Abhishek's 113 off 38 in Wellington: India beat New Zealand by six wickets to seal the series
India sealed the five-match T20 series with two games to spare by beating New Zealand by six wickets in the third match in Wellington on Tuesday. Abhishek Sharma's explosive century laid the foundation for the win.
India chased down New Zealand's total of 198 in just 13.2 overs. Abhishek blasted 113 and Vaibhav Sooryavanshi made 45.
The opening pair combined for a 133-run partnership in just 7.1 overs. The first Jacob Duffy over went for 26 runs, and the openers never let up after that.
Abhishek hit nine fours and 11 sixes in his 38-ball knock, receiving a standing ovation when he eventually fell to the bowling of Kyle Jamieson. By that stage India had reached 178 for two after just 10 overs.
Sooryavanshi was promoted to open after batting at number three in the second T20. He hit four fours and four sixes in his 19-ball innings of 45.
On the partnership, Abhishek said the key was pretty simple: he and Vaibhav enjoyed their time. When they were fielding, they saw there was some extra bounce, Vaibhav started off well, and they took the momentum from there, he said.
India captain Shreyas Iyer said getting 100 in five overs was something he had not seen before at the international level. The way the pair played was exceptional and credit was due to them, he said.
Earlier, India won the toss for the third time in three matches and again elected to bowl. Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Arshdeep Singh extracted prodigious seam from the pitch, beating the outside edge of New Zealand openers Tim Seifert and Finn Allen.
Seifert was removed top-edging Singh for two. Daryl Mitchell then joined Allen and combined for an 86-run partnership.
Mitchell was quick to assess the conditions and moved around the crease to counter the seam movement, seizing on shorter bowling with powerful strikes to the short square boundaries. He hit five fours and five sixes on his way to 89 from 52 balls. Allen made 40 from 25 balls, and Bevon Jacobs hit an unbeaten 39 from 23 deliveries late on.
The fourth T20 is at Auckland's Eden Park on Friday.
