Abhishek Sharma Breaks His Own Record Of Fastest Fifty By Sunrisers Hyderabad Opener
In a match against five-time champions Chennai Super Kings (CSK) on Saturday, Abhishek Sharma broke his own record for the fastest half-century by a Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) opener.
In a match against five-time champions Chennai Super Kings (CSK) on Saturday, Abhishek Sharma broke his own record for the fastest half-century by a Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) opener in the Indian Premier League (IPL). Continuing the pattern of performing well every alternate match this IPL, Abhishek bounced back from the previous match's duck with a quickfire 22-ball 59, with six fours and four sixes against CSK. His runs came at a strike rate of over 268. A highlight of his knock was taking down Matthew Short for 25 runs, including four boundaries and a six in the fifth over, bringing up his fifty in just 15 balls and breaking his record of a 16-ball fifty against Mumbai Indians (MI) back in 2024. This is also the third-fastest fifty in IPL history, after Yashasvi Jaiswal's 13-ball fifty against Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) in 2023, and the 14-ball fifties by KL Rahul, Pat Cummins and Romario Shepherd.
In six matches and innings this season so far, Abhishek has made 188 runs at an average of 31.33, with a strike rate of 229.26, including two fifties and 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 a century and 11 fifties. In 77 innings for SRH, Abhishek has made 1,941 runs at an average of 26.95 and a strike rate of 166.89, including a century and three fifties.
Abhishek is the second-fastest to the landmark in 1,193 balls, after Andre Russell (1,120 balls).
This year, in 19 T20s, Abhishek has scored 511 runs at an average of 28.38, with a strike rate of 209.42, including six fifties. He has also registered seven ducks this year, the most by an Indian in a calendar year.
Coming to the match, CSK won the toss and opted to bowl first. A 75-run stand between Abhishek (59 in 22 balls, with six fours and four sixes) and Travis Head (23 in 20 balls, with three fours and a six) got SRH off to a strong start. Heinrich Klaasen (59 in 39 balls, with six fours and two sixes) held one end steady as wickets kept falling, taking SRH to 194/9 in 20 overs.
Anshul Kamboj (3/22), Jamie Overton (3/37) and Mukesh Choudhary (2/21) were the pick of the bowlers for CSK.
SRH won the game by 10 runs.
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Sunrisers Hyderabad