Former South African captain Faf du Plessis believes Abhishek Sharma would have heaved a huge sigh of relief after scoring his maiden T20 World Cup fifty. Sharma scored a crucial knock of 55 runs off 30 balls against Zimbabwe at the MA Chidambaram Stadium, Chennai, on Thursday to get back into form.

The southpaw was dismissed without troubling the scorers in the first three matches of the tournament. The Indian opener then could only manage 15 runs off 12 balls against South Africa and thus the pressure was increasing on him to deliver the goods.

Abhishek gave a perfect platform to the team and India was able to post an above-par score of 256 against Zimbabwe in a must-win contest.

Faf du Plessis said on ESPN Cricinfo, “Massive innings. Regardless of how many runs you have scored before the World Cup, when you don’t score runs for 3-4 games in a row, every single batter in the world starts feeling the pressure, starts feeling the confidence dropping. He can breathe now. He has got some runs and he will carry that [confidence] now into the rest of the World Cup. The stars were aligned for him to get back into form.”

On the other hand, former Indian captain Anil Kumble also concurred with Faf, stating that this fifty will add a shot in Abhishek’s arm.

He said, “This fifty will certainly give him a lot of confidence for the rest of the tournament. Abhishek will be a lot calmer when he takes guard against West Indies.”

Abhishek would have certainly taken a lot of confidence after his match-winning knock. India will take on the West Indies at the Eden Gardens, Kolkata, on Sunday.