Abhishek, rattle and roll at the Wankhede

You couldn't hear yourself think if you were at the Wankhede Stadium on Sunday evening. The raucous cheers slowly turned into rapturous applause. The dhol and the whistles were drowned out. Everybody was on their feet. Those selling refreshments in the stands had paused. The security personnel had also let their guards down. "Aaa-bheee-shake! Aaa-bheee-shake!" went the chants. In proper rhythm.

There were smiles everywhere. Not least on the face of Gautam Gambhir, who is usually reserved. He was up on his feet with a wide grin, not for the first time either. The reason: Abhishek Sharma. He had put on an exhibition - a 54-ball 135 that was as awe-inspiring as it was breathtaking - to shatter records and England. He acknowledged the noise as he walked back. He stopped in his path, turned, and raised the bat and helmet, and continued walking towards his team-mates. The show had finally ended after 93 minutes.

The signs of his intent were visible early. Mark Wood, who had replaced Saqib Mahmood in England's XI, bowled a short ball at 150.1kph that Abhishek just pulled over midwicket for a couple. All-out attack has worked for him in the past, and he was not going to back down on this occasion. Even if it meant taking that extra risk. Like he did against Jofra Archer in the third over. He skipped down while making room to a length delivery angled in at 142.3kph and thrashed it over extra cover. He ended that over with back-to-back sixes - a 146.1kph short ball slashed over backward point and a 147.2kph rocket bashed over the covers.

It was carnage. Abhishek played proper cricketing strokes - the drive, the lofted drive, the flick, the cut. All of it seemingly effortless. Most of them gorgeous. All of them effective.

Abhishek has done it so often in recent times - like for Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) in IPL 2024 or for Punjab in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy. He hit a 28-ball century in December last year. Yet it felt new; you could not take your eyes away. "This is like you are at the airport and the planes are flying above you," Harsha Bhogle said on air as Abhishek hit sixes at will - a record 13 of them.

Two of them came when he skipped down to Adil Rashid on successive balls and tonked him straight over the sight screen at the media end. Abhishek himself liked those. "I don't remember half of them. But I think [I liked] the way I used the pace of the bowlers over covers or even against Adil Rashid; I liked how they felt while hitting," he said at the press conference.

What helped Abhishek was that the England bowlers missed their lines and lengths often. Bowling full at the Wankhede comes with peril. Yet, England bowled ten balls in Abhishek's slot that cost them 30. Short-of-good lengths are generally a safer option, but he stayed leg side of those and dispatched them in the arc between backward point and long-off. England could not attack him on the body, and he did not need the pull much. Even against seriously fast bowling, with Wood regularly breaching the 150kph mark, despite bowling with a heavily strapped left leg.

Abhishek was severe on Jamie Overton, greeting him with two successive sixes and taking 15 off his first four balls and 20 off six. His 100th run came with one of his least brutal strokes - a tap in front of cover point. Helmet off, a big leap, arms in the air, he blew a flying kiss towards the President's Box, where his mother and sister were seated - "When you play such an innings in front of your parents and family, it makes you feel proud and happy; you are able to share such moments with them, so I feel very blessed" - before refocusing. He was on 99 off 36 balls by the tenth over but found the strike hard to get as he scored nine off nine in the next six overs. Then he sped up again to score 27 off eight, including 12 off Brydon Carse, England's best bowler on the night, in a 17-run over.

"Some of the cricketing shots were incredible," Gambhir later told Star Sports. "Just the bat swing… I haven't seen a better T20 innings, and against an attack like this where you've got Jofra Archer and Mark Wood bowling at 150kph consistently. You might see a lot of T20 hundreds in the IPL, but the quality of attack in front of them [in this series] and a young boy taking them on from ball one is probably the best I have seen."

By the time Abhishek fell, India were well past 200. There was a sense that it was past England's reach, even if the track had more runs on it and dew was expected to set in. As if on cue, England collapsed in a heap, with Phil Salt scoring 55 off the 97 they made. Abhishek struck twice in the single over he bowled to take down Carse and Overton. A complete game for Abhishek, who scored 38 more than all of England could.

"Credit to Abhishek Sharma, I thought that's as clean a ball-striking as I've seen," England captain Jos Buttler said. "I thought he played fantastically well. We always sit down and think what more we could have done or how we could have stopped him. It can be difficult sometimes when a player gets on a roll and they play as well as he did. Looking back at the last IPL, him and Travis Head were the same [at] the top of the order for Sunrisers, and he has brought that into India. He played a brilliant innings and yes, sometimes you want to credit the opposition."

Most of the capacity crowd stayed back till the last ball. Some of them even wanted to hear the Player of the Match speak. And some others queued up in the narrow lane outside the Wankhede to get another glimpse of their hero of the night. Some, who had watched Shane Watson's 117 not out and Sanath Jayasuriya's 114 not out at the venue, felt Abhishek's knock was the more destructive.

On a cool, windy Mumbai evening, the idea of what a 37-ball hundred is all about had changed for everyone.