Abhishek blitzkrieg blows away England in series finale

Abhishek celebrates his century.
| Photo Credit: EMMANUAL YOGINI

The series in the bag. A boisterous crowd at the Wankhede Stadium was behind the home team. 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 up a crushing win 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 score in T20Is, the Men in Blue piled on 247 for nine in 20 overs after being sent in to bat. As it happens most often while chasing gargantuan targets, England wilted under 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-leg off the first ball of the match, Abhishek — by his standards — took his time. Soon after Samson holed out to to the deep square-leg fielder for the fifth straight time, he charged down the wicket for his first boundary in the third over.

Onslaught

From that point till 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 1 in the PowerPlay, its highest in the first six-over period of a T20I. Abhishek blew a kiss as he celebrated his 17-ball fifty.

So shaken was the England bowling attack by his onslaught that it literally had nothing to resort to. When they bowled in his arc, Abhishek swung the pacers and leg-spinner Adil Rashid out of the park. When they bowled it short, he pulled it with aplomb. The best of the lot was a lofted cover drive off Brydon Carse — whose pace variations brought him wickets — that sailed over the cover fence in the ninth over.

Even though he kept 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 the total read 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. Apart from Phil Salt, who scored an impressive fifty, only Jacob Bethell managed to get into double digits.

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