Abhishek Sharma smashed a 32-ball century, playing for Punjab against Bengal in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy match in Hyderabad on Sunday. Abhishek, opening the batting with Prabhsimran Singh, got to his fifty in just 12 balls, facing a Bengal bowling attack, headlined by Mohammed Shami and Akash Deep.
Punjab chose to bat, and after the 16th over, they had already set a massive target for Bengal, scoring 245 runs for the loss of two wickets. And Punjab captain Abhishek Sharma looks in devastating form as he is unbeaten 144 off 48 deliveries only, hammering eight 4s and sixteen 6s with a whooping strike rate of 300! Akashdeep Singh and Pradipta Pramanik have scalped one wicket each, while Mohammed Shami’s bowling average is miserable. He has given 43 runs in 2.4 overs so far!
Abhishek, the world’s number T-20 batsman according to ICC T-20 rankings, last played for India against Australia on 8th November this year in Brisbane, and he became the fastest batsman to have reached the milestone of 1000 runs. The 25-year-old batsman from Amritsar is set to be selected in the Indian team for the five-match T-20 series against South Africa next month.
Abhishek faced a lot of criticism for his flop show in Punjab’s second match against Haryana, held on 28th November. He got out for just 6 runs from five balls in the 200+ run chase and then, in the super over, was dismissed for a golden duck by Anshul Kamboj.
