On Monday, the captain of the Punjab Kings (PBKS) and a star player in the Indian Premier League (IPL) reached his 50th half-century.
At the IPL 2023 match between his team and the Kolkata Knight Riders at Eden Gardens in Kolkata, he reached this milestone.
Shikhar played a careful innings in the game, scoring 57 runs in 47 balls as wickets were tumbling from the other end. His innings included nine fours and a six. His runs had a 121.27 strike rate.
He has completed a half-century of half-centuries, becoming the second Indian after Virat Kohli (Royal Challengers Bangalore) and the third overall after David Warner (Delhi Capitals). Warner has 57 fifty-sevens overall, which is the highest in IPL history. There are fifty half-centuries between Virat and Dhawan.
With 61 such scores, including his four centuries, Warner also holds the record for the most fifty-plus scores in IPL history. In the IPL, Virat has amassed 55 fifty-plus scores, not including his five centuries. In his IPL career, Shikhar has accumulated 52 fifty-plus runs, including two fifties.
Shikhar has amassed 6,593 runs overall with a strike rate of 127.16 and an average of 35.93. In his IPL career, he has amassed two hundreds and 50 half-centuries, with a top score of 106. He has scored the second-most runs in IPL history, just ahead of Warner (6,211 runs) and behind Virat (7,043 runs).
The captain has scored 349 runs so far this season at an average of 58.16 and a strike rate of 143.62. This season, he has recorded three half-centuries, the highest of which was 99*. He has scored the ninth-most runs in IPL 2023.
In the game, Punjab Kings defeated Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) on Monday at Eden Gardens with a score of 179/7 thanks to a half-century from captain Shikhar Dhawan and late cameos from Shahrukh Khan and Harpreet Brar.
A 53-run partnership between Shikhar and the in-form Jitesh Sharma (21) appeared to put PBKS back in the game after they were reduced to 53/3 during the powerplay. But the guests again became disoriented. However, Shahrukh (21*) and Harpreet (17*) combined to score 36 runs in the last two overs, with 21 runs coming in the penultimate over, to lift PBKS to a respectable total.
But the sum was insufficient. Nitish Rana, the team's captain, scored a half-century, while Andre Russell and Rinku Singh both had explosive cameos to enable Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) win by five wickets.
