IPL 2021- 'Excellent with bat': Virender Sehwag lauds Prithvi Shaw for his smash-fest against KKR

Delhi Capitals opener Prithvi Shaw scored the fastest fifty in the ongoing season of the Indian Premier League to help his team ease past Kolkata Knight Riders. Shaw kicked off the chase of 155 runs in some style after smashing six consecutive boundaries in the first over against Kolkata Knight Riders. Shaw became the second batsman in IPL history to do so. He achieved it against Shivam Mavi, who conceded 25 runs in the first over as the first ball was wide.

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Shaw joined his current DC teammate Ajinkya Rahane to the elite list of batsmen who smashed six consecutive boundaries.

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Several compared the young gun's knock to that of Virender Sehwag's. Former Indian opener Virender Sehwag was mighty impressed with Prithvi’s power-packed performance. Viru admitted that he also wanted to dispatch all six balls to the boundary to open the innings in his playing days but could never do it.

“Smashing six boundaries off all the six balls means playing every ball through the perfect gap, which is not easy. I’ve opened in my career and had thought of smashing all the six balls so many times. But I got a maximum of 18 or 20 odd runs. I couldn’t hit six boundaries or six sixes. For that you need to be perfect on your timing so that you can find those gaps,” Sehwag told Cricbuzz.

“Prithvi Shaw was excellent with the bat. He didn’t look as if he has come to play a cricket match. Or maybe he had the confidence of playing with Shivam Mavi in the U-19 team that he knew where the bowler would bowl exactly. I have batted against Ashish Nehra so many times in nets, domestic games but would never be able to hit him for six boundaries in an over. Hats off to Prithvi Shaw for his fantastic innings,” he added.

“It would have been more exciting if he had got a hundred. He has gone through tough times already. But now, when the runs were coming, he must have scored a hundred or remained unbeaten and finished the chase,” Sehwag concluded.