What Prompted Abhishek Sharma’s Unique Celebration? ‘I Woke Up Today And…’

After a string of low scores, Sunrisers Hyderabad’s Abhishek Sharma played one of the most extraordinary knocks in Indian Premier League (IPL) history against Punjab Kings on April 12 (Saturday), hammering 141 off 55 balls to help his side chase 246 with ease. 

Yet more than Abhishek’s knock, what broke the internet was his celebration. After getting to his ton, the left-hander pulled out a note from his pocket and showed it to the spectators, in Denesh Ramdin’esque fashion. Except this was a wholesome note which read, ‘This one is for Orange Army’.

At the press conference after the game, the 24-year-old explained what prompted him to carry that note.

"I wrote it today itself," Abhishek said of the note. 

“Because I usually wake up and write something. I got a random thought that if I do something today, that would be for Orange Army. Luckily, today I felt it was my day."

In a brutal display of power hitting, Abhishek hit as many as 10 sixes. Yet what was remarkable about his knock was how he maneuvered the field, wildly exposing his leg-stump on certain occasions to target the vacant fine-leg region. Against PBKS, there was power, but there was also finesse from Abhishek, something which we did not witness a lot in IPL 2024.

"If you've seen me close enough, I never play anything behind the wicket, but I was still trying few shots because they had a pretty good plan for us outside off,” the youngster explained.

“So, I wanted to just invent a few shots which I think was very easy on this pitch because of the [even] bounce and the [boundary] size on one side."

This was a much-needed big score for Abhishek, who admitted that he was certainly ‘under pressure’ coming into the contest. Before the Punjab game, the left-hander hadn’t crossed 25 all season, with his scores reading 24, 6, 1, 2 & 18. Abhishek had plenty of luck on the night, including getting dismissed off a no-ball, but he certainly made it count.

"I'd be lying if I say there was no pressure," he said. "There is pressure if you don't do well in three or four innings, especially if your team's losing. But I never felt that we've been losing games, nobody in the team had a negative mindset, there was only positivity from everyone. 

“All were waiting for an explosion like this from SRH team. We had to break the four-match streak today to stay in the table."

Sunrisers have four days off before taking on Mumbai Indians (MI) at the Wankhede on April 17 (Thursday).