Abhishek slams 141 to power SRH home over PBKS

Sunrisers Hyderabad opener Abhishek Sharma, going by his own excellent knock last season, had a highest score of 24 in the first five games of this IPL season going into Saturday's game against Punjab Kings.

- Sanjjeev K Samyal

MUMBAI: The left-hander banished any doubts about his batting with a sensational show of hitting, powering to 141, as SRH swept to an eight-wicket win at home.

Sharma smashed 14 fours and 10 sixes in a 55-ball display that made light of achieving the second highest chase in IPL history, getting it done in a mere 18.3 overs. Sharma's knock was the third highest ever in the league.

Punjab Kings skipper Shreyas Iyer's swashbuckling 82 (36 balls) and Marcus Stoinis' blitz of four sixes off the last four balls had set up a daunting total of 245/6, but those efforts were reduced to a side show by the brilliance of Sharma at Hyderabad's Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium.