HYDERABAD, India (AP) — Opening batter Abhishek Sharma equaled Virat Kohli’s Indian record of nine centuries in T20s and led Sunrisers Hyderabad to a 47-run victory over Delhi Capitals in the Indian Premier League on Tuesday.
The left-handed Sharma hit 10 sixes and 10 fours in his unbeaten 135 off 68 balls to anchor Hyderabad to 242-2 after they lost the toss and Delhi elected to field.
Sri Lankan fast bowler Eshan Malinga halted Delhi’s chase at 195-9 with 4-32, claiming the key wickets of top-scorer Nitish Rana (57) and David Miller on successive balls midway through the run chase. Harsh Dubey took three wickets in the last over of Delhi’s innings and finished with 3-12.
Delhi briefly tried to challenge a tall target when Rana and Lokesh Rahul (37) added 86 runs for the second wicket before they lost three quick wickets.
Rahul missed out a full toss and was caught by Sharma at deep mid-wicket and then Malinga struck two vital blows when Rana was held by a diving Sharma at mid-on and Miller was clean bowled for a golden duck as the old ball started to reverse swing and Delhi slipped to 107-4, losing three wickets in space of five balls.
Earlier, Sharma set up the platform of Hyderabad’s fifth 200-plus score of the season by combining in a blistering opening stand of 97 runs with Travis Head (37) and provided a late flurry with Heinrich Klaasen, who scored 37 not out off 13 balls.
“I love playing here and want to entertain the crowd,” Sharma said. “The environment we had at SRH from 2024 was a game changer for us, I always wanted to play like this, for Punjab as well. Playing for Hyderabad has always felt like that.”
Sharma and Head breezed Hyderabad to 67-0 inside the power play as Sharma raised his half-century off 25 balls when he flicked Patel for two runs to mid-wicket in the 9th over. Patel broke through in the same over when Head smashed the left-arm spinner but couldn’t clear the mid-wicket fence and was caught by Sameer Rizvi.
Captain Ishan Kishan (25) and Sharma then smashed Yadav for 22 runs in the 11th over before Sharma raised his second IPL hundred off 47 balls with back-to-back sixes off Nitish Rana (0-55). Despite Kishan getting run-out and Sharma getting slowed down in the death overs, Klaasen’s cameo set up Hyderabad’s third straight win.
Skipper Axar Patel grabbed a wicket for Delhi when he had Head caught at deep mid-wicket in the 10th over.
With its fourth win, Hyderabad jumped to No. 3 — two spots ahead of Delhi on the points table.