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IPL 2020: Vijay Shankar slams first fifty after 2018, says 'this knock will give me a lot of confidence'

Vijay Shankar notched up his fifty with a match-winning boundary. It was the all-rounder's first half-century after 2018. Shankar's fifty off 51 balls is the slowest fifty by any batsman in IPL 2020.

IPL 2020: Vijay Shankar slams first fifty after 2018, says this knock will give me a lot of confidence

Dubai, October 22: Sunrisers Hyderabad thrashed Rajasthan Royals by 8 wickets on Thursday (October 22) as the David Warner-led side secured first successful run chase in the tournament at Dubai International Cricket Stadium.

Manish Pandey (83* off 47 balls) and Vijay Shankar (52* off 51 deliveries) forged a partnership of 140 runs for the third wicket and helped Sunrisers climb at fifth spot. The stand between Pandey and Shankar was the 24th 100+ partnership for Sunrisers Hyderabad, since their entry in 2013. However, it was the first instance when two Indians were involved in a 100+ stand for SRH. The previous 23 always involved a foreign player.

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Vijay Shankar had a memorable outing in the match as he produced an all-round performance in the must-win game for the Hyderabad franchise. The Tamil Nadu cricketer had a superb outing with the ball as he got the wicket of Royals' star batsman Jos Buttler for 9. The right-arm medium pacer conceded just 15 runs from three overs.

Buoyed with his impressive bowling effort, the right-handed batsman translated his good show with the bat as well. Shankar was promoted to number four and reposed his faith in the team management's faith in him.

Initially, Shankar started on a cautious note because Hyderabad were 16/2 in four overs of the run chase and played second fiddle to Manish Pandey - who was playing aggressively. Later, Shankar also joined the party when he broke the shackles and started scoring at run-a-ball. He even smashed three back-to-back boundaries off dangerous Archer.

Shankar notched up his fifty with a match-winning boundary. It was the all-rounder's first half-century after 2018. Shankar's fifty off 51 balls is the slowest fifty by any batsman in IPL 2020. He became the ninth batsman in IPL history to register a 50+ ball half-century. In IPL 2019, Shankar's highest score was 40* as he could only amass 244 runs in 14 innings.

Talking about his all-round performance, the tall all-rounder said, I have been bowling pretty well, I don't know when I will get the ball so I just wanted to be ready whenever I'm called. I tried to take pace off, hit the hard length and bowl cross-seamed. We just thought we should take the game deep. We knew Jofra will come hard at us. Personally, this was a do-or-die game for me.

"I batted just 18 balls prior to this. It was a good challenge and I was looking forward to something like this because it will give me a lot of confidence if I do well in that situation. I asked Manish if I should go for the shots because I didn't want him to feel the pressure because of me and play a rash shot. We were communicating in that partnership, that's why we were able to take the game deep," he added further.

Story first published: Friday, October 23, 2020, 0:08 [IST]
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