IND vs ENG, 5th T20I: Abhishek Sharma’s blitzkrieg helps India blow England away

IND vs ENG, 5th T20I: Abhishek Sharma’s blitzkrieg helps India blow England away

The series was in the bag. A boisterous crowd at the Wankhede Stadium was behind the team’s back. It perhaps resulted in a fitting trigger for Abhishek Sharma who single-handedly blew England away with a blitzkrieg that shattered a plethora of records and set a crushing defeat to help India end the T20I season on a perfect note.

Riding on Abhishek’s 135 (54b, 7×4, 13×6) – India’s highest individual T20i score – the Men in Blue piled on 247 for nine after being inserted. As it happens in most hunts of a gargantuan target, England wilted under the pressure to be bowled out for a paltry 97 in the 11th over to hand India a 150-run win. The victory meant Suryakumar Yadav laid his hands on the trophy, with the series ending 4-1 in the host’s favour.

It was an Abhishek show all through the first half, after he and Sanju Samson walked out to open the innings. While Samson set the tone by clearing deep square off the first ball of the match, Abhishek – by his standards – took his time. Soon after Samson holed out to the same position in the next over, for the fifth consecutive occasion, Abhishek charged down the wicket for his first boundary in the third over.

Since then, until he perished towards the end of the innings, Abhishek’s onslaught made England fielders remain mere spectators. When he hit it through the gap, it sped to the fence. But more often than not, he was in a mood to display his range-hitting skills. He managed to clear the rope a whopping 13 times – the most by an Indian in a T20I – four of them coming in the fifth over off Jamie Overton.

That over meant India raced to 95 for one in the PowerPlay, its highest in the first six-over passage of a T20I match. Abhishek himself had become India’s second-fastest half-centurion by then, blowing a kiss while celebrating his 17-ball fifty.

So taken aback was the England bowling attack with his onslaught that it had nothing to resort to. When they bowled in his arc, Abhishek swung the pacers and leggie Adil Rashid alike out of the park. When they bowled it short, he pulled it in a flash. But his trademark lofted drive above the bowler’s head took the case as one of them almost crashed onto the commentary box glass. The best of the lot was a lofted cover drive off Brydon Carse – whose pace variations gave him wickets – that sailed over the covers fence in the ninth over.

Even though he kept on losing partners at the other end, by the time the mandatory time-out was called after 10 overs, Abhishek was one run shy of becoming India’s second-fastest centurion and India was 143 for two. Abhishek tapped one on the off-side for a rare single to acknowledge a standing ovation.

Shivam Dube then played a cameo as India ensured that the latter half was a mere formality. It turned out to be the same as India finished the game off in the 11th over. Barring Phil Salt – who scored an impressive fifty – only Jacob Bethell managed to get into double-digits. Except for Hardik Pandya, all the other Indian bowlers entered the wickets column.

Dhruv Jurel kept wickets in place of Samson, who injured his finger while missing a short-ball by Archer in the first over. And the keeper took three catches, including one down the leg off Mark Wood’s inside edge to hand Mohammed Shami his third wicket.