IND vs NZ: Abhishek Sharma creates history in Nagpur T20I. Check Details

The Indian team started the T20I series with a one-sided 48-run victory against New Zealand in the series opener at Vidarbha Cricket Association Stadium, Nagpur. Thanks to Abhishek Sharma’s brilliant 84-run innings, India put up a mammoth total of 238/7 in 20 overs. In response, New Zealand reached only 190/7. 

Abhishek Sharma scored 84 runs in 35 balls, including 5 fours and 8 sixes. For his wonderful knock, he also won the player of the match award. Apart from Abhishek, skipper Suryakumar Yadav and all-rounder Hardik Pandya also contributed with 32 & 25 runs, respectively. Rinku Singh finished with an impressive unbeaten score of 44 off 20 balls. 

In his innings, Abhishek Sharma also broke 2 world records. Firstly, he completed his fifty in just 22 balls. With this, he became the player to score the most T20I fifties while taking fewer than 25 balls. This was also the fastest half-century in terms of balls an Indian had ever scored in a T20I against New Zealand. The previous record was held by Rohit Sharma and KL Rahul, who both reached 50 in 23 balls.

Following this, during the 12th over, he also completed 5000 T20 runs in the fewest balls. He achieved this milestone in 2898 balls. He broke the previous record held by West Indies’ Andre Russell, who completed this milestone in 2942 balls. 

Abhishek totally dominated the Kiwi bowlers. The New Zealand bowlers failed to stop runs against him. The impact of his explosive innings can be gauged from the fact that New Zealand skipper Mitchell Santner used seven bowlers during the match, and six bowlers ended their spells with an economy rate of more than 10. 

During his innings, Abhishek once again proved why he is currently the No. 1-ranked T20I batter. He is presently at 908 ratings. 

While chasing 239 runs, New Zealand got a poor start when they lost the first two wickets in just 1 run. After this, Glenn Phillips held the Kiwi innings. He firstly made a 51-run partnership with Tim Robinson (21) for the 3rd wicket. Then, 78 run-partnership with Mark Chapman (39) for the 4th wicket. Glenn Phillips scored 78 runs in 40 balls, including 4 fours and 6 sixes. However, New Zealand’s run chase fell apart completely after his dismissal. For India, Varun Chakravarthy and Shivam Dube took 2 wickets each, while Axar Patel, Arshdeep Singh and Hardik Pandya got 1 wicket each. Jasprit Bumrah went wicketless. The  India vs New Zealand second T20I will be played on 23 January at the Shaheed Veer Narayan Singh International Stadium, Raipur.