Sunrisers Hyderabad’s attacking opening batter, Abhishek Sharma, put a marquee display of batting blitzkrieg against Punjab Kings on Saturday. The left-handed batter slammed a mind-boggling 141 runs off 55 balls to help his side chase down a target of 246 runs with 2 overs to spare. Pressure was understandably high on the Sunrisers after the franchise had lost four back-to-back matches. But Abhishek’s pyrotechniques helped the team lift itself from the bottom of the points table. As Abhishek reached the triple-digit score, he also pulled out a note from his pocket, the secret of which was later revealed by his opening partner, Travis Head. 

 “This one is for Orange Army,” read Abhishek’s note after he slammed his maiden IPL hundred. In a conversation with the broadcasters after the game, Head revealed that the note had been in Abhishek’s pocket since the start of the season. But it was only in the 6th game that he got the opportunity to pull it out. 

 “The note has been in the pocket of Abhishek Sharma for 6 games, glad it came out tonight,” said the Australian batter. 

Abhishek, who had been going through a poor run of form, scored a breathtaking 141 off 55 balls as SRH scripted the second-highest run chase in IPL history to return to winning ways with a comprehensive eight-wicket win over Punjab Kings in a high-scoring encounter here on Saturday.

“This one is very special, because I wanted to break that losing streak. Losing four back-to-back matches was very tough. But we never talked about it in the team. Special mention to Yuvi paji (Yuvraj Singh) and Suryakumar (Yadav) as well. They have been in touch with me,” said Abhishek, whose knock helped SRH chase down a massive 245/6 with nine deliveries to spare.

He said the atmosphere in the team never changed despite the defeats, which was one of the reasons SRH could chase down the big total.

“The atmosphere was simple even though the batters were not doing well,” he said.

With his parents watching from the stands, there was all the more reason to give a sterling performance.

“I have been waiting for them. My whole team was waiting for my parents because they’ve been lucky for SRH,” he said.

The opener added that the easy-paced wicket gave him options to invent and innovate his shots.

“If you have seen me close enough I never play behind the wicket. But I was wanting to invent a few shots which was very easy on this wicket. It helped us both (him and opening partner Travis Head). We didn’t talk anything. It was just natural play for (both of) us. The partnership boosted me up,” he said.

SRH skipper Pat Cummins said that his bowlers has few options to stop the flow of runs early on as the wicket was very docile.

“I think you don’t have too many options, it’s a good wicket, the slower balls aren’t really reacting, ball pings around here, so you just try.” The Australian pacer said he was a big fan of Abhishek’s batting.

“Yeah, I’m a pretty big fan of Abhi. Look, we spoke about it before the match. We’ve been really happy with how everyone’s going and training and the form, it just hasn’t clicked,” he said.