The first over told you everything. Jacob Duffy ran in at Wellington on Tuesday, and by the time he walked back to his mark, India had 26 runs on the board and New Zealand’s bowlers already looked like men trying to hold back a tide with their hands. What followed was not a chase. It was a demolition, finished in 13.2 overs, and it gave India the T20I series with two games still to play.
The India vs New Zealand 3rd T20I was supposed to be a contest. New Zealand had posted 198, their bowlers had a total to defend, and the series was still alive. It stayed alive for about seven overs. Then Abhishek Sharma and Vaibhav Sooryavanshi happened.
How the India vs New Zealand 3rd T20I unfolded
Here is the uncomfortable part for New Zealand: they did not actually bat badly. Shreyas Iyer won the toss and bowled first for the third game running, and still Daryl Mitchell finished unbeaten on 89 off 52 balls, per ESPNcricinfo, with Finn Allen adding 40 and Devon Conway 39. New Zealand closed on 198 for 3, a total most teams would take at Wellington without a second thought.
It was never enough. Not against this batting order, not on this day.
The preview of this game had framed it as India’s chance to finish the job, and the openers treated it that way from ball one. Sooryavanshi, 15 years old and batting like he had somewhere better to be, smashed 45 off 19 balls. Abhishek reached his fifty in 15 balls. Together they put on a 133-run opening stand in just 7.1 overs, and by the end of the powerplay India were 118 for no loss.
That powerplay score is a world record in men’s T20Is, beating the 116 Romania made against Serbia in 2021, per Reuters. India also raised the fastest team hundred in T20I history, reaching three figures in five overs. Records usually arrive with a bit of ceremony. These arrived in a blur.
The drop New Zealand will replay all winter
New Zealand did get one chance to change the story, and it slipped through Mitchell Santner’s hands. Literally. The New Zealand captain dropped Abhishek on 92 at extra cover, losing the ball in the swirling Wellington wind, per Reuters. Three balls later, more or less, the hundred was up: 35 balls, Abhishek’s fourth T20I century, celebrated with the meditation pose he has made his own.
He finished on 113 off 38 balls, with nine fours and 11 sixes, per ESPNcricinfo, before Kyle Jamieson finally had him caught by Glenn Phillips. By then the damage was total. Sanju Samson and Naman Dhir knocked off the remaining runs, and India won by six wickets with 40 balls still unused. The second game in Christchurch had gone to the last ball. This one barely made it past the drinks break.
Why this win is bigger than 3-0
Start with Abhishek. His 35-ball hundred is the second fastest of his own career, behind only the 30-ball ton against Afghanistan in Delhi last month, which remains the fastest by a batter from a full member nation, per Reuters. He is 25, he is ranked the world’s top T20 batter, and he is now doing this away from home, against a quality attack, in wind that was dropping catches for fun.
Then there is the series itself. This is India’s third straight T20I series win on New Zealand soil, after the 5-0 sweep in 2020 and the 1-0 win in 2022, per PTI. The hosts have now been ahead in all three games at some point and lost all three. That pattern does something to a dressing room, and Santner knew it. “Pretty tough to stop those guys when they’re going,” he said after the match, per Reuters. “We’ve seen it before, seen it in the IPL and obviously witnessed it here tonight in New Zealand.”
So what changes before Auckland? For New Zealand, the bowling plans need more than tweaks, because the first seven overs of this game showed what happens when Abhishek and Sooryavanshi are allowed to swing freely. For India, the only real question is whether the middle order gets a proper hit before the series ends, because right now the openers are finishing games before anyone else gets a look in.
The fourth T20I is in Auckland on Friday, October 30, and the fifth in Hamilton on Sunday, November 1. The series is decided. Whether New Zealand can stop the sweep is now the only contest left, and on Tuesday’s evidence, that is a bigger ask than it looks.