With 13 sixes and 7 fours Abhishek Sharma’s assault stuns England | Cricket News
The ten thousands that turned up at the Wankhede braving the Sunday traffic were treated to one of the most glorious hundreds in T20Is. The rampaging Abhishek Sharma produced an epic knock, rather a blur of sixes and fours, to fill their hearts. They could have well filed out of the stadium after his masterpiece ended, because there was nothing left to be watched, as his 54-ball 135 set the platform for India to pillage 247 for 9. England, battered and bruised Abhishek’s onslaught, were shot out for 97 runs in 10.3 overs.But the crowd waited to catch a glimpse of Abhishek again. A hero was born this night and they would treasure him till he collected the awards at the presentation ceremony. He waved them all as he trudged back to the pavilion. An hour ago, the crowd had witnessed a T20 hundred of unreal quality, in what is best described as a celebration of stroke-making.
When the milestone moment arrived, a tap down for a single off the 37th ball he faced, the least violent of his strokes the entire night, he didn’t know how to celebrate. He leapt in the air, curled his f and let out a cry of joy. He stood with his arms spread out, he blew kisses at the crowd, and he kissed the pitch a few times. It was a moment he would struggle to recollect. Everything would seem like a wild dream.
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Abhishek Sharma smashes India’s second-fastest T20I TON in Men’s Cricket 💯🔽#TeamIndia | #INDvENG | @IDFCFIRSTBank
— BCCI (@BCCI) February 2, 2025
If Abhishek was at a loss of celebrations, England bowlers were lost for ideas on how to contain him. The series sealed, Abhishek came down like an unstoppable torrent of water. Like the shutters of a dam have been released. The ball, be it spin or seam, short or full, whled off his sweet-spot, mostly towards the euphoric stands, where catching his sixes became some sort of contest.
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There was no hint of a boundary festival when he hoarded five runs off his first five balls. That’s how he typically starts, he consumes a few balls to get his eye in, to adjust his eyes to light and get his leg moving. But the sixth ball he faced, he danced out of the crease and flayed Jofra Archer through covers. The tearaway stood stunned. When the over ended, he was resigned to the fate of his inevitable humiliation. He zinged a short one. Abhishek just leapt with the ball and slapped it over point. Then he unfurled the stroke that set the tone for a wild night at the Wankhede. He swung Archer over cover. This was just the third over, and India had already raced to 39/1 with the loss of Sanju Samson, the short ball again defeating his big-score ambitions.
More carnage kicked in with Abhishek in the thick of action. It did not matter that one of Mumbai Indians’ future talisman was batting at the other end, the crowd had begun to chant “Abhishek, Abhishek….” to the tune of “Sachin, Sachin…” Wankhede’s most famous son. The faster Wood bowled, the sooner it disappeared to the fence and beyond. He pulled him along the ground majestically, before straight-driving the follow-up full ball.
Here was the crux of his batting — he got his runs with the help of classical strokes and technique rather than dialling the pyrotechnics. The essence of his batting is traditional. He hits the full balls in the V, in straight neat lines. He punishes the short balls with horizontal-batted shots. He doesn’t wait on the back-foot expecting short balls as his opening partner Samson did. Instead, he would judge the length and quickly commit forward or rock back. His discretion was supreme — he didn’t manufacture strokes or meet deliveries with preconceived plans. His mind was fluid as his feet and as quick as his hands.
Where Wood and Archer failed, Jamie Overton failed even more gloriously. Abhishek reduced him to a nervous wreck, a Sunday-league club bowler in an over wherein he thundered him for 15 runs in four balls. Tilak Varma chimed in with a few strikes of his own to plunder 25 runs. England captain Jos Buttler had no other plan but to expedite his best bowler Adil Rashid into the attack.
Hundred reasons to celebrate! 📸📸
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— BCCI (@BCCI) February 2, 2025
Abhishek gave him a welcome befitting the World No 1 bowler, according to the ICC. A single was followed two humongous sixes that suddenly took him to 72 off a mere 25 balls. The fastest hundred in a match between two full members was within his reach (the record jointly belongs to David Miller and Rohit Sharma). A pair of sixes — Liam Livingstone was the unfortunate bowler, but that time the identity of the bowler mattered less — hurried him to 86 off 29. But the journey towards the landmark was comparatively sedate — it took eight balls, a crawl his mad standards of the night.Story continues below this ad
The match was replete with horic possibilities. It was just the 10th over, and Abhishek could bludgeon the format’s maiden double hundred, or perhaps better the highest individual score (172 Aaron Finch), or maybe India’s first three hundred in T20Is. But England’s bowlers did a commendable job in restricting India to 247 for 9 with timely strikes. Only Shivam Dube Axar Patel even managed to reach double figures. Abhishek too decelerated a bit—his next 17 balls only bred 35 runs.
But it proved more than enough. To the guiles of India’s well-rounded attack, England stumbled again, managing to get bowled out for 97, 55 off those coming from Phil Salt’s bat. Then, there was really nothing to snatch the attention from Abhishek on the night he became a hero of the masses.
Brief scores: India 247/9 in 20 overs (Abhishek Sharma 135, Shivam Dube 30; Brydon Carse 3/38) beat England 97 in 10.3 overs (Phil Salt 55, Mohammed Shami 3/25) 150 runs.
