'By God's grace, I was successful. I'm still 7 on 10, still more work to do.'
India thrashed England by seven wickets to take a 1-0 lead in the five-match T20I series at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata on Wednesday.
India opener Abhishek Sharma belted eight sixes and five fours in a dazzling display of power-hitting belted eight sixes and five fours in a dazzling display of power-hitting to secure India's seven-wicket victory.
His 34-ball 79 was an exhibition of T20 batting and he got a thumbs up from two former India cricket stalwarts.
'Loving this from New India! No fear cricket. No fascination for individual 50s etc.. Selfless cricketer always a dangerous cricketer in T20s #INDvENGonJioStar,' Sanjay Manjrekar tweeted.
Abhishek's mentor Yuvraj Singh wrote after the match: 'Good start to the series boys! Great tone set by our bowlers and well played sir !@IamAbhiSharma4 top knock!!!
'I’m impressed you hit 2 boundaries down the ground as well,' he joked.
Abhishek smashed a 46-ball hundred against Zimbabwe in his second T20 International in July last year in what was his only 20-plus score in his first nine innings in the format.
However, the 24-year-old will breathe easier after scores of 50, 36 and 79 in his last three knocks.
'In India, there will always be a lot of competition in our senior team," the left-hander told reporters as he thanked captain Suryakumar Yadav and coach Gautam Gambhir for backing the youngsters in the side.
"As a batsman, it can play on your mind if you don't score runs in three, four, five innings...
When we did not do well, even then they tell us 'we know you're going to win the game for us, just go and express yourself'.
'When the captain or the coach says this, you get confidence and back yourself.'
But it was leg spinner Varun Chakravarthy who put India in the front seat with his three wickets.
Chakravarthy dismissed the opening pair of Ben Duckett and Phil Salt cheaply before bamboozling the hard-hitting English middle-order. On a surface where he has bowled extensively, Chakravarthy soon realised that the amount of bounce was the key to success rather than relying on turn.
"I am used to seeing such pitches in the IPL. I know that it is for the seamers, but I know there are certain lengths which are helpful for me. What I realised was I can't beat batsmen with a side-spin. The only way I can beat the batsmen is through bounce," Chakravarthy said after winning the Player of the Match award.
Buttler's wicket was Chakravarthy's final scalp of the match as he returned with staggering figures of 3/23 in his four-over spell.
"I am trying to keep it away from their arc, it was holding a bit. Every over, bowling in Eden is challenging. To bowl to batsmen like Jos and other guys is definitely challenging. The last over was very tricky and challenging, but by God's grace, I was successful. I'm still 7 on 10, still more work to do,' he added.
India and England meet in the second T20 International of the five-match series in Chennai on Saturday.
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