This ton is for the Orange Army, says Abhishek Sharma

It was just a matter of one innings for me. I am going to dedicate this century to the Orange Army and to Hyderabad. It was just, just watch the ball and play your game, says the gifted Sunrisers Hyderabad opener

HYDERABAD: With scores of 6, 1, 2 and 18 in the previous innings, the flamboyant Abhishek Sharma was under pressure, like his team which suffered four consecutive losses in the on-going IPL before taking on Punjab Kings on Saturday night.

But, this young, gifted Sunrisers Hyderabad opener, a student of the 2011 World Cup player of the tournament Yuvraj Singh, dished out a master class in scoring his maiden IPL century and importantly chasing down 246 in style and in the process sent many records tumbling down.

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“I wrote it today itself. Because I usually wake up and write something. I got a random thought that if I do something today that would be for the Orange Army. Luckily, today I felt it was my day,” Abhishek said at the post-match briefing about the piece of paper which he displayed on reaching the three-figure milestone.

“I asked him (non-striker Heinrich Klaasen) when on 98 – what do you think? He said, just go for it. But still, somehow I felt like in this situation, if I keep going, obviously the match can end early,” the delighted opener said.

“There is pressure. Obviously, if I say no, it will be a lie. Especially, if you are not doing 3-4 innings well, especially if you are losing a match,” he said.

“I didn’t feel that we were losing a match. No one’s mindset was negative, only positivity. Because everyone was waiting for such a blast from the SRH team. And luckily, today we had to break the streak of losing four matches in-a-row to stay on the table. I mean, sir, we are taking one game at a time,” Abhishek said.

“To be honest, I was sick for four days. I had a temperature. But luckily, I feel I am very grateful to have people like Yuvraj Singh and Surya Kumar around me. Because they were the ones who were continuously calling me,” he said.

“It was just a matter of one innings for me. I am going to dedicate this century to the Orange Army and to Hyderabad. It was just, just watch the ball and play your game. Because whenever we played as partners or did something for the team, it’s always been on the winning side,” Abhishek said.

Sunrisers play Mumbai Indians in the next game in Mumbai on Thursday.