Ahmedabad (Gujarat) [India], May 22 (ANI): Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) opener Abhishek Sharma has proven to be a breakout star of the ongoing Indian Premier League (IPL) with his fearless batting and consistent six-hitting abilities.
However, he has had two areas of weakness in the ongoing tournament, which have become more clear during the qualifier one clash against Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) at Ahmedabad’s Narendra Modi Stadium.
During the game, he could not last for long and make an impact, falling to pacer Vaibhav Arora for three runs in four deliveries after being caught by Andre Russell at covers while attempting to go aerial.
While Abhishek has scored a solid amount of runs against pace bowling, he is more prone to dismissals by pacers than spin. In 14 innings, Abhishek has scored 277 runs against pace in just 144 balls at a strike rate of 192.40. However, he has lost his wickets to pacers 10 times in this tournament and his batting average against pace stands at 27.7.
Also, Abhishek does not really enjoy batting outside the comfort zone of his high-scoring home stadium, the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium in Hyderabad. In eight matches played away from home, Abhishek has scored just 186 runs at an average of 23.25 and a strike rate of 164.6. His best score outside home is a knock of 46 against Delhi Capitals at Arun Jaitley Stadium. His scores away from home are 32, 29, 16, 34, 46, 15, 11 and 3.
Coming to the match, Sunrisers Hyderabad elected to bat first. After being reduced to 39/4 following an incredible powerplay spell by Mitchell Starc, a 62-run stand between Rahul Tripathi (55 in 35 balls, with seven fours and a six) and Heinrich Klaasen (32 in 21 balls, with three fours and a six) helped SRH cross the 100-run mark. But wickets kept falling for Sunrisers as bowlers were able to maintain pressure on KKR. A late cameo from skipper Mitchell Starc (30 in 24 balls, with two fours and two sixes) took SRH to a respectable 159 in 19.3 overs.
Starc was the pick of the bowlers for KKR, with a spell of 3/34 in four overs, once again making an impact during the big stages. Varun Chakravarthy also picked up 2/26 in four overs. Vaibhav Arora, Sunil Narine, Andre Russell and Vaibhav Arora got a wicket each.
In the run-chase of 160 runs, a 44-run partnership between openers Rahmanullah Gurbaz (23 in 14 balls, with two fours and two sixes) and Sunil Narine (21 in 16 balls, with four boundaries) provided a fine platform to KKR. Attacking half-centuries from skipper Shreyas Iyer (58* in 24 balls, with five fours and four sixes) and Venkatesh Iyer (51* in 28 balls, with five fours and four sixes) made a mockery of SRH’s bowling and run-chase, winning the game by eight wickets with 38 balls to go.
With this win, KKR has earned a direct spot in the final, while SRH has one more shot at the title clash and will play in Qualifier two against the winner of the eliminator match between Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) and Rajasthan Royals (RR) taking place on Wednesday.
Starc took home the ‘Player of the Match’ award. (ANI)
