Some knocks you watch. Others you just sit back and try to keep up with. Abhishek Sharma’s 113 off 38 balls in Wellington on 27 October 2026 was the second kind. India were chasing 199 against New Zealand in the third T20I, and the game was basically over before the drinks break. He got to fifty in 15 balls and reached his hundred in 35, and India knocked the runs off in 13.2 overs.
The win, by six wickets with 40 balls left, gave India an unbeatable 3-0 lead in the five-match series. Here’s the full scorecard, the records that fell, and the highlights video if you missed it.
Is it the fastest T20I century ever?
Not quite, and a lot of people searching today have this mixed up. The 35-ball hundred is the fastest T20I century by an Indian against New Zealand, and it equals Rohit Sharma’s 35-ball effort against Sri Lanka in Indore in 2017. But India’s fastest is still Abhishek’s own 30-ball hundred against Afghanistan in Delhi on 17 September 2026. So yes, he basically keeps chasing his own records.
Worldwide, his 35 balls put him level with David Miller and Rohit Sharma among full-member batters.
How the innings unfolded
New Zealand batted first after India chose to field, and they did well. Daryl Mitchell made a career-best 89 not out off 52 balls, Finn Allen hit five sixes in his 40, and Bevon Jacobs chipped in 39 not out. 198 for 3 looked like a decent total on a windy night at the Hnry Stadium.
Then the first over happened. Abhishek and Vaibhav Sooryavanshi took 26 off Jacob Duffy, the most by a full-member side in an opening over of a men’s T20I. Fifty came up in 2.2 overs. A hundred came in five. By the end of the powerplay India were 118 for 0, the highest powerplay score in men’s T20Is, beating Romania’s 116 against Serbia from 2021.
Sooryavanshi fell for a 19-ball 45 in the eighth over with the score on 133. Abhishek kept going. He brought up the hundred off Kyle Jamieson and celebrated with his usual calm, eyes-closed pose. Three balls later, at 178, he skied a slower ball to Glenn Phillips at deep midwicket and walked off to a standing ovation. Shreyas Iyer and Sanju Samson fell late, but Naman Dhir finished it with a four.
Full scorecard: NZ vs IND, 3rd T20I, Wellington
Result: India won by 6 wickets (40 balls left). Toss: India, chose to field. Player of the Match: Abhishek Sharma.
New Zealand 198/3 (20 overs)
| Batter | Dismissal | R | B | 4s | 6s |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tim Seifert | c Axar Patel b Arshdeep Singh | 2 | 6 | 0 | 0 |
| Finn Allen | c Naman Dhir b Nitish Kumar Reddy | 40 | 25 | 0 | 5 |
| Daryl Mitchell | not out | 89 | 52 | 5 | 5 |
| Glenn Phillips | c & b Axar Patel | 17 | 14 | 3 | 0 |
| Bevon Jacobs | not out | 39 | 23 | 4 | 1 |
| Extras | lb 7, w 4 | 11 |
India bowling: Bhuvneshwar Kumar 4-0-40-0, Arshdeep Singh 4-0-33-1, Prince Yadav 4-0-44-0, Axar Patel 4-0-36-1, Nitish Kumar Reddy 4-0-38-1.
India 199/4 (13.2 overs)
| Batter | Dismissal | R | B | 4s | 6s |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Vaibhav Sooryavanshi | c Mitchell b Fisher | 45 | 19 | 4 | 4 |
| Abhishek Sharma | c Phillips b Jamieson | 113 | 38 | 9 | 11 |
| Sanju Samson | b Jamieson | 18 | 13 | 2 | 0 |
| Shreyas Iyer (c) | c Phillips b Santner | 5 | 10 | 0 | 0 |
| Tilak Varma | not out | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| Naman Dhir | not out | 4 | 1 | 1 | 0 |
| Extras | lb 1, nb 2, w 10 | 13 |
New Zealand bowling: Jacob Duffy 2-0-44-0, Adam Milne 2-0-33-0, Michael Bracewell 2-0-36-0, Kyle Jamieson 3.2-0-45-2, Matthew Fisher 1-0-23-1, Mitchell Santner 3-0-17-1.
Records Abhishek and India broke
- 118/0 in the powerplay, the highest in men’s T20Is.
- 150 up in 7.4 overs, the quickest by any team in men’s T20 cricket.
- 26 runs in the first over, a record for a full-member team.
- 11 T20 hundreds for Abhishek, one more than Virat Kohli, which makes him India’s top century-maker in the format.
- Four T20I hundreds now, three of them in under 40 balls. No other batter has even two.
- Only the fourth time a batter has reached a T20I hundred inside the first ten overs, and Abhishek has done it twice.
Watch the highlights
What’s next in the series
The series is sealed, but two games are left: the fourth T20I at Eden Park, Auckland, on 30 October and the fifth at Seddon Park, Hamilton, on 1 November. If Abhishek keeps batting like this, New Zealand’s bowlers won’t be sleeping much before either.