Playing it straight, biding his time: A calculated Abhishek Sharma half-century at Chennai restores India’s WC hopes

CHENNAI: Team India secured a memorable 72-run win over Zimbabwe to bring their T20 World Cup title defence back on track following a humiliating 76-run loss to South Africa at Ahmedabad. While Men in Blue let their bats do the roaring with some of their cleanest ball striking in the tournament, it was opener Abhishek Sharma’s return-to-form half-century which was the biggest positive for the defending champions from this match.

Abhishek, by his mighty standards, smashed his slowest T20I fifty in 26 balls, striking three fours and four sixes on his way to the milestone. But it was the way he paced his innings, gave himself some time out there in the middle, and the areas of the ground that he attacked, which made this knock of 55 runs a sign of bigger things to come in this tournament.

For three matches, the left-hander could not buy a run. In the fourth against Proteas, he swung out of desperation and hope in a short 12-ball 15. Now at Chennai, Abhishek gave himself a massive confidence booster with a well-calculated assault, which gave him time to both attack, slow down and enjoy his teammates’ hitting from the other end.

Intent. Composure. Class.

Abhishek Sharma brought up his maiden ICC T20 World Cup fifty!

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Thirty four of the southpaw’s first 50 runs came down the ground, that is 68 per cent of his runs, the highest for him at the same stage of an innings, outdoing his previous high of 36 per cent. After handsomely dispatching a no-ball by Tinotenda Maposa over covers, he hit his next two aerial shots, a four and a six in the same over, one over the bowler’s head and the other one over long-on.

This over, his focus was on playing as straight as possible. Gone was that Abhishek against South Africa, who swung it everywhere, hoping that somewhere, sometime, he would manage to middle and produce a meaty blow for a four/six. He ended the powerplay with another straight six over Richard Ngarva’s head and followed it with a six over long-on against Brian Bennett’s off-spin.

In the 13th over, a slower one from Maposa was dispatched for a four straight down the ground. By the time Abhishek concluded his innings at 55 runs in 30 balls, with four boundaries and four sixes, he had played the majority of his boundary shots as straight as possible, over long-on, long-off or straight over the bowler’s head.

It was great from Team India’s point of view that he gave himself some time at the crease, spending as many as 13 overs at the crease, taking 13 singles and a double in his knock.

Against off-spinners Bennett and skipper Sikandar Raza, he played with more caution, scoring 17 runs in 13 balls, with just six against Ngarva being his solitary big hit against them. He chose to collect rest of his runs against them via singles and doubles.

He also picked up a nice time to slow down, going from 33 in just 13 balls to scoring his next 17 runs to reach his fifty in the next 13 balls, while playing against spin. But before that, he had given himself the liberty to slow down by treating pacers with his signature disdain and authority.

Speaking after his knock, Abhishek expressed that he was waiting for his contribution to the team’s cause and while slowing down was not intentional, he wanted to spend some time at the crease.

“It is always great, you know, when you contribute for the team. And I was waiting for this moment for quite a long time now. I am really happy. I would say it was not that intentional (talking about slowing down), but I just wanted to, you know, spend some time at the pitch because if you see, I have not even played 10-12 balls in the whole tournament yet. So I just wanted to spend some time and make a special mention to the team, the way they have treated me so far.”

The world number one batter in T20Is said that during the practice sessions, hotel stays, everyone around him was waiting for him to fire, and everyone kept reminding him of his past heroics and how his time was “not so far”. “You just keep believing. So that has happened,” he signed off.

Whether Abhishek scores in the virtual knockout against the West Indies is not guaranteed, but the innings reflected a sense of maturity in Abhishek’s evolving T20I game, choosing whenever to slow down, picking his time and areas at the pitch to attack, and focusing on playing as straight as possible when the time demanded.

The focus on the match-ups looked on-point as the Abhishek India has grown accustomed to over the last two-three years would swallow pacers for fun, giving himself a chance to play some waiting game against off-spin, an area of weakness seen during this tournament. Rather than swinging out of desperation and for some quick dopamine and runs, Abhishek’s bat swing and timing had the patience, ruthlessness and smoothness that have become such an integral part of his game over the years. (ANI)