On September 12, during the second of the three-match T20I series between England and South Africa at Old Trafford in Manchester, the home opening duo of Jos Buttler and Phil Salt looked in beast mode as they started to fire the boundaries from the very first ball of the innings. Phil Salt smashed Marco Jansen for three successive deliveries of the evening before hammering him over his head for a six. 

In the first six overs of the innings, it was raining boundaries from the England batters, who were in no mood to slow down in the middle. They reached their 50 in just 3.2 overs as Phil Salt punished Jansen for another six over the deep square leg region. After the dismissal of Buttler on 83 runs in 30 balls, the momentum shifted to Salt.

See Also: [WATCH] Former U-19 World Cup winner reveals Rohit Sharma's golden advice during IPL days

The hometown boy clubbed Lizaad Williams for three consecutive over boundaries on the ninth over of the innings before heaving the pitched-up delivery over wide long-on for a boundary. Kwena Maphaka was drilled outside the ground in a hat-trick of fours from the right-handed Royal Challengers Bengaluru opening batter.

Watch: Phil Salt breaks several T20I records during 2nd T20I vs South Africa

From the other end, Jacob Bethell, the number three batter, also started to smash the big shots as Kagiso Rabada was taken to the cleaners by Salt and co. On the third ball of the 13th over, Salt came back for a couple of runs to complete the fastest T20I century by an England batter in just 39 deliveries.

Phil Salt 141*(60) vs South Africa | 2nd T20I, Manchester | Ball By Ball Highlights#ENGvSA | #CricketTwitter

pic.twitter.com/C1ZrzGdLip

— Usman (@jamilmusman_) September 13, 2025

The Manchester-born ended with 141* runs by the end of the innings, which has overtaken his own record of 119 against West Indies two years ago to be England’s new highest T20I individual score. They posted 304/2, being the third instance of a side crossing the 300-run mark in T20Is and the first time against a Test nation.

Salt has now smashed four T20I centuries, which has equaled him with Suryakumar Yadav and kept him behind Glenn Maxwell and Rohit Sharma in the list. As expected, they gained a 146-run victory, which was their highest ever by runs margin, going past the 137 against the Caribbean side in 2019.