Abhishek ton flattens New Zealand as India seal T20I series

Abhishek Sharma frequently makes fun of T20 numbers. He did it again in Wellington. He scored 113 off 38 balls for his fourth T20I century and shared a 7.1-over opening stand with Vaibhav Sooryavanshi (45 off 19) for 133 runs. India won the series with two games remaining after New Zealand's 198 was destroyed before it could feel like a total.

Before reaching three figures off 35, Abhishek marked it with a clenched fist and a roar before sitting down in a meditative pose. He had previously set a 30-ball 100 record. By the time he fell, he had struck 11 sixes and scored his runs at a staggering strike rate of 297.37. As Yuvraj Singh pointed out on X (Abhishek took 15), his 12-ball 50 record also held, 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 made it there with 40 left.

The night felt more like a rerun of the one-sided game at home earlier in the year than a continuation of a close series. India disbanded a winning opening pair and promoted Sooryavanshi at Sanju Samson's expense, but the teenager quickly overturned the decision. He drove Jacob Duffy over mid-on for four, then slapped a six past point two balls later. After that, Abhishek backed away from his first ball and hit it over the ropes for his eighth six in a Twenty20 International. One over in, India had 26.

Nothing that followed slowed them down. In the second over, Adam Milne gave up 17 runs. Michael Bracewell’s offspin found no grip and went for 21. In a 20-run over, Kyle Jamieson, the fourth bowler in four overs, gave up two sixes and two fours. Abhishek reached fifty off 15 balls, and India brought up 100 inside five overs. The two left-handers kept taking New Zealand's width away from the other. Mitchell Santner, the series' most miserly bowler, curiously did not bring himself on until the ninth over. By then India had 156. The conclusion was never in doubt, despite a late flurry of wickets delaying it.

Even though India were leading after Shreyas Iyer won a third straight toss, the game appeared to be more competitive than the scoreboards would show. Arshdeep Singh and Bhuvneshwar Kumar started with two close overs. Tim Seifert was brought down by Arshdeep almost exactly as he had done in Christchurch: the ball was 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. The hosts won the Powerplay with a score of 58 after Bhuvneshwar hit two sixes in his second over and Arshdeep hit 15. Daryl Mitchell and Finn Allen continued to pursue it, hitting two sixes off of Prince Yadav and Axar Patel, respectively.

The innings was brought back under control by Nitish Reddy. His first over cost just six runs and brought India the wicket of Allen, and it showed India how to bowl at this ground. The bowlers had to force batters to hit in the direction of the longer straight boundaries because they only had square boundaries of 56 and 62 meters. India did that well through the back half of the innings, bowling yorker-length deliveries.

Mitchell still found ways around them. He either set up well outside his crease to disrupt the bowlers' lengths or anticipated the fuller balls and ramped them past the keeper. When they dropped short, he muscled the ball over the short boundaries. He hit five sixes and five fours, which helped him score a career-high 89 not out from 52 balls.

Most nights, it would have been the story. It was only a footnote on this one.