Abhishek Sharma played cat-and-mouse with Sunrisers Hyderabad teammate Heinrich Klaasen for the Orange Cap in the ongoing Indian Premier League (IPL) as the duo destroyed Delhi Capitals with rain-scoring sixes at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium on Tuesday. The player with the most runs in the IPL gets the Orange Cap. Before the game, Klaasen led the Orange Cap list with 283 runs.
But Abhishek’s 135 not out in just 68 balls drove him to the table with 323 runs from seven games. The South African did his best to maintain the lead with two fours and a six in the final over off Mukesh Kumar, but Abhishek’s single boundary on the fourth ball of the 20th over was enough for the Indian to open his cap for his teammate.
Sent in to bat first, Abhishek was in red-hot form as he smashed sixes at will. Despite the departure of his opening partner Travis Head for 37 in the ninth over, the Indian left-hander went about his business with utter disdain, racing to his first fifty off 25 balls. He needed just 22 balls to complete his second, scoring his second IPL hundred. Remarkably, his first also came at this location.
Abhishek smashed 10 fours and 10 sixes during his stay in the middle. On the other hand, Klaasen didn’t stay out in absolute carnage with three sixes and three fours in a score of 37 off just 13 balls. The Protea batsman currently has 320 runs to his credit.
Gujarat Titans captain Shubman Gill, Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) Virat Kohli and Rajasthan Royals teenager Vaibhav Suryavanshi occupied the third, fourth and fifth positions respectively. In fact, only Abhishek and Klaasen are the two batsmen with more than 300 runs.
Captain Abhishek Ishan Kishan moved up to sixth in the list after knocking down 25 runs. RCB captain Rajat Patidar is seventh, followed by Punjab Kings duo Cooper Connolly and Priyansh Arya at eighth and tenth. Yashasvi Jaiswal of Rajasthan Royals is at number nine.
More records for Abhishek Sharma
Additionally, it was the second time Abhishek had hit 10 sixes in a single IPL innings, making him only the second batsman after Chris Gayle to reach the milestone more than once. With this effort, Abhishek moved to nine T20 centuries and reached Virat Kohli’s level among Indian batters.
In the innings too, Abhishek reached another major milestone as he completed 350 sixes in T20 cricket. He also completed 2000 IPL runs for Sunrisers Hyderabad, joining David Warner, Shikhar Dhawan and Kane Williamson in the elite list.
West Indies’ Chris Gayle leads the all-time list with 22 centuries, followed by Pakistan’s Babar Azam (12) and Australia’s David Warner (10), while Abhishek has now joined a group that includes the likes of South African duo Quinton de Kock and Rilee Rossouw and Pakistan’s Sahibzada Farhan.
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