'Felt today was going to be my day' - Abhishek dedicates century to Orange Army

It took a special innings from Abhishek Sharma for Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) to snap a four-match losing streak in IPL 2025. Abhishek blazed his way to 141 off 55 balls in Hyderabad, against Punjab Kings (PBKS), an innings that featured remarkably consistent ball-striking and a unique century celebration where he pulled out a note from his pocket that read "This one is for Orange Army [SRH's fans]".

"I wrote it today itself," Abhishek said of the note, "because I usually wake up and write something. I got a random thought that if I do something today, that would be for Orange Army. Luckily, today I felt it was my day."

Abhishek hit 14 fours and ten sixes in his innings. While a lot of it was power hitting, there were deft shots in the mix as well. Like when Marco Jansen went around the wicket and bowled with no fielder to the left of deep midwicket in the tenth over, Abhishek went across the line and hit two boundaries through fine leg.

"If you've seen me close enough, I never play anything behind the wicket, but I was still trying few shots because they had a pretty good plan for us outside off. So, I wanted to just invent a few shots which I think was very easy on this pitch because of the [even] bounce and the [boundary] size on one side."

Apart from the recent losses that had put them at the bottom of the points table, SRH came into the game with pressure on their batters, especially Abhishek himself and his fellow opener Travis Head, who had misfired in the last four games.

But they put on a 171-run stand in 12.2 overs in a 246-run chase that SRH completed with nine balls to spare. Abhishek said that a calm team environment had ensured that both batters and the rest of the group remained positive.

"I'd be lying if I say there was no pressure," he said. "There is pressure if you don't do well in three or four innings, especially if your team's losing. But I never felt that we've been losing games, nobody in the team had a negative mindset, there was only positivity from everyone. All were waiting for an explosion like this from SRH team. We had to break the four-match streak today to stay in the table."

SRH have moved up two spots and are now at eighth position on the points table. Their next game is against Mumbai Indians at the Wankhede Stadium on Thursday.