Abhishek Sharma opened the innings for Sunrisers Hyderabad in their IPL 2026 match against Punjab Kings on Saturday (April 11) and played a knock of 74 runs from 28 balls. During his stay at the crease
at Maharaja Yadavindra Singh International Cricket Stadium in Mullanpur, the left-handed batter from Amritsar hammered 5 fours and 8 sixes and added 120 runs from 49 balls for the first wicket with Travis Head, who made 38 runs from 23 balls (5 fours and 1 six). Abhishek, who tops the ICC T20I batter’s rankings, hammered seven of his eight sixes in the first six overs of the match, and it helped him become the first Indian batter in 19 seasons of the IPL to smash seven sixes within the first six overs of an IPL innings.
Before Abhishek, only three overseas batters – Sanath Jayasuriya, Jos Buttler and Jonny Bairstow – managed to slam seven sixes in the first six overs of an IPL innings.
While Jayasuriya achieved the feat during his unbeaten 114-run knock against Chennai Super Kings in the 2008 IPL match played at Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai on May 14, Buttler slammed 7 sixes within the first six overs of the rain-curtailed IPL 2018 match for Rajasthan Royals against Delhi Capitals at Arun Jaitley Stadium on May 2, and Jonny Bairstow hit 7 sixes for Punjab Kings in the IPL 2022 match against RCB at Brabourne Stadium on May 13.
Most sixes in Overs 1-6 in an IPL inns
| PLAYER | TEAM | SIXES | AGAINST | VENUE | DATE |
| Sanath Jayasuriya | Mumbai Indians | 7 | Chennai Super Kings | Mumbai (WS) | May 14, 2008 |
| Jos Buttler | Rajasthan Royals | 7 | Delhi Capitals | Delhi | May 2, 2018 |
| Jonny Bairstow | Punjab Kings | 7 | Royal Challengers Bengaluru | Mumbai (BS) | May 13, 2022 |
| Abhishek Sharma | Sunrisers Hyderabad | 7 | Punjab Kings | New Chandigarh | April 11, 2026 |
Abhishek hammered his first six of the match on the fourth ball of the third over bowled by Arshdeep Singh, and on the fifth ball he smashed one more maximum to the left-arm pacer. His next four sixes were off Vijaykumar Vyshak’s bowling in the fifth over. On the first, third, fourth and sixth balls, Abhishek scored sixes against Vyshak to add a total of 24 runs to his team’s tally, and his seventh six came on the fifth ball of the sixth over bowled by Xavier Bartlett.
Abhishek was sent back to the pavilion by Shashank Singh on the third ball of the 9th over of SRH’s innings. But before making his way back to the dugout, he reached the 50-run mark in just 18 balls.
The fifty in 18 balls by Abhishek against PBKS helped him become the first batter in the world to slam five IPL fifties in less than 20 balls.
