Super Sharma show

Opener Abhishek smashes highest score by an Indian in T20Is (135) as hosts put up mammoth 247-9 to destroy England by 150 runs and win series 4-1

Opener Abhishek Sharma stole the show to become India’s highest individual scorer before England folded up for 97 in a 150-run victory for India in the fifth and final T20I at the Wankhede Stadium on Sunday night.

With India having already clinched the series, the 24-year-old left-hander from Punjab smashed 13 sixes and seven fours to post 135 from only 54 deliveries. 
In doing so, he moved past the previous highest individual score — an unbeaten 126 by Shubman Gill against New Zealand in Ahmedabad in February 2023. Sharma’s 13 sixes are the most by an Indian in T20I.

Sharma had a chance to score the fastest T20I hundred by an Indian, but missed it by three deliveries. When on 94 from 32 deliveries, he was one hit away from beating Rohit Sharma’s 35-ball record set against Sri Lanka in Indore in December 2017. 

Dealing in boundaries

Sharma, however, reached his second T20I hundred in his 17th appearance with a single off his 37th delivery, a single off Brydon Carse on the off-side, taking him to the coveted three-figure mark. Sharma was dealing in fours and sixes that made up for 80 per cent of his first hundred runs and 78.52 per cent of his total runs.
Sharma also has India’s second fastest fifty, in 17 deliveries, five more than his mentor Yuvraj Singh, who took 12 deliveries against the same country in the 2007 T20 World Cup. Despite the 35 dots, India posted their fourth highest T20I score of 247-9, which was enough in the end to give them a 150-run victory and the series 4-1. This was India’s second biggest victory in terms of runs.

England were bowled out for 97 in just 10.3 overs to suffer their worst defeat in terms of runs in this format.

India’s six-hitting, 19 of them, began with the first delivery of the match when Sanju Samson pulled Jofra Archer to midwicket and followed it with another to deep backward square leg four deliveries later. However, Samson fell in the next over to Mark Wood in the same fashion that has resulted in his downfall in the previous four matches, pulling straight to the fielder set on the leg side.

Sharma got into six-hitting mode with back-to-back hits off Archer in front of square on the off-side. He dominated the second-wicket stand of 115 in just 43 balls with Tilak Varma, the latter’s contribution being 24. Sharma often used the pace of the England bowlers and guided the ball over the ropes, but he also added power to the shots;  some of his straight hits clearing the boundary with ease, straining the necks of the English fielders on the boundary line. Sharma was chiefly responsible for India posting their best total in the Powerplay, 95-1.

Abhishek picks two wickets

The day undoubtedly belonged to man-of-the-match Sharma. He even  had a hand in England’s first wicket, catching Ben Duckett at cover off Mohd Shami and also took two wickets in the only over of left-arm spin that he bowled.

England had no choice but to go for big shots and in the process, offered one catch too many in the outfield. England needed a Sharmaesque knock from one of their top-order and their wicketkeeper-batsman Phil Salt seemed to be that batter. He gave England a 17-run first-over start off Shami but then, wickets fell at the other end before he was fifth out for 55. His dismissal, to Shivam Dube’s first delivery in the eighth over, all but settled the match in India’s favour.

13
No. of sixes hit by Abhishek on Sunday is the most by an Indian in a T20I innings

Brief scores
India 247-9 in 20 overs (A Sharma 135, S Dube 30; B Carse 3-38, M Wood 2-32) beat England 97 all out in 10.3 overs (P Salt 55; M Shami 3-25, A Sharma 2-3, S Dube 2-11, V Chakravarthy 2-25) by 150 runs

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