Abhishek Sharma's Record 30-Ball Century Powers India
Afghanistan finally got the toss right in Delhi. Ibrahim Zadran looked up at a heavy, humid evening sky at the Arun Jaitley Stadium, chose to bowl, and handed India’s top order exactly what it has thrived on all series: a new-ball challenge and a license to attack.
What followed in the first half of India’s innings was barely a contest. It was an onslaught.
Toss to turmoil: Farooqi steady, Abhishek explodes
Fazalhaq Farooqi’s first over hinted at a different script. Five runs, no risk, India 5 for 0. Sanju Samson nudged and prodded, Abhishek Sharma took a single boundary over extra cover, and Afghanistan’s left-arm seamer hit his lengths.
That calm lasted exactly one over.
Azmatullah Omarzai ran in for the second, and Abhishek tore the game open. Samson took a single first ball, then watched from the non-striker’s end as Abhishek swivelled a leg-stump ball over deep square leg for six, sliced one down the ground for four, and finished with a towering blow over deep extra cover. Seventeen from the over, India 22 without loss, and the tone brutally reset.
Farooqi returned for the third and copped worse. Samson handed the strike over, and Abhishek went straight, fine, square and then aerial again. Six down the ground, six over fine leg, four pulled past deep square, a top-edged flyer over short fine, and a couple to close. Twenty-three from the over. After three, India were 45 for 0; Abhishek had 42 off 13.
Afghanistan’s plans were in tatters. The powerplay had barely begun.
Samson joins in, Nabi suffers, Rashid arrives late
Mujeeb Ur Rahman’s introduction in the fourth over slowed India only marginally. He beat Samson with turn, then watched the wicketkeeper-batter clear his front leg and drill him straight for six. Abhishek finished the over with a sliced four over cover point. India 56 without loss after four; the platform already imposing.
Mohammad Nabi walked in for the fifth over and walked straight into a storm. Samson greeted him with back-to-back sixes — one flat and straight, the next soaring over long-on — and was then put down by Zadran at mid-off. The drop hurt immediately. Abhishek launched Nabi over long-on to bring up a 50 that felt like it had arrived in a blink, then carved four and finished the over with another six. Twenty-nine from it. India 85 for 0 after five.
Rashid Khan, Afghanistan’s trump card, had to wait until the sixth. By then, India’s openers were rampant, the ball was older, and the field was spread. Rashid began with control, but Abhishek still found room to hammer him for back-to-back fours through the off side and then lift him over sweeper cover for six. The hundred came up in the final over of the powerplay: India 100 without loss after six; Abhishek 76 off 22, Samson a steady 24 off 14.
The damage was already monumental.
A record in real time: 30-ball hundred, Full Member landmark
With the field back, Abdullah Ahmadzai and Mujeeb tried to drag the innings back towards normality. They couldn’t. Samson picked off boundaries and singles, Abhishek kept finding the stands.
Ahmadzai’s first over went for nine; Mujeeb’s second cost 15, with Abhishek twice launching him straight and over long-on. After eight overs, India were 124 for 0. Abhishek sat on 93 off 28 balls. The crowd knew what was coming. So did Afghanistan. Nobody could stop it.
Ahmadzai returned for the ninth. Samson took a single first ball. Abhishek stepped in again, thumping a six to move to 99. The hundred came with a simple push down the ground — a soft, almost understated stroke for a landmark that was anything but. Thirty balls. His third T20I century. The fastest T20I hundred by a batter from a Full Member nation.
Helmet off, he dropped into a meditation pose in the middle of a roaring Arun Jaitley Stadium. A moment of stillness in an innings built on violence.
By the end of the ninth, India were 134 for 0. Afghanistan had no wickets, no control, and a scoreboard already bending the match out of shape.
Rashid’s resistance and a rare opening
Rashid finally found a crack in the tenth over. Abhishek, still hungry, launched him over long-on for six, nudged one to deep mid-wicket, and watched Samson pick up another single. Then came the mistake.
Chasing a googly outside off, Abhishek tried to lift Rashid over extra cover. The ball kissed the outside edge, and Rahmanullah Gurbaz took a straightforward catch behind the stumps. Despite a clear sound and a visible deviation, Abhishek went upstairs. UltraEdge showed a sharp spike. Review lost, innings over.
He walked off for 108 from 34 balls, with nine fours and 11 sixes. India sat at 142 for 1 just before the drinks break. Afghanistan finally had a wicket, but the game had already slipped.
Middle-overs consolidation, Samson’s steady hand
With Abhishek gone, India’s tempo eased, not collapsed. Samson took charge of the innings, Tilak Varma and Shreyas Iyer offering support.
Mujeeb’s third over, the 11th of the innings, went for 10. Samson backed away and launched him over long-off for six, then milked singles with Tilak. At 152 for 1 after 11, India still had a launchpad.
Rashid, though, refused to fade. In the 12th, he turned the game briefly towards control. Tilak pushed the first ball just left of the bowler, hesitated, and paid the price. Rashid swooped, turned, and hit the non-striker’s stumps with a direct hit. Tilak’s run-a-ball 2 ended in a stuttering mix-up. Shreyas arrived, scratched out a single, and Samson worked a couple more, but only three runs came from the over. India 155 for 2 after 12.
Mujeeb’s final over followed. Samson stepped leg side and drove him straight for four to move towards another milestone, then worked his way calmly to a second consecutive T20I fifty. He reached it from 34 balls with a gentle push to long-on. India closed the 13th at 164 for 2, the opener’s blaze now replaced by the captain’s measured control and Samson’s assurance.
Teams, context and what’s at stake
All of this unfolded against a broader backdrop. India, already 2–0 up in the series, had rotated only in the pace department. Yash Thakur replaced Arshdeep Singh, while Vaibhav Sooryavanshi again waited on the fringes. The batting order stayed intact: Abhishek, Samson, Ishan Kishan, Shreyas Iyer, Tilak Varma, Axar Patel and Shivam Dube forming a powerful top seven, with Nitish Kumar Reddy, Ravi Bishnoi, Thakur and Jasprit Bumrah completing the XI.
Iyer had been clear at the toss: India wanted to bat first, to test themselves with a target-setting challenge before the Asian Games. Afghanistan, designated hosts despite the series being played in Delhi, had gone the other way. Zadran chose to chase for the first time in the series, banking on early assistance for his bowlers.
They also shuffled their attack. Noor Rahman and Abdullah Ahmadzai came in for Gulbadin Naib and Noor Ahmad, Mujeeb and Rashid again tasked with the bulk of the spin work. On a pitch expected to offer runs under thickening clouds and high humidity, they needed early wickets and discipline.
They got neither.
India’s top order, which had already cruised in two chases — Abhishek in the opener, Samson’s blistering 57 off 22 in the second — simply shifted the same intent into a first-innings assault. The result: a powerplay that shredded plans, a record-breaking hundred, and a total that will almost certainly demand something extraordinary from Afghanistan’s batting.
Their top order has misfired all series. Gurbaz walks out under pressure after back-to-back ducks against Bumrah. Zadran and Sediqullah Atal must find a way to survive the new ball, then accelerate without exposing a middle order that has spent too long repairing, not dictating. Omarzai’s 64 in the first match and the late-order strikes from Nabi and Rashid in the second have been bright spots, not foundations.
Now, chasing a score built on Abhishek’s fury and Samson’s composure, they need more than cameos. They need a statement.
On a warm Delhi night, with the series already gone and the Asian Games looming, the question is blunt: can Afghanistan finally stand up to India’s new-look T20 engine, or does this become just another chapter in a one-sided build-up?
