Sunrisers Hyderabad head coach Daniel Vettori showered praise on Abhishek Sharma after they secured a six-wicket win against Lucknow Super Giants at Lucknow in the ongoing IPL 2025 on Monday. Chasing 206 runs for the win, Sharma was without his opening partner, Travis Head, who is recovering from Covid.

The left-hander was once again able to hit the ground running, as he took the LSG bowlers to the cleaners in the Powerplay overs, making the most of the field restrictions. Sharma scored 59 runs off just 20 balls, smashing four fours and six maximums. 

The southpaw scored at a blistering strike rate of 295 to put his team’s noses in front. 

Daniel Vettori said while talking to the official broadcasters after the win, “We are used to it, he is incredible, the big challenge for teams is when he gets through the initial overs and then takes the spinners on. Usually he is successful there, his strike rate is incredible. Certain people step up at certain times, it has been unfortunate for us this season.”

Meanwhile, the former New Zealand captain revealed they wanted Travis Head and Abhishek Sharma to play aggressively throughout the season and wanted others to play according to the match situation but things didn’t go according to plan.

Vettori added, “We wanted Abhishek and Head to go out and play aggressive and the rest to play according to the game situation. Sometimes wickets allow you to play in that way. It’s probably understanding the conditions, a lot of planning went into on how to bowl to those two, I don’t want a style change but we I want them to adapt better.”

Vettori was delighted with the run-chase, “Particularly after the extended break, to see the team get back and pull off what was quite a difficult chase was great.”

Sunrisers Hyderabad will next take on Royal Challengers Bengaluru at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bengaluru on Friday.