RICHARD LEVI broke two Chris Gayle world records and equalled a third to obliterate the New Zealand attack and square the series at 1-1 in the second T20 International at Hamilton on Sunday.<br /> <br /> The Proteas had been set a sizeable target of 174 but on a small outfield and a perfect batting surface it was made to look totally inadequate as the South Africans won by 8 wickets with a full four overs to spare. If this had been a triangular tournament they would have got a bonus point for winning with 20 percent of the overs left unbowled!<br /> <br /> The 24-year-old became the first Protea to score a century in an international match and the sixth of all time. He got there off 45 balls which made it the quickest of all time ahead of the 50 balls taken by Gayle - generally regarded as the world's No. 1 T20 batsman - of the West Indies and Brendon McCullum of New Zealand.<br /> <br /> His 13 sixes also constituted a world record, beating the previous best of 10 by Gayle, while his final score of 117 not out equalled Gayle's record for the highest individual score although Levi technically goes top for being not out and he also took 6 balls fewer than Gayle (51 as opposed to 57).<br /> <br /> His strike rate of 229 was the third highest for South Africa, behind the 232 of AB de Villiers against Scotland and the 263 of Wayne Parnell against Australia.<br /> <br /> The third-wicket partnership of 133 between Levi and De Villiers constituted a South African third-wicket record, beating the 120 of Herschelle Gibbs and Justin Kemp against the West Indies while the total of 175/2 was the Proteas' second highest total batting second.<br /> <br /> Levi's innings was one of both class and savage brutality and should give the Proteas a big momentum boost going into the series decider on an even smaller ground at Eden Park, Auckland, on Wednesday (08h00 CAT). The Kiwi bowling attack will struggle to come out of this match without severe psychological scarring.<br /> <br /> The Proteas made two changes for this match bringing in extra bowlers in Parnell and new cap Marchant de Lange in place of Colin Ingram and Rusty Theron. It was a move that gave De Villiers extra tactical options and this paid off in restricting the New Zealand scoring rate in the middle overs.<br /> <br /> The Proteas will also be pleased to have broken Martin Guptill's run of international half-centuries. It was a very useful maiden international wicket for De Lange. He is the 49th player to represent the Proteas in this format.<br /> <br /> "It was good fun, every shot we seemed to play came off, AB kept me calm," commented Levi. "The leg side boundary was quite short, so I targeted that. I have no idea about the records, the time just went unbelievably quickly."<br /> <br /> Captain De Villiers commented: "There's a few things we can learn, but overall I was very happy with keeping them to 170 with the short boundaries. I was trying to tell Richard to get off strike once we were at 10 an over but he just kept sending them flying. He has done this before so it's not a one-off. We go to Auckland with momentum now, very happy."<br /> <br /> <br /> <br />
