Sunrisers Hyderabad’s Abhishek Sharma returned to form in style as he smashed his maiden century in just 40 balls against the Punjab Kings on Saturday. The elegant left-handed batsman celebrated the milestone in unique fashion as he pulled out a piece of paper and showed it to the crowd at the Rajiv Gandhi International Cricket Stadium.
The note read, “This one is for Orange Army” in an apparent acknowledgement of the support he has received from the SRH fans.
However, Sharma’s biggest supporters were in the stadium watching the carnage inflicted by him as his parents couldn’t stop smiling after he reached his century.
Sharma hasn’t been in great form this season and this has had an impact on the team’s fortunes. After winning their opening fixture of the season, against Rajasthan Royals, SRH slumped to the bottom spot in the Indian Premier League standing with four consecutive losses leading up to the game against PBKS.
Desperate to come out from the slump, it seemed SRH’s revival would be delayed as their bowlers were smashed to all parts of their own stadium in the first innings.
PBKS registered an eye-watering 245/6 in their 20 overs with Mohammed Shami bearing the brunt of the away side’s vicious attack. The Indian pacer conceded 75 runs from his four overs, including four consecutive sixes to Marcus Stoinis in the last four balls of the innings.
With figures of 4-0-75-0, Shami earned an unwanted record as he became the second most expensive bowler in an IPL innings. Interestingly, Rajasthan Royals’ Jofra Archer who sits top of this unwanted list with 4-0-76-0, registered these bowling figures at this same venue earlier this season against SRH themselves.
The mood was dire at the halfway mark and it seemed the home side were headed for their fifth consecutive loss.
Travishek regain form
However, “Travishek” regained their touch as openers Travis Head (66 of 37) and Abhishek Sharma put on 171 runs for the first wicket before the Australian was dismissed for a well-made half century. Sharma carried on though as he continued pummeling the Punjab bowlers to all corners of the stadium.
He was finally dismissed, in the 17th over, for an astonishing 141 of 55 balls and the elegant southpaw walked away to a standing ovation from the crowd and his teammates. Even opposition players Glenn Maxwell and Arshdeep Singh acknowledged the great performance.
SRH coasted to victory with 9 balls to spare and dragged themselves out from the bottom of the IPL table with just their second win of the season.
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