IND Vs ZIM, 2nd T20I: ‘I Always Believe In My Hitting Ability’, Says India Opener Abhishek Sharma After Maiden Hundred

Abhishek Sharma’s 100 in 47 balls was studded with seven fours and five sixes. He also became the Indian cricketer to take fewest innings to a maiden T20I hundred.

Harare: Despite getting out on duck on his debut, India opener Abhishek Sharma believed in his hitting ability to score a maiden T20I hundred in just his second international game and power the Men in Blue to a 100-run win against Zimbabwe in the second game of the five-match series on Sunday. The southpaw announced his arrival on the big stage with a 100 off just 47 balls that took India to 234/2 before the hosts were bundled out for 134 in 18.4 overs.

India thus levelled the five-match series 1-1 after losing the first match by 13 runs. “I feel like if it’s your day, you express yourself. After the drop, I thought it was my day and had to take responsibility,” Sharma said at the post-match presentation. “Rutu helped me in keeping perspective. I always believe in my (hitting) ability. It’s about momentum for me. If it’s in the arc, I believe I need to hit it over regardless of when it is,” he added. Sharma hailed his team’s ability to bounce back swiftly from a setback just a day ago.

“It was a good performance after the defeat yesterday. We didn’t have much time to lament. I felt that T20 is all about the momentum, and thought it was my day today. Special thanks to the coaches and captain for keeping confidence (in me),” said Abhishek, who was named the player of the match.

India skipper Shubman Gill said the team felt good to be back to winning ways and lauded Sharma and Ruturaj Gaikwad for their big alliance. “It was not easy to bat in powerplay. Abhi and Rutu built innings brilliantly. Hopefully, the batters continue to fire in the games coming up,” Gill said.

“Yesterday was more about us not being able to handle pressure. Ours is a young side. Actually, it was good to have pressure in the first game and we knew what to expect today.” Zimbabwe captain Sikandar Raza admitted that the “world champions will eventually play like world champions”.

“I thought our fielding was bad, dropping four chances hurt us. I expected 200 on that wicket and it’d get better in the second innings. They got 20 extra. I thought it’d be a close game coming into the chase, but wasn’t to be,” he said. Raza hoped to see more runs from his top-order batters.

“Our top order is not firing. Blessing (Muzarabani) has come leaps and bounce, he’s very hungry. As long as he stays fit, he’ll bowl well. We’ve talked about batting for a while. It’s easier to fix when there is a pattern. We came out firing today, lot of the issues came down to inexperience,” he added.