Mitchell Todd revealed yesterday how he recovered from a painful start to play the innings of his young life at Manor Park on Monday evening.

The Vauxhall Mallards opener smashed an incredible 170 not out off only 57 balls as his side beat Sprowston in the NW Brown Norfolk Twenty20 competition.

The 21-year-old Australian was sporting a wide smile at the end of his memorable knock – but he had a very different expression on his face when his stay at the crease got off to a distinctly uncomfortable start.

'I took a nasty knock in the box early on and I was down for a few minutes,' he explained. 'I didn't feel great at the time but I soon recovered and then it was just one of those days when everything seemed to go off the middle of the bat, I just seemed to be in the zone. I targeted the short boundary and the runs just flowed.'

Todd ended up hitting 10 sixes and 17 fours as Mallards piled up a formidable total of 245-3 in their 20 overs, with Sprowston then being bowled out for 149-9.

'It's one of those innings I will always remember, not least because it's my highest ever score in all forms of cricket,' said the man from Perth, Western Australia, whose knock was, unsurprisingly, a competition record.

It fell just five runs short of the highest score made at top professional level – Chris Gayle's unbeaten 175 for Royal Challengers Bangalore against Pune Warriors in 2013.

The biggest innings anywhere is the scarcely believable 277 hammered by Sri Lankan player Dhanuka Pathirana off 72 balls, which equates to almost four every delivery.

It came in Lancashire's Saddleworth League, with 29 sixes and 18 fours helping his side Austerlands all the way up to 366-2!

The target for Todd now is to build on his knock in the very different challenge of East Anglian Premier League cricket, starting with tomorrow's clash with Copdock and Ipswichian at Halvergate.

'Obviously batting in that competition is a lot different to Twenty20 but hopefully I can take the form I showed on Monday into the game,' said Todd.

'But the main thing is that we get a win – we have drawn a lot of games that we should really have won in recent weeks and we could easily have been at the top of the league, rather than where we are at the moment (fourth, 40 points behind leaders Swardeston).

Meanwhile Sprowston were due to have been in Twenty20 action again last night in another group game against Great Witchingham but selection problems prompted them to ask for the fixture to be re-scheduled. With the Witches' agreement the game will now take place on a date to be confirmed next month.

There are two fixtures at Manor Park next week, with Horsford hosting Great Witchingham on Tuesday and Norwich taking on Hethersett & Tas Valley on Wednesday (both 6pm).