Every time Abhishek Sharma's bat hit the ball at the Wankhede in Mumbai on Sunday it seemed it would sail into the stands. Such was the authority of the young opener.

Such devastating was Abhishek that riding his mindblowing 135 off 54 balls, comprising seven boundaries and as many as 13 maximums, India hammered England by 150 runs in the fifth and final T20I to finish the already-sealed series with a 4-1 scoreline.

Having guided India to a mammoth 247/9, Abhishek had simply batted England out of the contest. If England had to win, one of their batters had to outshine Abhishek.

Phil Salt tried but couldn't go beyond 55 as the visitors could manage just 97 in 10.3 overs, falling short of even Abhishek's total. Mohammed Shami (returning in place of Arshdeep Singh), with 3/25, found his name on the wickets column in his second India appearance post-comeback along with Shivam Dube (2/11), Varun Chakravarthy (2/23) and Abhishek (2/3), who performed with the ball too with a scalp off his very first ball, dismissing Brydon Carse.

On what was undoubtedly the best surface for batting in the series, India, winning the toss in what was Suryakumar Yadav’s first game at home as captain, lost Sanju Samson early once again. Hammering Jofra Archer for two sixes and a four in the opening over, Samson perished at the deep off Mark Wood.

But thereafter, it was sheer mayhem from Abhishek, the Punjab and Sunrisers Hyderabad opener. Young players in particular don’t hesitate one bit to express themselves if the ball is in their arc. Abhishek, too, is among them. But what he unleashed at the Wankhede on Sunday was relentless strokeplay, waltzing to his 50 off just 17 balls and his second T20I hundred off only 37 balls.

For the record, this was also the second-fastest T20I ton for India.

The series was already clinched by India in Pune last Friday, but registering such an epic innings before dignitaries like former UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, Bollywood maestro Amitabh Bachchan and Infosys founder NR Narayana Murthy (who were all present at the Wankhede VIP box) is something Abhishek will certainly savour.

A predominantly off-side player with several shots down the ground, the 24-year-old scored on the on-side too with quite a few of the sixes he hit. The England quicks were again back to dishing out ill-directed short-pitched stuff and hardly tried the yorker or the slower ball, before Carse (3/38) bowled with some variation to dismiss Tilak Varma, the misfiring Surya and Dube. Otherwise, Abhishek’s brilliance had set a platform for a total way past 250.

Having said that, it’s not at all easy to keep blazing away against deliveries close to or over 150kmph. Abhishek, though, did exactly so as he even hoisted a 140kmph-plus pitched-up delivery from Archer over the cover region, going inside-out and having all his stumps exposed.

Such an approach reflects the confidence the youngster has in his ability. Even Adil Rashid, the most consistent among England’s bowlers in this series, wasn’t spared as Abhishek was just as comfortable against the leg-spinner.

What also stood out in this innings is Abhishek's focus on proper cricketing strokes. England made a mistake with the ball by not varying the pace. But would it have mattered even if they were intelligent with the ball? The way Abhishek played, it seemed he would have butchered any ball thrown at him on Sunday. It was his evening.