Mohammad Ashraful on Sunday raced to his fifty in just 27 minutes and off 26 balls with nine fours and two sixes in Bangladesh's second innings of Mirpur Test.

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Ashraful's fifty is now the fastest ever in Test cricket history in terms of minutes and second (joint) fastest in terms of balls. The accompanying tables have the details.

Fastest Test fifties (by balls)

Balls	Batsman	Countries	Venue	Season
24	JH Kallis (54)	SA v Zim	Cape Town	2004-05
26	Shahid Afridi (58)	Pak v Ind	Bangalore	2004-05
26	Mohammad Ashraful (67)	Ban v Ind	Mirpur	2007
27	Mohammad Yousuf (50)	Pak v SA	Cape Town	2002-03

Notes:
- Australia's VT Trumper is shown at some places with a time of 22 minutes for his fifty during his innings of 63 against South Africa at Johannesburg in 1902-03. However Trumper took no less than 45 minutes for his fifty.

- Some sources show England's IT Botham with a 26-ball fifty against India at Delhi in 1981-82. Botham actually took 28 balls to do so.