New Delhi: Abhishek Sharma returned to form – and how. The Sunrisers Hyderabad opener has had a stop-start IPL so far. Before the match against Chennai Super Kings in Hyderabad on Saturday, Abhishek’s scores read: 48, 0, 74, 0. Against CSK, he bounced back from the previous match’s duck with a quickfire 59 off just 22 balls, smashing six fours and four sixes. His runs came at a strike rate of over 268.
A highlight of his knock was taking down Matthew Short for 25 runs in the fifth over, which included four boundaries and a six. That assault brought up his half-century in just 15 balls, breaking his own record of a 16-ball fifty against Mumbai Indians back in 2024. This is now the third-fastest fifty in IPL history, behind Yashasvi Jaiswal’s 13-ball fifty against Kolkata Knight Riders in 2023 and joint second-fastest 14-ball fifties by KL Rahul, Pat Cummins and Romario Shepherd.
“Finally, he got out to a ball that was on the stumps. But the over in which he took down Matt Short was special. I haven’t seen many players who can hit the ball while standing back like that. One delivery was in the slot, but the other was wide of him – he arched back and still managed to take it down. These are special shots. For someone like Matt Short, playing his first game, bowling to someone like Abhishek Sharma is not easy. He’s a left-hander and a typical match-up for an off-spinner. He wouldn’t have expected that,” Ashwin said on JioHotsta.
In six matches this season, Abhishek has scored 188 runs at an average of 31.33 and a strike rate of 229.26, including two fifties, with a best score of 74.
He has also completed 2,000 IPL runs, scoring 2,004 runs in 80 innings at an average of 27.45 and a strike rate of 167.55, including one century and 11 fifties. In 80 matches (77 innings) for Sunrisers Hyderabad, Abhishek has accumulated 1,941 runs at an average of 26.95 and a strike rate of 166.89, with one century and three fifties.
Abhishek is the second-fastest batter to reach the 2,000-run milestone in IPL history, achieving the feat in 1,193 balls, behind Andre Russell’s 1,120 balls.
In 19 T20 matches this year across competitions, Abhishek has scored 511 runs at an average of 28.38 and a strike rate of 209.42, including six fifties. However, he has also registered seven ducks this year – the most by an Indian batter in a calendar year.
