Our Bureau
Dubai
The Indian team kicked off their Asia Cup 2025 campaign this Wednesday, on September 10th, with an astounding performance defeating the hosts United Arab Emirates in Dubai by nine wickets. It was expected from India to dominate the match-up against the highly inexperienced UAE team but what became the highlight of their innings was the blitzing innings of the Indian opener Abhishek Sharma who achieved a historic feat.
The left handed batter scored 30 runs off 16 balls before he was dismissed by Junaid Siddique. In his quick-fire knock, Abhishek hit three sixes and two fours, however, what shocked everyone was him taking on the bowler on the very first ball of the chase and hitting it out of the park. His six on the first ball of Haider Ali became the first instance of an Indian batter hitting a six on the first delivery of a run chase in the history of T20I cricket.
India’s T20I captain, Surya spoke on Abhishek’s destructive knock stating that there is a reason why he is the world’s number one T20I batter in the world. He pointed out that it is how he plays doesn’t matter what the target is.
“He is currently the world’s number one batter for a reason; he sets the tone, irrespective of if we chase 200 or 50. Unbelievable from him. Everyone is excited for the game against Pakistan,” Surya said after the game.
In the end it was quite an easy chase for the Indian team after they bowled UAE out for just 57 runs in 13.1 overs with Kuldeep Yadav leading the charts with 4 wickets followed by Shivam Dube who had 3 scalps to their name. Kuldeep received the Man of the Match honours for his brilliant performance making a return to the T20I set up.
