Abhishek Sharma shone with both bat and ball as Punjab hammered Puducherry by 54 runs in a Group C encounter of the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy , in Hyderabad, on Thursday.
Abhishek, the No.1 T20 batter in the world, smashed a 9-ball 34 after Punjab opted to bat first and scored a healthy 192 for 5.
Interestingly, Abhishek scored all his runs through boundaries -- four boundaries and three sixes.
Later, he returned to open the bowling and picked up 3 for 23 in four overs with his left-arm spin to cap a superb all-round show.
He struck with his fourth ball by trapping opener Adithya N Garhwal in front of the wicket before cleaning up R Jashwanth Shreeram in the next over. Abhishek's third victim was Puducherry captain captain Aman Khan who was caught by Sanvir Singh.
Ayush Goyal, who shared the new ball with Abhishek, also scalped three conceding 25 runs in 2.4 overs as Puducherry were all out for 138 in 18.4
With the win, Punjab climbed to the second spot in the points tally.
It was Abhishek's final match in this year's national T20 tournament as he will now join the Indian team for the T20I series against South Africa, starting in Cuttack on December 9.
The southpaw finished his SMAT campaign with 242 runs at a strike rate of 275 and five wickets.
Last week, Abhishek smashed the joint third-fastest half-century and broke his own record for most sixes by an Indian in a T20 innings while scoring an unbeaten 148 in a game against Bengal.
His fifty, which came off just 12 deliveries and included five fours and as many sixes, and just one dot ball, was the joint-second fastest by an Indian, equalling the record of his mentor, former India all-rounder Yuvraj Singh.
Brief scores:
Punjab 192/5 in 20 overs (Abhishek Sharma 34, Salil Arora 44 not out) beat Puducherry 138 in 18.4 overs (Sidak Singh 61; Abhishek Sharma 3/23) by 54 runs.