India opener Abhishek Sharma waged a lone battle with the bat in the second T20I of the five-match series against Australia at the iconic Melbourne Cricket Ground on Friday (October 31).
Asked to bat first, the Men in Blue were left reeling at 32/4, with Shubman Gill (5), Sanju Samson (2), Suryakumar Yadav (1) and Tilak Varma (0) back to the hut inside powerplay as Josh Hazlewood (3-13 in 4 overs) wreaked havoc with the new ball.
The scoreboard soon read 49/5 as Axar Patel was dismissed in the eighth over for 7. Amid the collapse, Abhishek didn’t only hold one end firmly but he continued to play his wide range of shots.
The southpaw forged a valuable 56-run stand with fast bowler Harshit Rana (35 off 33) to revive the innings. However, Harshit’s dismissal in the 16th over trigged another collapse as India’s innings folded for 125 in 18.4 overs.
Abhishek was the ninth player to be dismissed in the penultimate over for 68 off 37 balls, including 8 boundaries and 2 sixes.
For his valiant knock under pressure, Abhishek Sharma garnered rich praise from the cricket fraternity on social media platform X.
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