20-year-old Rohit’s Twenty20 record

But coming on even after those early breakers, and with the hosts continuing to lose wickets at regular intervals, Sharma continued playing his attacking shots. In seamer Ishwar Choudhary’s first over, the stocky batsman slammed two consecutive boundaries and later hoicked a huge six which broke a CCI bar room glass-window.

Sharma’s fifty came in just 27 balls and his century in the next 22. His scintillating innings saw 13 boundaries and five sixes in all.

“It was a terrific knock,” summed up skipper Amol Muzumdar.

Earlier, Gujarat won the toss and opted to bat first. But with opener Parthiv Patel (1) and Neeraj Patel (0) going back early, Mumbai’s bowlers smelt blood. Azhar Bilakhia (25), Bhavik Thakkar (25), Jay Desai (55 not out) and Vishwajeet Solanki (34) pulled the innings together and Gujarat managed to post a competitive total. For Mumbai, Avishkar Salvi was the wrecker-in-chief, with 3 for 28. In another match played at the same venue, Saurashtra defeated Maharashtra by seven wickets.

Brief scores: Gujarat: 141/6 in 20 overs (J Desai 55 not out, V Solanki 34; A Salvi 3/28) lost to Mumbai: 145/5 in 18.2 overs (R Sharma 101 not out; Siddharth Trivedi 2/22) by five wickets.

n Maharashtra: 116 all out in 18.3 overs (Yogesh Takawale 35; Jaydev Shah 2/11, Sandeep Maniyar 2/15) lost to Saurashtra 119/3 in 15.3 overs (Cheteshwar Pujara 43 not out, Chirag Pathak 31) by seven wickets.