Abhishek Sharma and Travis Head scored a whirlwind half-century to help Sunrisers Hyderabad register a stunning 10-wicket win over Lucknow Super Giants at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium on Wednesday (May 8).
On a pitch where the LSG batters struggled to time the ball, Travis Head and Abhishek Sharma simply blew away the bowlers. First up, LSG recovered from 66 for 4 in the 12th over to score 165/4 in their allotted 20 overs thanks to an unbeaten 99-run stand between Ayush Badoni and Nicholas Pooran.
In response, SRH managed the total score in just 9.4 overs without losing a wicket and created history by achieving the highest total score within 10 overs. Head and Abhishek Sharma gave everything against the LSG bowlers right from the start. While the Australian completed his fifty in just 16 balls, his Indian partner did it in 19 balls.
Both batters matched each other hit for hit to get SRH back to winning ways. Head hit an unbeaten 89 runs off just 30 balls with the help of eight fours and as many sixes. On the other hand, Abhishek Sharma scored 75 off 28 balls with the help of eight fours and six sixes.
With Abhishek Sharma once again impressing with his hard-hitting skills, former India spinner Harbhajan Singh wondered whether it is not too late to at least include the Punjab batsman in the traveling reserves of the Indian squad for the 2024 T20 World Cup.
Soon after the match ended, the Indian star went to X and revealed that he was mesmerized by Head and Sharma’s batting before expressing his desire to see the latter in India’s T20 World Cup squad.
“What just happened in Hyderabad! Travishead and IamAbhiSharma4 hit sixes as if they were hitting singles. They chased 165 in 9.4 overs. Should Team India include Abhishek in the bench?” wrote Harbhajan.
What the hell just happened in Hyd? #Travishead & @IamAbhiSharma4 Hitting sixes is like hitting singles. Chased 165 in 9.4 overs. Should Team India include Abhishek in the bench? @IPL @BCCI @SunRisers 💥
— Harbhajan Turbanator (@harbhajan_singh) May 8, 2024
Abhishek Sharma in IPL 2024:
Abhishek Sharma has impressed everyone with his aggressive batting in IPL 2024. His batting this season has been such that many even wanted him to open the innings for Team India in the upcoming ICC T20 World Cup 2024.
In 12 games so far, he has scored 401 runs at an impressive strike rate of 205.64. Of the players who have scored more than 350 runs this season, only he and Head have a strike rate of over 200. No player has also hit more sixes this season than Abhishek Sharma. The southpaw has hit a whopping 35 sixes so far, three more than runner-up Sunil Narine.