Abhishek storm sweeps New Zealand aside as India seal series
India's openers put on 133 for the opening wicket, including a record 118 in the Powerplay to turn a chase of 198 into a procession
Abhishek Sharma has made a habit of mocking T20 numbers. In Wellington he did it again. He scored his fourth T20I hundred, a 113 off 38 balls, and shared a 133-run opening stand with Vaibhav Sooryavanshi (45 off 19) that took just 7.1 overs. New Zealand’s 198 was dismantled before it could feel like a total, and India sealed the series with two games to spare.
Abhishek flirted with his own 30-ball 100 record before reaching three figures off 35, marking it with a clenched fist and a roar before sitting down in a meditative pose. By the time he fell, he had struck 11 sixes and scored his runs at a staggering strike rate of 297.37. Yuvraj Singh's 12-ball 50 record also stayed intact as he pointed out on X (Abhishek took 15), but another one did not. India’s 118 in the first six overs became the highest Powerplay score in a contest between Full Member teams, and it reduced the chase to a formality. When the partnership finally broke, India needed 66 off 77 balls. They got there with 40 to spare.
The night felt less like a continuation of a tight series than a rerun of the one-sided contest at home earlier in the year. India broke up a successful opening pair, promoting Sooryavanshi at Sanju Samson’s expense, and the teenager vindicated the call almost immediately. He drove Jacob Duffy over mid-on for four, then slapped a six past point two balls later. Abhishek then backed away to his first ball and sent it over the ropes, the eighth time he has hit his first ball in a T20I for a six. One over in, India had 26.
Nothing that followed slowed them down. Adam Milne leaked 17 in the second over. Michael Bracewell’s offspin found no grip and went for 21. Kyle Jamieson, the fourth bowler in four overs, conceded two sixes and two fours in a 20-run over. Abhishek reached fifty off 15 balls, and India brought up 100 inside five overs. New Zealand kept offering width to the two left-handers, and both kept carving it away. Mitchell Santner, the series' most miserly bowler, curiously did not bring himself on until the ninth over. By then India had 156. A late flurry of wickets delayed the finish but never made it doubtful.
But for a brief while, the game seemed more competitive than what the scoreboards would show, even though India were frontrunners after Shreyas Iyer won a third straight toss. Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Arshdeep Singh started with two tight overs. Arshdeep removed Tim Seifert almost exactly as he had in Christchurch: the ball angled across the right-hander, and Seifert top-edged a cross-batted heave.
Once New Zealand’s batters adjusted to the slightly tennis-ball bounce, though, they took control. Bhuvneshwar was hit for two sixes in his second over, Arshdeep went for 15 in the sixth, and the hosts finished the Powerplay on 58. Daryl Mitchell and Finn Allen kept going after it, hitting two sixes each off Axar Patel and Prince Yadav.
Nitish Reddy brought the innings back under control. His first over cost just six runs and brought India the wicket of Allen, and it showed India how to bowl at this ground. With square boundaries of just 56 and 62 metres, the bowlers had to force batters to hit towards the longer straight boundaries. India did that well through the back half of the innings, bowling yorker-length deliveries.
Mitchell still found ways around them. He anticipated the fuller balls and ramped them past the keeper, or set up well outside his crease to disrupt the bowlers’ lengths. When they dropped short, he muscled the ball over the short boundaries. His five sixes and five fours took him to a career-best 89 not out off 52 balls.
It would have been the story of most nights. On this one, it was only a footnote.
Brief scores: New Zealand 198/3 in 20 overs (Daryl Mitchell 89*, Finn Allen 40; Arshdeep Singh 1-33) lost to India 199/4 in 13.2 overs (Abhishek Sharma 113, Vaibhav Sooryavanshi 45) by six wickets
