Wrists of gold: the Essex boy who at 17 hit a hundred at the Kia Oval
16.03.26, 11:50 Updated 16.03.26, 12:07 3 Minute Read
Mark Church
I swear the ball was a foot outside off stump and he just stood on his toes and whipped it through the vacant midwicket for four.
The year is 2015, the venue is the Kia Oval, and Matthew Dunn is bowling to a seventeen-year-old from Essex who is playing only his second County Championship game.
This young man treated the crowd to a display of shots which drew comment from one seasoned writer. “This lad has wrists of gold," he said, as Dan Lawrence moved to a quite beautiful hundred with a drive off Zafar Ansari that flew to the cover boundary.
In the process he became the youngest batsman to score a century for Essex, at 17 years and 290 days of age. He then took off his helmet, punched the air and Kevin Pietersen wandered over from his fielding position to shake him by the hand.
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