Abhishek Sharma's 35-ball century and India's world record in powerplay

In the third T20 match played in Wellington, Indian opener Abhishek Sharma delivered a stellar performance to lead India to a 6-wicket victory against New Zealand. Scoring a century off just 35 balls, Abhishek Sharma claimed the record for the fastest century ever scored by any batsman from an ICC full member country. Earlier, this record was held by the player who scored a century in 30 balls against Afghanistan. Sharma scored a total of 113 runs from 38 balls, which included 11 sixes and 9 fours.

During this match, Indian batsmen played explosive cricket in the powerplay. The pair of Abhishek Sharma and Vaibhav Suryavanshi scored 118 runs without losing any wicket in the initial 6 overs. With this, India established a world record for the highest score made in a T20I powerplay by any ICC full-member country. Vaibhav Suryavanshi also scored 45 runs from 19 balls in his short innings, which included 4 sixes and 4 fours.

Talking about Abhishek Sharma's individual records, he stands first with a strike rate of 193.36 among batsmen scoring over 2,000 runs in international T20 cricket. He has surpassed Rohit Sharma to become the first batter in the world to complete 100 sixes in T20 international powerplays, who had hit 98 sixes in the powerplay. Apart from this, he has become the first Indian batter to score 1,000 T20 international runs as an opener in the year 2026. He created a world record by completing 2,000 T20 runs in just 1,024 balls, a record previously held by Suryakumar Yadav, who had played 1,164 balls for this.

At the start of the match, the New Zealand team batted first and scored 198 runs for the loss of 3 wickets in 20 overs. From New Zealand, Daryl Mitchell played the highest innings of 89 runs, while Finn Allen contributed 40 runs. From India, Arshdeep Singh, Axar Patel, and Nitish Kumar Reddy took one wicket each. Prince Yadav conceded 44 runs in 4 overs, which was the highest among Indian bowlers.

India achieved the target of 199 runs in the 14th over itself. With this victory, India has gained a 2-0 lead in the series against New Zealand. Indian captain Shreyas Iyer had won the toss and decided to bowl first. The Indian team has not lost a single T20 match on New Zealand soil since February 2019 and with this win, it has succeeded in maintaining its historic record.

Talking about his innings, Abhishek Sharma stated that he and Vaibhav wanted to go out to the field and enjoy the game in the powerplay. During fielding, they were observing the pitch due to the extra bounce and keeping the dimensions of the ground in mind, their simple plan was to use the pace of the ball. He added that Vaibhav's start in the first over was special and their plan was to get momentum and maintain it. Crediting the coach for this success, Sharma said that he had practiced a lot against sidearms and had imagined this innings which turned into reality.