'Today I got a random thought that if I do something today that will be for the Orange Army.'
It was a 'random thought' that led Abhishek Sharma to smash the highest individual score by an Indian in IPL history.
Sharma raised the power-hitting bar with a sensational 141 off 55 balls as Sunrisers Hyderabad made short work of the 246-run target set by Punjab Kings to end to their four-match losing streak in Hyderabad on Saturday.
By his own admission, like his teammates, he too was under pressure to perform after a string of failures and a bout of sickness.
He was running high fever for majority of the six-day break that SRH had ahead of the home game, but he woke up on Saturday envisioning a match-winning contribution.
After completing a 40-ball century, his first in the IPL, Abhishek celebrated by taking out a piece of paper from his pocket and waving it to the stands. It was a note he had penned before the match and became a matter of intrigue as Punjab Kings captain Shreyas Iyer started reading it.
Visuals showed it read: 'This ONE IS For ORANGE ARMY'.
"To be honest, I wrote it today only, because usually I wake up and write something. So today I got a random thought that if I do something today that will be for the Orange Army. So, luckily, today was my day," said Sharma,
He categorically spoke about the role played by his mentor, Yuvraj Singh, and India's T20 captain Suryakumar Yadav in keeping him in good spirits when the runs were not flowing from his bat.
"To be honest, I was sick for four days. I had temperature. But I am very grateful to have people like Yuvraj Singh and Suryakumar around me. Because they were the ones who were continuously calling me," he said, when asked about the six-day break.
"Because they knew that I can do something like this. But still, as an individual, you can start doubting yourself. But they believed in me and when someone like them believes in you, you obviously start believing again.
"So it was just a matter of one innings for me," added the southpaw.
Sharma had luck on his side as he was dropped once and caught off a no-ball before going on to dispatch the Punjab Kings bowlers all around the park.
He admitted feeling the heat before the game.
"If I say no, it will be a lie. Obviously, there is pressure if you are not doing three-four innings well. Especially if you are losing the match. But, as I said earlier in the (presentation) ceremony, I didn't feel that there was anyone in the team who was down after losing four games in a row."
Punjab Kings did not bowl enough dot balls on a belter of a wicket, and not being able to take half chances cost them the match, said spin bowling coach Sunil Joshi.
"We knew it was going to be a big scoring game... few catches went down; that is a big thing (in a high scoring game like this).
"On a good wicket like this we need to improve our dot ball percentage. The dot ball percentage could prove to be the difference in the middle overs and we could not latch on our half chances."
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