On a warm Delhi evening, Abhishek Sharma didn’t just open the batting. He tore the game apart.
India’s left-hander blasted a 30-ball hundred against Afghanistan in the third T20, the fastest century ever made in a T20 international between two full-member nations. By the time he was finished, India had surged to 221-7 from their 20 overs, and Afghanistan hadn’t yet faced a ball but already knew the size of the mountain in front of them.
This was not a measured innings. It was an onslaught.
Abhishek hammered 108 from just 34 deliveries, lacing nine fours and launching 11 sixes into the Delhi night. The numbers barely capture the violence of it. He reached his hundred in the ninth over, with India rattling along at 132-0, and 96 of those first 100 runs came in boundaries. Bowlers weren’t being worked around; they were being dismissed from his presence.
Only three scoring shots in that surge didn’t reach the rope: a single in the previous over, a two in the third, and the calm nudge that took him from 99 to three figures. Everything else flew.
Afghanistan’s attack, led briefly by the control of Azmatullah Omarzai, had little answer. Omarzai emerged with 2-27, a respectable return in the chaos, but this was Abhishek’s stage and his alone for much of the innings.
Sanju Samson played the perfect foil. While the stadium buzzed around Abhishek’s fireworks, Samson anchored the other end with a composed 50 from 35 balls, giving India the stability to keep attacking without pause. Their stand turned a good start into a brutal statement.
India closed on 221-7, a total built on one extraordinary innings and framed by the sense that something rare had just unfolded. Afghanistan now walk out to bat not just chasing runs, but chasing the echo of a record-breaking storm.
