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

Indian cricketer Abhishek Sharma has created history by hitting a brilliant century in just 35 balls in the third T20 match against New Zealand. Powered by his aggressive innings, the Indian team defeated New Zealand by 6 wickets to take an unassailable 3-0 lead in the 5-match T20 series. India had a target of 199 runs, which the team achieved in the 14th over itself.

Chasing the target of 199 runs set by New Zealand after batting first, the Indian opening pair got off to an extremely aggressive start. The pair of Abhishek Sharma and Vaibhav Suryavanshi scored 118 runs in just 6 overs without losing a single wicket. This score is the highest ever made in the powerplay of T20 international cricket by any Full Member team, setting a new world record for India. Earlier, Australia had scored 113/1 in the powerplay against Scotland in Edinburgh in 2024, which has now been broken.

Talking about Abhishek Sharma's innings, he started his innings by hitting a six off the very first ball bowled by Jacob Duffy. This was the eighth time in his career that he hit a six on the first ball of an innings. With this record, he moved ahead of Afghanistan's Shafiqullah Shenwari, who had done this six times. Abhishek scored 113 runs in just 38 balls, which included 9 fours and 11 sixes. He was caught out by Glenn Phillips off Kyle Jamieson's bowling. This was the fourth century of his T20 career. Earlier, he had scored a century against Afghanistan in just 30 balls.

Vaibhav Suryavanshi also performed brilliantly. He scored 45 runs in 19 balls, including 4 fours and 4 sixes. Abhishek completed his half-century in 15 balls. Abhishek and Vaibhav together scored 26 runs in the first over itself, and Team India completed its century in just 5 overs. A partnership of 133 runs took place between Abhishek and Vaibhav.

Speaking of Abhishek Sharma's personal records, he holds the top spot among batsmen scoring more than 2,000 runs in international T20 cricket with a strike rate of 193.36. He set a world record by completing 2,000 T20 international runs in just 1,024 balls, a milestone previously held by Suryakumar Yadav, who achieved this feat playing 1,164 balls. Additionally, he became the first batsman in the world to hit 100 sixes in T20 international powerplays, surpassing Rohit Sharma, who hit 98 sixes in the powerplay. He has also become the first Indian batsman to score 1,000 T20 international runs as an opener in the year 2026.

Batting first, the New Zealand team scored 198 runs losing 3 wickets in 20 overs. From New Zealand's side, Daryl Mitchell contributed 89 runs and Finn Allen contributed 40 runs. In Indian bowling, Arshdeep Singh, Axar Patel, and Nitish Kumar Reddy claimed one wicket each. Meanwhile, Prince Yadav conceded 44 runs in four overs, which was the most among Indian bowlers.

This match was played at the Henry Stadium in Wellington. India has played 4 T20 matches at this ground so far, winning 2 matches and facing defeat in 1 match, while one match was washed out due to rain. A total of 26 T20 matches have been played at this ground so far, out of which the team batting second has won 14 matches and the team batting first has won 12 matches. The first innings score at this stadium has been 153 and the second innings score 133. The highest score at the Henry Stadium is 219 runs, which New Zealand made against India in the year 2019. The live telecast of this match was done on Sony Sports Network and Sony Liv, while the match could be watched for free on DD Sports in India.