SunRisers Hyderabad opening batter Abhishek Sharma recorded a 20-ball fifty, his first ever against the Royal Challengers Bengaluru. Both sides locked horns in a highly-anticipated clash on Friday, May 22 in the fight for a top-two slot in the standings. After opting to bat first, the Orange Army got off to a flying start owing to their openers Travis Head and Abhishek Sharma. While the Aussie batter could manage to put up 26 runs off 16 deliveries with five boundaries, his Indian counterpart recorded a blistering fifty.

Sharma hit his fifth fifty for the season, and first ever against the Royal Challengers Bengaluru in his 12th attempt. The SRH batter reached the milestone with a six off a Romario Shepherd delivery on the fifth ball of the eighth over. The 25-year-old raised the bat in acknowledgement and celebrated in his trademark style. In addition to it, the batter (553*) along with his teammate Heinrich Klassen (555) and Ishan Kishan (500*) became the only second trio of batters to register 500+ runs in an IPL season for the same team.

The only trio to have accomplished the feat before them was Shubman Gill, Sai Sudharsan, and Jos Buttler for GT in the IPL 2025.

Abhishek Sharma departs on 56 off Suyash Sharma delivery

The new generation’s batting superstar couldn’t continue his batting momentum for long and was forced to walk back off 56 runs after being caught out by Jordan Cox. Sharma delivered a googly down the leg-side, and while Sharma aimed for another biggie, he ended up mistiming it. Sharma ended up toe-ending so high and Cox ended up catching it inside the rope. The star batter departed on 56 runs on 22 deliveries with a combination of four boundaries and five maximums.

Another feat that Abhishek Sharma achieved on Friday was hitting most sixes in an IPL season among Indians. He is now sitting second on the standings with 43* maximums in the current season. Not only this, the Punjab cricketer also owns the record of the third-most maximums by an Indian with 42 in 2024 season. Vaibhav Sooryavanshi of the Rajasthan Royals is seeded on the top of the standings with 53 sixes, while Sharma is followed by Shreyas Iyers’ 39 sixes in 2025.