In the 61st league game of the 2025 Indian Premier League, Sunrisers Hyderabad’s Abhishek Sharma started the batting against the Lucknow Super Giants on Monday, May 19, at the Bharat Ratna Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee Ekana Cricket Stadium in Lucknow. During the 206-run chase, the left-handed hitter hit four fours and six sixes while facing 20 balls at the crease.

After Nicholas Pooran, he became the second player in the world and the first Indian to reach four IPL fifties in fewer than 20 balls when he reached his half-century in only 18 balls.

On April 10, 2023, Pooran scored fifty runs in fifteen balls for LSG against RCB; on October 8, 2020, he scored seventeen runs for Punjab Kings against SRH in Dubai; on March 27, 2025, he scored eighteen balls for LSG against SRH in Hyderabad; and on May 17, 2024, he scored nineteen balls for LSG against the Mumbai Indians.

However, Abhishek reached SRH’s half-century in 18 balls against LSG in Lucknow on May 19, 2025; SRH’s 16-ball fifty against MI in Hyderabad on March 27, 2024; and 19-ball fifties against LSG and PBKS in Hyderabad on May 8, 2024, and April 12, 2025, respectively.

Twice this season, Abhishek has reached his fifty in under twenty balls. The record for most fifties in fewer than 20 balls in a single IPL season is held by Jake Fraser-McGurk.

In the 2024 Indian Premier League, the Australian right-handed batsman for the Delhi Capitals scored half-centuries in 15 balls against the Sunrisers Hyderabad and Mumbai Indians at Arun Jaitley Stadium on April 20 and April 27, respectively. Additionally, on May 7, 2024, in Delhi, he got a fifty off of 19 balls for the team captained by Rishabh Pant against the Rajasthan Royals.

Yashasvi Jaiswal, an Indian Test opener, is the player with the quickest half-century in IPL history. The left-handed top-order batsman reached his fifty in only 13 balls on May 11 during the RR-KKR IPL 2023 match, which was contested at Eden Gardens in Kolkata. In the IPL, three batters—KL Rahul, Pat Cummins, and Romario Shepherd—collectively reached fifty off just fourteen balls.

Cummins scored fifty runs in fourteen balls for KKR against MI in 2022, while Rahul accomplished the same feat as a PBKS batter against DC in 2018. Shepherd also accomplished the same feat on May 3, 2025, when playing for Royal Challengers Bengaluru against Chennai Super Kings at M. Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru.