It’s my way or highway for Abhishek Sharma and on Friday, during the India vs South Africa fourth T20I, he got them both. The India opener hit South Africa medium pacer Andile Simelane for a six that went out of the Wanderers Stadium in Johannesburg. It happened in the first ball of the fifth over when Abhishek Sharma charged down the track to the right-arm pacer, who tried to follow him. Abhishek, however, was up to it. He used his long levers to slice the ball. He timed it so well and sailed over the extra cover boundary. The ball bounced off the roof and went out of the stadium.
Much like the previous T20I, where Abhishek hit a sparkling fifty, the left-hander dealt in sixes in the series decider. He got a slice of luck right at the start of his innings when Reeza Hendricks dropped a sharp chance in the slip cordon off Marco Jansen’s bowling in the first over of the match.
Abhishek then took some time to get his eyes in, scoring just 2 runs in 7 balls but once he hit a pickup shot off Jansen for six in the third over, there was no looking back.
Abhishek took apart Similane, hitting him for three sixes and a four in his first over to once again get India off to a blazing start. The brutal six from Abhishek that went out of the stadium also brought up India’s fifty in 4.1 overs.
Abhishek hit another four off Sipamla before nicking one to keeper Heinrich Klaasen in the same over. Abhishek backed up his half-century in the previous match with an 18-ball 36 in this match.
Earlier, India captain Suryakumar Yadav finally won the toss in this series and opted to bat. Both the sides decided to field unchanged teams from the previous match.
India lead the four-match series 2-1.
India XI: Suryakumar Yadav (capt), Abhishek Sharma, Sanju Samson (wk), Tilak Varma, Hardik Pandya, Rinku Singh, Axar Patel, Ramandeep Singh, Arshdeep Singh, Ravi Bishnoi, Varun Chakravarthy
South Africa XI: Aiden Markram (capt), Ryan Rickelton (wk), Reeza Hendricks, Tristan Stubbs, Heinrich Klaasen (wk), David Miller, Marco Jansen, Andile Simelane, Gerald Coetzee, Keshav Maharaj, Lutho Sipamla.
