Hyderabad
Abhishek Sharma hit the fastest half-century by a Sunrisers Hyderabad batter in just 16 balls as the Pat Cummins-led side beat Mumbai Indians by 31 runs in an Indian Premier League (IPL) fixture at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium in Hyderabad.
Abhishek hammered a 23-ball 63 and was one of the key architects along with Travis Head, Heinrich Klaasen and Aiden Markram as Sunrisers posted the highest total in the IPL by racking up 277 for three in 20 overs.
The 23-year-old said that performing in domestic cricket was the key consistently and that the team management has given the Sunrisers batsmen the licence to play with freedom and go out and express themselves.
“To be honest I didn’t realise that it was the fastest fifty for SRH and for this year. I just wanted to go and express myself and after getting out, I realised that it was the quickest. I enjoyed it,” Abhishek said.
When asked about the mindset behind his scintillating strokeplay, he said, “I think the message was pretty much simple for all the batters in the meeting we had before this match. Everyone just go and express yourself and that’s a very positive message if you get it from your captain and coach. That’s really supportive for all the batters.”
Abhishek and Head forged a 68-run stand for the second wicket and the youngster said that the Australian did help him find momentum.
“I was batting with Travis and he is one of my favourite batters. I really enjoyed batting with him,” Sharma said.
Mumbai didn’t fall flat in the run chase with local boy Tilak Varma leading the response with a brilliant half-century.
Abhishek did acknowledge that it wasn’t easy to defend the total as Mumbai finished at 246 for five with Tim David unbeaten at 42, keeping the visiting side in the hunt till the last moment.
“When Tilak Varma, Hardik (Pandya) bhai and even Tim David were batting, we were still a bit, I won’t say worried but concerned. The way they were playing it was very good but we knew our bowlers were very much prepared for this kind of situation and they executed really well,” Abhishek said.
David opined that Mumbai had the confidence and the fire[power] to chase down the total.
“It would have been pretty good as a spectator if you are sitting home or in the stands it was a very entertaining, amazing match. We believe in our batting unit. We chased some high scores last year.
“The talk was let’s just stick to our process and we were keeping up with the rate at a certain point of time. Although we didn’t get the runs it was a great batting performance from us too,” he said.
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