Watch: Shubman Gill hit his childhood friend and long-time Punjab teammate Abhishek Sharma for a six last night (May 15) in IPL 2023, keeping a promise he had made to him earlier.
To bet on the IPL with our Match Centre partners bet365, head here.
Shubman Gill scored his first IPL century, in Ahmedabad, helping his team to 188-9, a total that eventually proved to be match-winning. En route his 58-ball effort, Gill struck 13 fours, and became the third batter to score an IPL hundred with just one six.
Gill’s innings was laced with numerous classical, eye-pleasing shots. He hit a couple of straight drives along with trademark punches square of the wicket on either side and slap-pulls. However, when asked about his favourite shot of the night in the post-match presentation, he mentioned the six off Abhishek Sharma.
Abhishek came on to bowl in the 12th over of the innings. Gill was already well set on 66 off 35 balls at that point. After bowling a wide on the third ball of the over – the first Gill faced off him – Abhishek bowled a half-tracker on leg stump. The in-form Gill was not going to miss out on that.
After an initial forward movement, Gill transferred his weight to the back foot and deposited the ball over the mid-wicket fence for his only six of the night. In the same over, Gill nailed a cut behind point for four. Abhishek conceded 13 in that over, and did not get another bowl.
Gill and Abhishek are childhood friends, have played a lot of age-group and domestic cricket in and for Punjab, and were part of the Under-19 World Cup winning squad in 2018.
In the post-match presentation, Gill said, “I told him before the match that if you bowl to me, I’m going to hit you for one (six).”
Gujarat eventually won by 34 runs to become the first team to secure qualification in the top four. Hyderabad, on the other hand, became the second team to get eliminated from the playoffs race.
