Abhishek Sharma's Record-Breaking 30-Ball Century in Delhi

On a hazy evening in Delhi, Abhishek Sharma turned a routine bilateral T20 into a personal highlight reel and a slice of cricket history.

India’s left-handed opener blasted a 30-ball century against Afghanistan in the third T20, the fastest hundred ever scored in a T20 international between two full-member nations. By the time he finally walked off for 108 from just 34 deliveries, India had surged to 221-7 from their 20 overs and the crowd had seen an innings that crackled with audacity.

This was not a gentle sighter. It was an ambush.

Abhishek tore into Afghanistan from the outset, shredding the new ball attack with a clean, repeatable swing that kept sending the ball into the stands. He finished with nine fours and 11 sixes, a boundary count that underlined just how brutal the assault was.

The numbers almost defy belief. When he reached his hundred in the ninth over, India were 132-0. He had scored 96 of his first 100 runs in boundaries. Only three scoring shots up to that point were anything other than fours or sixes: a single in the previous over, a two in the third, and the nudged single that took him to three figures.

The pressure finally told on Afghanistan’s bowlers, who kept searching for yorkers and change-ups and kept disappearing over extra cover, midwicket and straight back over their heads. Lengths blurred. Fields scattered. The ball kept travelling.

At the other end, Sanju Samson played the perfect foil. Where Abhishek blazed, Samson steadied, compiling a measured 50 from 35 balls. His innings allowed India to keep their shape around the storm at the top, ensuring the total did not collapse once the early carnage ended.

Afghanistan found some control late on through Azmatullah Omarzai, who emerged with credit in a punishing scoreline. He picked up 2-27, a quietly impressive return on a night when most figures looked bruised. His discipline at the death helped drag India back from what briefly threatened to be a truly monstrous total.

By then, though, the story belonged to Abhishek.

Knocked off the top of the T20 batting rankings in July, the 26-year-old walked out with something to prove and left with a statement that will echo well beyond this series. The tempo, the power, the sheer relentlessness of the hitting marked this out as more than a cameo. It felt like a marker laid down for the next phase of his international career.

Afghanistan, yet to begin their chase, now face not just a steep target, but the psychological weight of an innings that ripped up the script in less than 10 overs. How they respond to that kind of onslaught will say plenty about their own trajectory in this format.