The Man Hitting Sixes That Chris Gayle Never Could — Abhishek Sharma Is Rewriting IPL History One Innings At A Time

 

There is a certain kind of batter that does not get the credit they deserve until it is almost too late to give it. The kind who quietly piles up runs, breaks records, rewrites history — and somehow still gets overlooked in the conversation about who the best players in the world actually are.

Abhishek Sharma is that batter. And after what he did to Delhi Capitals on April 21, 2026, it is time to stop overlooking him.

135 not out. 68 balls. 10 fours. 10 sixes. A record that had belonged to Chris Gayle — one of the most destructive batters the game has ever produced — gone. Just like that. By a 26-year-old from Amritsar who bats like he has absolutely nothing to fear.

What Happened At Hyderabad

Delhi Capitals won the toss and chose to bowl. On paper, it looked like a reasonable decision — Hyderabad's pitch can be tricky early, and the DC attack had enough variety to make life difficult. What they did not account for was Abhishek Sharma walking out and immediately deciding that Tuesday night was going to be his night.

He brought up his fifty off 25 balls. Twenty-five. That is playing within himself, by Abhishek's standards. He has scored fifties faster than that. But on this evening, against this bowling attack, on this surface, 25 balls was the measured, calculated approach — the kind that tells you something big is coming.

Then he shifted gears. By the time he crossed three figures, he had done so in 47 balls — the fastest century ever scored against Delhi Capitals in IPL history. He was 135 not out off 68 deliveries when the innings ended. SRH posted 242 for 2. DC's chase never got close. SRH won by 47 runs — their third consecutive victory.

But the scorecard, as clean as it looks, does not capture what watching that innings felt like. When Abhishek Sharma is hitting sixes, he does not look like he is trying hard. He looks like he is simply choosing where the ball goes to land, and then making it happen.

The Record That Makes This Historical

Chris Gayle holds the record for most 130-plus scores in T20 cricket history. Or rather, he held it. On Tuesday night, Abhishek Sharma became the first batter in T20 cricket history to score four innings of 130 or more — moving past Gayle, past Aaron Finch, past everyone who had previously held a claim to this particular piece of the game's record books.

Think about that for a second. Chris Gayle — 22 T20 centuries, the greatest power hitter the format has ever seen, a man who terrorised bowlers across three decades of franchise cricket — had set a mark that most people assumed would stand for years. Abhishek Sharma broke it before he turned 27.

His four 130-plus scores tell their own story: 141 against Punjab Kings in IPL 2025. 135 against England in a T20I earlier this year. 137 for India in another international fixture. And now 135 against Delhi Capitals, in the IPL, on a night when he carried his team to a total that never looked like being chased.

He also became the first player in IPL history to score two centuries above 130. Not just two centuries — two centuries above 130. In the same tournament. Against the best bowling attacks in the world. The only other men who have come close to doing this — AB de Villiers, Gayle himself — never quite made it happen twice.

Where Does He Rank Among Indian Batters Now?

With this innings, Abhishek reached his ninth T20 century — drawing level with Virat Kohli for the most centuries by an Indian batter in T20 cricket. He is also now the leading run-scorer for SRH in their history, having crossed 2,000 IPL runs for the franchise — joining David Warner, Shikhar Dhawan, and Kane Williamson in that exclusive club.

He has also hit 10 or more sixes in a T20 innings five times — more than any other Indian cricketer in history. The previous record belonged to Shreyas Iyer at four. Abhishek passed it on Tuesday night without breaking a sweat.

For those who need the full picture in numbers — here is what Abhishek Sharma's IPL 2026 season looks like right now. He has three half-centuries and two full centuries. His strike rate is comfortably above 180 across the tournament. And SRH, with him firing at the top, have won three matches in a row and climbed into the top two of the points table.

SRH Are Suddenly Dangerous

A few weeks ago, nobody was putting SRH in the conversation for IPL 2026 playoff contenders. They had lost Pat Cummins to injury before the season properly started. Their batting looked reliant on Travis Head setting the tone — and when Head did not fire, the innings stalled.

Then something clicked. Ishan Kishan's 91 against Rajasthan Royals showed he could anchor an innings. Praful Hinge and Sakib Hussain arrived on debut and took eight wickets between them in the same match. And Abhishek Sharma started doing what Abhishek Sharma does — batting in a way that leaves bowlers and captains and analysts reaching for different words to describe what they just saw.

Three consecutive wins. Top two on the points table alongside RCB and RR. And Cummins reportedly closing in on a return. SRH are not just dangerous — they are quietly becoming the team nobody wants to face in a knockout match.

The Conversation That Needs To Happen

Here is the honest truth about Abhishek Sharma: he does not get talked about the way he should. Vaibhav Suryavanshi gets the headlines — deservedly so, because a 15-year-old hitting the world's best bowlers for six is a story that writes itself. Babar Azam's PSL comeback gets the column inches in Pakistan. Virat Kohli gets talked about simply by existing.

Abhishek Sharma just quietly gets on with breaking records that Chris Gayle set. He scores 130-plus in T20 cricket more than anyone in history — more than Gayle, more than AB de Villiers, more than any of the names that fill cricket's greatest-ever T20 conversations. He does it in IPL matches, in international fixtures, against attacks that know exactly what he wants to do and cannot stop him anyway.

If he were playing for a more glamorous franchise — if he were doing this for RCB or CSK or MI — the noise around him would be deafening. But he plays for SRH, in Hyderabad, in a yellow jersey, and somehow the rest of the cricket world treats every extraordinary innings as a pleasant surprise rather than what it actually is: the latest instalment in a story that has been building for two years and has not come close to finishing yet.

Match Scorecard

SRH vs DC — IPL 2026 Match 31
🟠 SRH	242/2 (20 ov) — Abhishek 135*, Klaasen 37*
🔵 DC	195 all out (19.3 ov) — Rana 57, KL Rahul 37
Result	SRH won by 47 runs 🏆
⭐ POTM	Abhishek Sharma — 135* off 68 balls

Stay with The Yorker Crew for daily IPL 2026 and PSL 2026 coverage. Check out our April 13 double match report, the Vaibhav Suryavanshi full story, and our Babar Azam comeback post for more from the most exciting cricket season in years. 🏏