6 min readHyderabadApr 22, 2026 06:07 PM IST
First published on: Apr 22, 2026 at 12:18 AM IST
After starting the season slowly, Sunrisers Hyderabad are back on track, climbing up to the third spot with back-to-back wins at home and making a strong case for the playoffs with lesser-known bowlers.
On a night when Sunrisers Hyderabad had the opportunity to get out of the middle muddle, Abhishek Sharma, who is affectionately called Puli (tiger) by Hyderabad fans, pounced upon the Delhi Capitals bowlers to smack 135 runs from just 68 deliveries. Later, in the defence of 243 runs, Eshan Malinga, with the older ball reversing, gave a masterclass of his slower balls and delivered lethal yorkers, picking up 4/32, not affording any DC batsmen even a semblance of respite.
Abhi shakes Uppal
It must be something in the DNA of left-handers that naturally fits into T20 cricket. For the third day in a row in the IPL after Priyansh Arya and Tilak Varma, it was Abhishek Sharma’s turn on Tuesday to keep the sequence going of breathtaking innings from southpaws. It wasn’t something the crowd at Uppal had not seen before from Abhishek’s bat, but it was stunning to view because of his relaxed approach. There was little of his usual dancing up and down the crease. For most of his 68-ball 135 run innings, he stayed put at the crease and let his quick hands do the work for him.
On Saturday, Chennai Super Kings had tried to exploit the off-spinner match-up with Matthew Short against left-hand heavy SRH top-order, and Delhi Capitals tried to do the same with Nitish Rana, but it did not work this time. In fact, it was this match-up that became the catalyst in Abhishek’s innings. Sharma blasted 42 runs against Rana from just 15 deliveries, and of his 10 sixes, five came against him.
Rana, though bowling for the first time in the season, had some plans and variations up his sleeve to surprise the left-handers, but it did not bother Abhishek one bit. If it was a quicker and flatter delivery he swatted it on the offside through the cover boundary, and when Nitish tossed up and used his guile, Abhishek whacked it to the other side of the wicket over long-on. The one which brought up his ton, though, was over the mid-wicket boundary. It was not just Rana, other spinners, Axar and Kuldeep, too, received their bit of pasting on the night, and the dread of Abhishek’s hitting abilities against a favourable left-handed match-up crept in so much that both Axar and Kuldeep bowled just two overs each.
Abhishek carried his bat and, on the way, built sparkling partnerships. First, with Travis Head, who once again was struggling to get into the right shape to hit the ball as well as he could. The 25-year-old took the initiative and kept a smooth flow to the run rate. But after Head fell to Axar Patel, Ishan Kishan entered. That is when all hell broke loose, and the innings entered overdrive. There was no second-fiddle business from Kishan. Both left-handers tried to match each other’s boundary hitting count in the partnership, putting on 79 runs from just 35 deliveries. By the time Heinrich Klaasen came to the crease, the muggy day at Hyderabad had taken its toll on Abhishek, and Klaasen took the responsibility of hitting and contributing 37 runs from 13 balls in a 66-run stand.
Hollow chase
It was a chase that never started for the Capitals. Dilshan Madushanka, on his debut, picked up his Sri Lankan counterpart Pathum Nissanka to kick off things. Nitish Rana had some sort of redemption with his 30-ball 57-run knock after the whacking he took with the ball early on, and KL Rahul did look good for his cameo, but the key chasing a massive score like 243 runs for Delhi was in finding someone playing not just a quick-fire innings, but an impact innings that had to be sustained for a substantial amount of time to create panic amongst the SRH bowling.
During the partnership between Rahul and Rana, the green shoots were blossoming, but the wondrous kid from Gopalgunj Sakib Hussain had his say in things. With his magic arm, KL Rahul’s wicket was picked for a full toss, caught at fine-leg by centurion Abhishek. In the following over Player Of The Match from the previous game, Eshan Malinga, with the knack of picking wickets, dealt Delhi a double blow in a single over. First, it was Rana who mis-hit one and holed out at the long-on boundary, and then David Miller got a killer delivery when a fiery ball ripped into Miller’s middle stump off the first delivery he faced.
That 11th over essentially made the chase improbable for Delhi as Tristan Stubbs and young Sameer Rizvi had the difficult ask of both building the partnership and also maintaining the scoring rate. Both put on a 33-ball 59 run stand. Malinga returned to scalp Stubbs with a slower delivery after the Saffer tried to repeat the scoop which yielded a boundary the previous ball, but this time he was deceived by Malinga’s pace off delivery.
Abhishek Sharma later dedicated the century to his ailing sister. “We had plans to maximize Powerplay, but the wicket was a bit slow. We reassessed and kept matchups in mind,” he said. Sharma also said he always intended to entertain the crowd, and thanked coaches for giving him freedom to express himself since 2024, when a great team environment was created.
Abhishek Sharma of Sunrisers Hyderabad celebrates his century during Match 31 of the TATA Indian Premier League 2026 between Sunrisers Hyderabad and Delhi Capitals at Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium, Hyderabad, India, on April 21, 2026. (CREIMAS) 
Share
