Abhishek Sharma: During his breakthrough season with SRH, he battles against the speed and plays away from home

Ahmedabad (Gujarat), May 22, India: Abhishek Sharma, the opener for Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH), has emerged as a sensation in the Indian Premier League (IPL) with his brave batting and reliable six-hitting.

Nevertheless, he has shown two weaknesses in the current competition, which were highlighted in the qualifier-one matchup between Ahmedabad’s Narendra Modi Stadium and Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR).

He could not make an impression throughout the game and was caught by Andre Russell at the covers while trying to go aerial. He fell to pacer Vaibhav Arora for three runs in four deliveries.

Although Abhishek has amassed a respectable quantity of runs off fast bowling, pacers are more likely to remove him than spinners. Abhishek has amassed 277 runs at a strike rate of 192.40 in 14 innings while batting against the pace with only 144 balls. But in this competition, he has fallen victim to pacers ten times, and his batting average against pace is only 27.7.

Furthermore, Abhishek does not really like batting outside of the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium in Hyderabad, his high-scoring home ground. Abhishek has only managed 186 runs at an average of 23.25 and a strike rate of 164.6 in eight away games. At Arun Jaitley Stadium, he scored a career-high 46 against the Delhi Capitals, his greatest score away from home. His scores are 32, 29, 16, 34, 46, 15, 11, and 3 while he is not at home.

Sunrisers Hyderabad decided to bat first as the game started. Following an amazing Mitchell Starc powerplay session that reduced SRH to 39/4, a 62-run partnership between Heinrich Klaasen (32 in 21 balls, three fours, and a six) and Rahul Tripathi (55 in 35 balls) enabled SRH to reach the 100-run milestone. However, the Sunrisers continued to get wickets as long as their bowlers could keep KKR under pressure. Mitchell Starc, the captain, made a late comeback, scoring 30 runs in 24 balls with two fours and two sixes to lead SRH to a respectable 159 in 19.3 overs.

With a stint of 3/34 in four overs, Starc was KKR’s best bowler and once again proved to be a force at important times. In four overs, Varun Chakravarthy, too, scored 2/26. Andre Russell, Sunil Narine, Vaibhav Arora, and Vaibhav Arora each claimed a wicket.

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) set up KKR for a comfortable lead in the run-chase of 160 runs. SRH’s bowling and run-chase were humiliated by attacking half-centuries from captain 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), who won the match by eight wickets with 38 balls remaining.

With this victory, KKR has secured a straight berth in the championship game. Meanwhile, SRH will play in Qualifier 2 against the winner of Wednesday’s elimination game between the Rajasthan Royals (RR) and Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) for one more chance to win the title.

The ‘Player of the Match’ trophy went to Starc.