It was a ‘random’ thought Abhishek Sharma wrote in his diary that led him to smash the highest individual score by an Indian in the IPL. Sharma raised the power-hitting bar with a sensational 141 off 55 balls as Sunrisers Hyderabad made short work of the 246-run target set by Punjab Kings to end to their four match losing streak on Saturday. But to his own admission, Sharma too was under pressure to perform after a string of failures and he overcame a bout of sickness to play one of the most memorable knocks in the IPL.
Sharma was running high fever for majority of the six-day break that SRH got ahead of the home game but he woke up on Saturday envisioning a match-winning contribution.
“To be honest, I wrote it today only because usually I wake up and write something. So, today I got a random thought that if I do something today, that will be for the Orange Army. So, luckily, today was my day,” said Sharma who took that note from his pocket as part of his celebration for the 40-ball hundred.
Sharma categorically spoke about the role played by mentor Yuvraj Singh and India’s T20 captain Suryakumar Yadav in keeping him in good spirits when the runs were not flowing from his bat.
“To be honest, I was sick for four days. I had temperature. But I am very grateful to have people like Yuvraj Singh and Suryakumar around me. Because they were the ones who were continuously calling me,” said Sharma when asked about the six day break.
“Because they knew that I can do something like this. But still, as an individual, you can start doubting yourself. But they believed in me and when someone like them believes in you, you obviously start believing again.
“So, it was just a matter of one innings for me,” said the southpaw.
Sharma had luck on his side as he was dropped once and caught off a no ball before going on to demolish Punjab Kings bowlers all around the park. He admitted to feeing the heat before the game.
“If I say no, it will be a lie. Obviously, there is pressure if you are not doing 3-4 innings well. Especially if you are losing the match. But, as I said earlier in the ceremony, I didn’t feel that there was anyone in the team who was down after losing four games in a row.”
We need to improve our dot ball percentage
Punjab Kings did not bowl enough dot balls on a belter of a wicket and not being able to take half chances cost them the match, said spin bowling coach Sunil Joshi.
“We knew it was going to be a big scoring game… few catches went down that is a big thing (in a high scoring game like this).
“On a good wicket like this, we need to improve our dot ball percentage. The dot ball percentage could prove to be the difference in the middle overs and we could not latch on our half chances,” said Joshi.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
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