In Hyderabad on Sunday, Punjab’s skipper Abhishek Sharma went on a blistering spree, smashing a record‑setting 50 in just 12 balls before taking his knock to a 32‑ball ton in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy clash against a seasoned Bengal pace attack at the Gymkhana Ground.
From the very first delivery, Abhishek was in full tilt, eclipsing the 12‑ball milestone with five fours and five sixes and no more than one dot ball. With that pace, he joined a rare club, becoming only the fifth player ever to hit a fifty in a single T20 innings with just twelve balls. His on‑field mentor, former India all‑rounder Yuvraj Singh—who set the precedent in the 2007 T20 World Cup versus England, famously bowling out Stuart Broad for six successive sixes—stands as the pioneer of that speed.
The supreme record for the fastest 50 in men’s T20 belongs to Nepal’s Dipendra Singh Airee, who did it against Mongolia at the Hangzhou Asian Games in September 2023. Ashutosh Sharma from India is second on the list, scoring an 11‑ball fifty for Railways against Arunachal Pradesh in the 2023–24 edition of the tournament.
Other quick‑fire powerhouses have kept pace. Chris Gayle erupted for the Melbourne Renegades in January 2016 during a Big Bash League match against Adelaide Strikers. A few years later, in October 2018, Afghanistan’s Hazratullah Zazai matched that speed for Kabul Zwanan against Balkh Legends in Sharjah’s Afghanistan Premier League.
Abhishek stayed furious, piling up 11 sixes and seven fours to reach 100 off just 32 balls, though he fell short of the T20 century record still held by Estonia’s Sahil Chauhan, who did it in a jaw‑dropping 27 balls. His 148 from 52 balls was the third-fastest T20 hundred by an Indian. He already owns the second-fastest record among Indian players, having scored a century in 28 balls—mirroring Urvil Patel’s milestone for Gujarat against Tripura last year.
Opening alongside Prabhsimran Singh (who finished with 70 off 35 balls), Punjab finished the innings on 310 for five in the 20 overs allotted. That total ranks as the second-highest ever in the tournament, just behind Baroda’s 349 for five against Sikkim in Indore last December.
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