Abhishek Sharma has smashed a 12-ball half-century, playing for Punjab against Bengal in a Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy match in Hyderabad on Sunday. It is the joint-third-fastest fifty and joint-second-fastest by an Indian in men's T20 cricket.
Opening the batting with Prabhsimran Singh, Abhishek took apart a bowling attack headlined by Mohammed Shami and Akash Deep, scoring at well over 15 runs an over against both of them as well as Saksham Choudhary and Writtick Chatterjee. Abhishek hit five fours and five sixes to get to his fifty, conceding just one dot ball in the 12 balls he had faced to get to the landmark.
The fastest fifty in men's T20s was scored by Nepal's Dipendra Singh Airee, against Mongolia during the Hangzhou Asian Games in September 2023. India's Ashutosh Sharma is at No. 2 on the list for his 11-ball fifty for Railways against Arunachal Pradesh in the 2023-24 edition of the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy.
Abhishek is now the fifth batter to record a 12-ball fifty in the format. Yuvraj Singh was the first, with his innings at the 2007 T20 World Cup against England, which included six sixes in an over against Stuart Broad. Chris Gayle achieved it in the BBL, for Melbourne Renegades against Adelaide Strikers in January 2016. In October 2018 then, Afghaniostan's Hazratullah Zazai matched it playing for Kabul Zwanan against Balkh Legends, featuring Gayle, in an Afghanistan Premier League game in Sharjah.
The last instance was when Estonia's Sahil Chauhan got there against Cyprus in an international match in Episkopi on his way to an unbeaten 41-ball 144.
More to follow...