Abhishek Sharma’s 38-ball 113 flattens New Zealand in Wellington as India seal the T20I series 3-0 with 40 balls to spare

New Zealand set India 199 in Wellington and watched the target vanish in 13.2 overs. Abhishek Sharma did most of the damage: 113 off 38 balls, nine fours, eleven sixes, and a hundred reached off his 35th delivery. India won by six wickets with 40 balls to spare and took an unbeatable 3-0 lead in the five-match series.

The ground had just seen Daryl Mitchell bat 52 balls for an unbeaten 89 and add 75 with Bevon Jacobs for the fourth wicket. It looked like plenty. It lasted about an hour.

The chase

Abhishek and Vaibhav Sooryavanshi took 58 off the first four overs, and by the end of the powerplay India were 118 for none. Jacob Duffy’s two overs cost 44. Sooryavanshi, 45 off 18 with four fours and four sixes, picked out Mitchell at long-on off Matthew Fisher in the eighth over, and the stand ended at 133.

Abhishek went on alone. Dropped on 92 when Mitchell Santner could not hold a return chance, he moved from 95 to 103 with a four off Kyle Jamieson in the tenth over, then cleared the rope twice more in the same over. Jamieson had the last word of the over when a slog went straight to Glenn Phillips at deep midwicket, but India were 178 for 2 at ten overs and needed 21 off the remaining sixty balls.

Sanju Samson, 18 off 12, and Shreyas Iyer, 4 off 7, fell to Jamieson and Santner in the thirteenth and fourteenth overs, and Naman Dhir hit the first ball he faced for four to finish it.

Mitchell’s innings

Iyer had won the toss and bowled, and Arshdeep Singh had Tim Seifert caught by Axar Patel for 2 in the second over. Finn Allen’s 40 off 25, with five sixes, carried New Zealand to 58 for 1 in the powerplay before Nitish Kumar Reddy had him caught by Dhir in the ninth. Axar took a return catch to remove Phillips for 17 at 123 for 3 in the twelfth, and from there Mitchell, with five fours and five sixes, and Jacobs, 39 not out off 23, added 75 in eight overs.

Four hundreds in 28 months

Abhishek’s first T20I hundred came against Zimbabwe in Harare in July 2024, his second match for India. He made 135 off 54 against England in Mumbai in February 2025, the highest score by an Indian in the format, and 108 off 34 against Afghanistan in Delhi on 17 September 2026, a 30-ball century that stands as the fastest by a batter from a Test-playing nation. Wellington makes it four, and two in six weeks.

India had won both Christchurch games by four wickets, the first with two balls left while chasing 226, the second with one ball left after sliding to 70 for 5. This one needed no such nerve.