The Punjab team played their third match of the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy 2025-26 against Bengal on November 30 (Sunday). Held at the Gymkhana Ground in Hyderabad, this Elite Group-C match saw a stellar performance by Punjab's batter Abhishek Sharma. With the help of 11 sixes and 7 fours, Abhishek smashed a century off just 32 balls. In total, Abhishek scored 148 runs in 52 balls, including 16 sixes and 8 fours.
This marks Abhishek Sharma's 8th century in T20 cricket, achieved in 157 innings. Among Indian players with the most T20 centuries, Abhishek has now matched the former Indian captain Rohit Sharma. Only the legendary batsman Virat Kohli (9 centuries) has more T20 centuries than Rohit and Abhishek.
Abhishek reached his half-century in just 12 balls
In this match, Abhishek Sharma shattered records by scoring a half-century in just 12 balls. This achievement is the third-fastest half-century in men's T20 cricket and the second-fastest by an Indian player. Abhishek paralleled the record of Yuvraj Singh, who also scored a fifty in 12 balls against England during the 2007 T20 World Cup.
It is noteworthy that the fastest fifty in men's T20 cricket is held by Nepal's Dipendra Singh Airee, achieved in just 9 balls against Mongolia during the September 2023 Hangzhou Asian Games. Second place is held by India's Ashutosh Sharma, who scored a half-century in 11 balls against Arunachal Pradesh for Railways during the 2023-24 Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy season.
Abhishek Sharma now holds the title for the second-highest individual T20 cricket score by an Indian batsman. He surpassed Shreyas Iyer, who scored 147 runs against Sikkim for Mumbai in February 2019. At the top is Tilak Varma, who scored 151 runs for Hyderabad against Meghalaya in November 2024.
Punjab posts such an impressive score
Thanks to Abhishek Sharma's century, the Punjab team posted a score of 310 for 5 wickets in 20 overs. This is the fifth instance in T20 cricket where a team has scored more than 300 runs in a match. The record for the highest score in T20 cricket is held by Vadodara, who scored 349 for 5 wickets against Sikkim in December 2024.,
