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The 22-year-old paceman Sharma returned figures of five for 12 off three overs as the Chargers, who had posted 129 for seven, bowled Kochi out for a paltry 74 in 16.3 overs.
At one stage Sharma, who extracted appreciable bounce and seam movement on a pitch which was a fast bowler’s dream, had figures of five for six as Kochi plummeted to a scarcely believable 11 for six.
Sharma took his five wickets in the space of 11 legitimate deliveries as he easily eclipsed his previous best IPL figures of two for 15.
Sharma was aided in his demolition job by fellow new-ball bowler Dale Steyn, who finished with three for 16 off 3.3 overs.
Steyn struck the first blow, when he had Brendon McCullum (0) caught behind, before Sharma took centre stage.
The tall quick had Parthiv Patel (0) caught behind before he bowled Raiphi Gomez (0) with a superb delivery which nipped back at the right-handed batsman.
Sharma then produced a dot ball and a wide before he served another delivery that nipped back off the seam and kept a touch low as he bowled Brad Hodge (2).
Sharma picked up where he had left off in his next over when he trapped Kedar Jadhav (0) leg-before with a straight delivery before he removed Mahela Jaywardene (4) with the last ball of his second over when Jayawardene walked after nicking off to keeper Kumar Sangakkara.
Kochi were in real danger of beating the unwanted record of the lowest team total in IPL history, just 58 scored by the Rajasthan Royals.
Thisara Perera (22) and Ravindra Jadeja (23) tried their best to repair the damage with a 36-run seventh-wicket stand.
But Perera fell when he spliced an attempted pull shot off the bowling of seamer Manpreet Gony straight to cover as Kochi stuttered to 48 for seven.
Jadeja departed in the 16th over when the left-handed batsman smashed a delivery from leg-spinner Amit Mishra to Dan Christian at deep extra cover.
Steyn then completed the easy victory in the space of two balls as he bowled Vinay Kumar (18) and RP Singh (0) as seven Kochi batsmen registered ducks.
Sangakkara had earlier played a captain’s innings as his vital half-century helped the Chargers to their final total.
The Chargers, after losing the toss and being asked to bat, crumpled to 20 for three as their top-order failed to cope with the swing that Kochi’s fast bowlers extracted with the new ball.
The visitors' plight could have been a lot worse as Sangakkara was bowled off a no-ball from paceman Shanthakumaran Sreesanth when the former Sri Lanka skipper had scored just five.
Sangakkara shrugged off the near miss to race to his fifty off 39 balls before slashing his way to 65 off 47 deliveries with his knock including 10 sparkling fours.
The left-handed Sangakkara was aided in his rescue efforts by Cameron White as the pair plundered 90 runs off 11.3 overs for the fourth wicket.
White’s innings was far from the most fluent the right-handed batsman has ever played, as he scored just seven runs off the first 18 balls that he faced, and he was particularly troubled by the swinging ball.
But he eventually battled his way to 31 off 34 balls before he holed out to deep midwicket off the bowling of seamer Kumar in the 17th over.
Kumar struck with his next ball when he had Sangakkara caught behind by keeper Patel, with the keeper standing up to the stumps.
Singh was superb with the new ball and he ended with figures of two for 21 off four overs while Kumar also impressed as he returned figures of three for 25.
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