Dubai: Ishan Kishan, a 19-year-old boy stunned everyone at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata on Wednesday night through one of the most aggressive knocks in this edition of the Indian Premier League.

He cracked 62 runs off just 21 balls with six towering sixes and five boundaries. He reached his half century in 17 balls to record the joint fastest fifty with teammate Kieron Pollard in Mumbai’s IPL history.

This boy, who is yet to get a moustache, displayed power and timing that stunned even the senior most Indian cricketers.

When Kishan hit Kuldeep Yadav for four consecutive sixes in the 14th over, even the Kolkata fans cheered for the youngster. So destructive was his knock that Kolkata crashed to a whopping 102 runs defeat on their home ground. When asked about his knock, like a typical daring youngster, he said: “Today was my day; I just wanted to watch the ball closely and keep smacking them.”

Kishan’s shots were not mere smacking but gigantic six hitting. He hails from Jharkhand, the state that gifted India one of greatest hard-hitter and former Indian captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni. So it is no wonder that Kishan enjoys entertaining the crowd by hitting sixes. He caught the attention during his first-class debut for Jharkhand in December 2014 in which he scored a century and five fifties in his first 10 first-class matches. His knocks were so brilliant that he became the automatic candidate for India Under-19 team captaincy for the 2016 Under-19 World Cup in which Indian finished runners-up to West Indies.

Journalists that approached Kishan for his comments on the breezy knock, asked about the influence of the legendary player from his state and he promptly said: “I get lots of tips from Dhoni bhai (brother). He’s a legendary player and keeps telling me that I can take time. I feel confident when seniors talk to me.”

When Kishan was invited for trials for domestic wicketkeeper as the DY Patil Stadium in Navi Mumbai he hit seven sixes to stun everyone with his powerful hitting. Gujarat Lions promptly picked him in the 2016 IPL auction for $52,000 at the age of 17.

Kishan is indebted to Mumbai team now in many ways as he had hit three ducks out of which two were off the first ball in this tournament, yet his team continued to bestow confidence in him. “When your skipper (Rohit Sharma) and the franchise are backing you, it’s just about playing your game. I am comfortable batting anywhere and I am happy with the support from everyone. Rohit bhai (brother) told me before that I can hit well so just look at the ball and get with the flow,” said Kishan

Fortunately for Kishan, his skipper was also batting with him at the other end against Kolkata and so aggressive was his knock that in a partnership of 82 Rohit could contribute only 18 runs. When asked to explain his shots, Kishan said: “My target was that if I get the ball in my arc, I would hit it out of the park. It was like ‘keep watching the ball’. If you get the ball, hit, otherwise you can go for a single as well. Rohit was batting with me, so there was no problem. I knew if I don’t score, he can cover up.”

The impact of Kishan’s knock is that Mumbai, who were on the verge of an early exit from the tournament, are now in the fourth position in the points table.