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During his 84-run knock, Abhishek hit eight huge sixes and five fours, helping his team win the match by 48 runs. He was also named Player of the Match for his brilliant batting performance.
India opener Abhishek Sharma continued his destructive form but fell just short of his third T20I hundred, scoring a match-winning 84 against New Zealand in the first T20I on Wednesday (Jan 21). During his knock, Abhishek hit eight huge sixes and five fours and helped his team to win the match by 48 runs. He also reached the 5,000 career runs in T20s. After being named Player of the Match at the post-match presentation, Abhishek spoke about his batting approach, saying he prefers to keep his game simple and focuses on practicing a few shots repeatedly so he can execute them confidently in matches
“I feel if you watch videos or if you watch your batting videos as well, you get an idea that where the ball is gonna, you know, planning to bowl you or maybe where I’m gonna play my shots. But it’s always about me backing my shots because I don’t have a lot of shots. It’s just a few shots I’m gonna practice a lot about that and I’ll just execute it,” said Abhishek.
Abhishek further said that he does not see his aggressive six-hitting style as a high-risk one and enjoys batting at the top, especially in the first six overs, which is something he has practiced a lot.
“I don’t feel it’s a high risk, but for me, it’s, I feel this is my, I wouldn’t say it’s my comfort zone, but it’s like I’ve always wanted to be in first because they want to give you the first six overs and that’s what I’ve been practicing before the nets as well. And that was always in my mind if I do because if you see all the bowlers, all the main bowlers and you know, from all the teams, they bowl first, second, three overs probably. And if I get scores in the first three, four overs, then, you know, we have always got the upper hand,” he added.
In the first T20I, apart from Abhishek, Rinku Singh also made a strong comeback and scored an unbeaten 44 off 20 balls, while Suryakumar Yadav made 32 off 22 and Hardik Pandya contributed 25 off 16. Their combine efforts helped India to post a big total of 238/7.
Chasing 239, New Zealand managed to score only 190/7 in 20 overs. Glenn Phillips top-scored with 78 off 40 balls, while Mark Chapman contributed 39. For India, Varun Chakaravarthy and Shivam Dube took two wickets each, while Arshdeep Singh, Hardik Pandya and Axar Patel picked up one wicket apiece.