New Delhi: Delhi's young wicketkeeper-batsman Rishabh Pant batted himself into the record books as he struck the fastest ever hundred by an Indian in a first-class game by hitting a 48-ball century against Jharkhand in the Ranji Trophy on Tuesday.

He was finally dismissed for 135 off 67 balls with eight boundaries and 13 sixes in a game played at Thumba in Kerala.

The youngster has had a staggering season so far having scored 799 runs from seven innings at an astounding average of 133.16 and a strike-rate of 113.17 - something unheard of over a period of time. This is his fourth hundred of the season. He has already hit 44 sixes this season from 5 games.

His sequence of scores this season have been 146, 308, 24, 9, 60, 117, 135.

En route his record breaking hundred, Pant eclipsed a 28-year old record set by former Tamil Nadu opener VB Chandrasekhar, who had reached the three-figure mark in 56 balls against Rest of India during the Irani Cup match in 1988-89.

Incidentally, that knock helped Chandrasekhar greatly as he made it to the Indian team for the tour of New Zealand in 1990.

In the list of all first-class cricket across the globe, late Australian cricketer David Hooks holds the record for hitting the fastest hundred - off 34 balls - during a Sheffield Shield match in 1982. He was playing for South Australia against Victoria at the Adelaide Oval.

The 19-year-old Pant had hit an 82-ball hundred in the first innings and scored 117 off 106 deliveries.

On Tuesday, he came in at the score of 214 for three but Delhi were trying to play out the day having taken a lead of 65 runs with seven wickets in hand. But Pant started in whirlwind fashion and was severe on both left-arm spinner Shahbaz Nadeem and off-spinner Sunny Gupta as most of the sixes came off these two spinners.

Pant also had a few promising knocks for Delhi DareDevils during the last IPL, including a Man of the Match-winning effort.

Brief scores: Jharkhand 493. Delhi 334 & 480/6 (R. Pant 117). Match drawn.