Abhishek Sharma reaches second-fastest century by Indian batter in thunderous Wankhede outing in 5th T20I

Abhishek Sharma took the English attack to absolute cleaners in the fifth and final T20I of the series against England. After winning the toss, England invited the Indian team to bat first at the Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai on Sunday, February 02. However, they regretted the decision instantly, as Sharma, alongside opening partner Sanju Samson, started to fire big hits from the get-go.

Samson departed after 16 runs from seven deliveries, however, it was the Punjab all-rounder that took the maximum benefit of the field restrictions to amass a thunderous knock as the newcomer non-striker was only a spectator. After scoring just five runs of his first four deliveries, Sharma saw Samson depart early, but that did not dent his confidence even by one bit.

In the very next over, Sharma went berserk against Jofra Archer, hitting 18 runs, which included a boundary and two beautiful sixes as well. The Chandigarh-born hit another 15 runs off the next over, not even thinking to spare a single delivery that came his way. The fifth over saw Jamie Overton come into the attack, and Sharma went bazooka against him as well, smashing a couple of sixes on the first two balls. The second hit was a beautiful-lofted drive straight behind the bowler's head, that also marked the half-century for the southpaw.

Abhishek's fifty came on the 17th ball he faced, which also was the second-fastest by an Indian batter in the shortest format of the game. Abhishek was only behind Yuvraj Singh, who had reached the milestone off 12 balls against England on September 19, 2007, during the inaugural T20 World Cup.

The mania of the Punjab batter did not stop there, as he kept going and did not give any opportunity whatsoever for the English bowlers to stem the flow of runs. In the eleventh over of the innings, came the big moment, as the batter reached his century, reaching the three-figure milestone in just 37 balls, and created history to become the second-fastest India to score a century.

Abhishek is now only behind Rohit Sharma, who made a century off 35 balls against Sri Lanka back in 2017 at the Holkar Cricket Stadium in Indore.

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