In a Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy encounter between Punjab and Meghalaya, Abhishek Sharma reached the milestone in 28 balls, matching Urvil Patel as the second-fastest T20 century. Urvil reached that point last week when he helped Gujarat defeat Tripura in the same competition by scoring 113 not out in 35 balls. Sahil Chauhan, who made a century off of 27 balls for Estonia against Cyprus in June of this year, holds the record.
In addition, this was Abhishek’s fourth century in the competition, which puts him at the top of the list, ahead of three each from Unmukt Chand, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Ishan Kishan, and Shreyas Iyer.
Abhishek opened the scoring with 106 not out off 29 balls as Punjab chased Meghalaya’s 142 for 7 in Rajkot. Because of Abhishek’s valiant innings, Punjab reached their target in just 9.3 overs. Punjab’s victory was their fifth in seven Group-A games, and the increase in net run-rate brought on by the victory’s quickness keeps them in the running to go to the knockout stages.
Prior to the forthcoming season, Sunrisers Hyderabad paid INR 14 crore (about US$1.67 million) to keep Abhishek, who in IPL 2024 produced a devastating opening combination with Travis Head.
When Baroda defeated Sikkim in Indore earlier in the day, they scored 349 for 5, shattering the previous record for the highest team total in men’s T20 cricket.