Frustrated that his cricketing career was not going anywhere, an 18-year-old Simranjit Singh, aka Simi Singh, of Mohali, Punjab, packed his bags for Ireland in 2005 to pursue hotel management.Mohali’s Simi Singh, who plays for Ireland, becomes the first-ever cricketer to score an ODI century batting at No 8 or lower. Singh scored a feisty 100 not out against a quality South African bowling attack in the third ODI at Malahide Cricket Club in Dublin on Thursday.
Speaking ahead of training, Singh said:“To get my first ton against a team like South Africa was a dream come true for me, especially at Malahide where I started my cricket in Ireland.While we were disappointed with the result in the last ODI, overall we were pretty happy with how we played throughout the series – particularly how we fielded.”
Simi’s knock was laced with 14 boundaries. However, despite his fightback knock, Ireland lost the match by 70 as the spin bowling all-rounder got little help from the other end.Other than Curtis Campher, who scored 54 runs off 54 balls, no other Irish cricketer was able to cross the mark of 30 runs as Ireland were bowled out at 276/10 in 47.1 overs.
Before Simi’s unbeaten 100, the highest score while batting at number eight was held by Kenya’s Thomas Odoyo. He has scored 84 runs while batting at number eight in an ODI in 2006 against Bangladesh