewood, bowled a “Test-match length” – faster and fuller – while attacking the stumps to claim three wickets.
Danish Malewar (2) understood the gulf between domestic and world-class bowling as he failed to bring his bat down in time, with Rabada trapping him plumb in front of the stumps. Quinton de Kock (13 off 11 balls) did find one crisp square cut when Rabada offered width, but a short ball soon followed, causing him to balloon a pull shot that the bowler collected gleefully.
The best dismissal was arguably the one that set up out-of-form India T20I skipper Suryakumar Yadav (15 off 10 balls). Surya had clipped Rabada for a six over cow corner and followed it with a straight drive for four. Rabada responded with a bouncer – a 152 kmph delivery pitched on a fourth-stump line that jagged back sharply. With no visible footwork and the bat too far from the body, the delivery breached his defence and sent the stumps flying.
Naman Dhir, who scored a fifty in the previous game, attempted to resurrect the innings. He used Ashok Sharma‘s pace to pick up a couple of boundaries and kept the scoreboard ticking, though he never truly dominated the attack.
It was only after the strategic break that Tilak suddenly shifted gears and produced the most memorable knock of his IPL career – the fastest century ever scored by a Mumbai Indians batter in the history of the tournament.
With PTI inputs
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