Abhishek Sharma’s t20 Century
Currently, Abhishek Sharma is one of India’s most promising young cricketers. It appears like he is only just beginning his record-breaking career. Recently he scored the fastest century in T20 while playing against England. This definitely broke some records! He was smashing the England team at Wankhede Stadium for the final International Twenty20 match.
Probably Josh regretted choosing to bowl first since Abhishek took complete advantage of powerplay overs and gave India a very strong start. He completed his T20 century in just 37 balls and not to exaggerate, a lot of new cricket fans are seeing him as his next wallpaper!
The Second-Fastest Century in T20 Internationals
Now, Abhishek Sharma has become the second-fastest century scorer in Twenty20 Internationals.
Thanks to Abhishek’s knock, the Indian cricket team scored 247/9 and won by 150 runs. This T20 international victory was the second-largest victory for India. Guess which was the first? Yep, against the New Zealand team in 2023, where India won by 168 runs. If we start counting the records, Abhishek previously broke KL Rahul’s record of fastest fifty in 18 balls. Now he holds the record for the second-fastest fifty for any Indian player in Twenty20 Internationals.
On Sunday, Abhishek scored 135 runs against England, which is a pretty impressive score. Comparing him to Shubman Gill, he surpassed Shubman’s 126* against New Zealand in 2023 also, as we mentioned the record of the best individual score for India in men’s Twenty20 Internationals.
Before Shubman and Abhishek, Rohit Sharma held the record against Sri Lanka in 2017 with a century off 35 balls. With Adil Rashid’s wicket, Abhishek went back to the pavilion with his impressive score of 135 runs. Adil Rashid must have been really happy!
England happens to be a strong team and before Abhishek’s 135, the second-highest score was Aaron Finch’s 156 in 2013, the two of the highest scores by any hitter against the England team. So whose record Abhishek has broken actually? It’s Sanju Samson’s actually. He held the record for the second-fastest T20I century when he hit his century in just 40 balls against Bangladesh at Hyderabad’s Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium.
Sanju Samson left early with only 16 runs in the second over. Talking about Abhishek Sharma, he particularly enjoyed Jamie Overton’s and Jofra Archer’s speed. He faced 32 balls from Jofra Archer and scored 60 runs with a super awesome strike rate of 187.40.
The high point of Abhishek Sharma’s knock came when he charged down the track at the rapid pace of Mark Wood and Archer. Sanju Samson pulled a Jofra Archer bouncer for a maximum and smacked the opening ball of the match for a six. Nevertheless, his innings concluded similarly to the earlier games. He was caught in the deep off Mark Wood’s bowl.
After making 16 runs, he walked back to the pavilion. Throughout the series, Sanju Samson only scored 35 runs off of 29 short balls that were played to him. His five wickets all followed the same pattern.
Abhishek and Tilak put together an impressive partnership of 115 runs and maintained a run rate of 16.04 off 7.1 overs. In men’s T20Is, it is the highest of any partnership for India to score 100 runs or more.
The last highest was from the Shubman Gill and Hardik Pandya partnership of 103 off 6.4 overs against New Zealand in 2023 with a run rate of 15.45.
Comparing Abhishek to Indian Legends
Abhishek had his century in 37 balls, which is just after Rohit Sharma’s 2017 35-ball total against Sri Lanka. Abhishek’s 17-ball innings to reach his fifty, which was also the second-fastest for India, just after Yuvraj Singh’s 2007 12-ball fifty against England.
This 50 runs off just 12 balls in the first-ever T20 World Cup match against England and Yuvraj still holds the record for the fastest T20I fifty for an Indian player.
Worldwide Dipendra Singh Airee of Nepal holds the record with a score of 50 off 9 balls.
England’s Historic Defeat
With this 150-run loss, Team England suffered their worst run loss in the history of the format. But in their two games against South Africa in 2022 and India in 2012, they managed just 90 runs.
At the same time, this also marks England’s shortest all-out innings in men’s Twenty20 Internationals. To mention, they got bowled out by India in 10.3 overs. Before it was 14.4 overs, and it happened in 2012 against India as well.
Interestingly, its just behind Bangladesh’s 9.3 overs innings against New Zealand in 2021, so this also makes England’s 10.3 overs the second-shortest all-out innings in men’s T20Is.
In the fifth Twenty20 International, India bowled England out in 10.3 overs, which was England’s shortest all-out innings in men’s Twenty20 Internationals. 14.4 overs was their previous shortest, and it happened in 2012 against India as well.
There are only two hitters to reach six hundreds in T20s before turning 25 and guess who they are? Yes, Sharma and Gill. Well, the other Sharma. So two of Abhishek’s six centuries come in less than 40 balls; the previous one was in 28 balls in December 2023.
There have not been many teams scoring 240+ against England. It is only Australia’s 248 for 6 in Southampton in 2013 that is more than India’s 247 for 9 at the Wankhede, so this makes this score the second-highest total by any team against England in men’s Twenty20 Internationals. A lot of firsts and seconds against England! Also worth mentioning, an all-time record for most sixes against the English bowlers in a men’s Twenty20 International came on Sunday with 19 sixes.
very nice