IPL Rising Star: Ashutosh Sharma has hogged the limelight for his scintillating half-century against Mumbai Indians in the 33rd match of the Indian Premier League. The Punjab batter was on the song during the PBKS vs MI clash at the Maharaja Yadavindra Singh International Cricket Stadium, Mullanpur. With their backs against the walls, Ashutosh kept Punjab's hopes alive and achieved a couple of rare milestones during the clash.
Ashutosh has become PBKS' first and 6th batter overall to score a fifty batting at No.8 or lower in the history of the tournament. He scored a valiant 28-ball 61 to keep Punjab's hopes alive before falling when the victory seemed in sight in the 18th over.
He has joined a pretty elusive list of batters with a fifty from No.8 or lower in the IPL. Before him, Rashid Khan, Pat Cummins, Andre Russell, Harbhajan Singh and Chris Morris could have achieved it.
Batters with 50 from No.8 or lower in IPL:
- 79* Rashid Khan GT v MI 2023
- 66* P Cummins KKR v CSK 2021
- 64* A Russell KKR v SRH 2024
- 64 Harbhajan MI v PBKS 2015
- 61 Ashutosh Sharma PBKS v MI 2024
- 52* C Morris DC v MI 2017
He also achieved a unique feat of having made 100-plus runs from No.8 or lower in an IPL season. Ashutosh is the only second batter after Rashid Khan to make 100 or more runs in a single edition of the tournament. Rashid achieved the feat last year for Gujarat Titans.
Ashutosh was the star for Punjab in the 193-run chase. The Kings were 77/6 in the run-chase when the youngster walked out to bat. He and Shashank Singh injected hope into the Punjab camp with a 34-run stand but when Shashank departed, it all looked over. However, Ashutosh had his thoughts clear. He swept Jasprit Bumrah for a six over square leg and smoked the other bowlers for fun to bring the required rate down from over 10 to 7 in the final four overs. However, he departed on the first ball of Gerald Coetzee's final over in the 17th over to leave the Kings with too much to do. Ultimately they fell short by 9 runs.
