In the Vijay Hazare Trophy 2024-25, Punjab openers Abhishek Sharma and Prabhsimran Singh slammed centuries against Saurashtra, where they set up the joint second-highest opening partnership in the tournament history.

The IPL 2025 retained players, SunRisers Hyderabad’s Abhishek Sharma and Punjab Kings’ uncapped Prabhsimran Singh, blasted against the Saurashtra bowlers. While the Punjab skipper Sharma scored a 60-ball century, Prabhsimran scored an 81-ball century.

After Saurashtra captain Jaydev Unadkat chose to field first, Punjab recorded their first 400+ total in List A history. At the end of the 50 overs, Punjab scored 424/5.

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Abhishek Sharma slammed 86-ball 150 runs; and recorded Punjab's highest score

The 24-year-old opener and skipper Abhishek Sharma completed his half-century in 24 balls and then completed his fourth List A century in 60 balls. Then, he completed his 150 runs in 86 balls. While his previous List A highest score was 169 not out, which was also the List A record by a Punjab batter, Sharma set a new record in Punjab’s List A cricket history after scoring 170 runs off 96 balls with 22 fours and eight sixes. 

Prabhsimran Singh scored 81-ball century

Meanwhile, Sharma’s opening partner Prabhsimran Singh took 52 balls to complete his 50 runs, but then the 24-year-old’s powerful batting helped him to complete his fourth List A century in 81 balls. He was out after scoring 125 runs off 95 balls with 11 fours and eight sixes. 

298-run opening partnership

Sharma and Singh set up a 298-run partnership for the first wicket. It was the highest List A partnership for Punjab for any wicket, as their previous record was a 258-run partnership for the second wicket between Uday Kaul and Dinesh Mongia (against Jammu & Kashmir in 2006).

On the other hand, the 298-run opening partnership was the joint second-highest partnership in the Vijay Hazare Trophy. In 2022, the Bengal openers Sudip Kumar Gharami and captain Abhimanyu Easwaran set up a 298-run first-wicket partnership against Services. Both of those partnerships are in joint third place in the list of highest partnerships for any wicket in the tournament history. 

The record partnership for any wicket in the Vijay Hazare Trophy is the List A record partnership of 416 runs for the first wicket between the Tamil Nadu openers Sai Sudharsan and Narayan Jagadeesan against Arunachal Pradesh in 2022.

Coming back to the Punjab vs Saurashtra match, wicketkeeper-batter Anmol Malhotra and Sanvir Singh later built an 89-run partnership for the unbroken sixth wicket to guide the total 400+ runs.  While Malhotra scored 48 not out off 45 balls (six fours), Sanvir scored 40 not out off 29 balls (four fours and one six).