Abhishek Sharma’s ton in Wellington and a sell-out at Eden Park

Abhishek Sharma’s 113 in Wellington gave India an unassailable 3-0 lead in the five-match T20I series against New Zealand. The fourth T20I is on Friday, 30 October at Eden Park, Auckland, where the sold-out sign is up for a crowd of almost 40,000.

Abhishek and Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, who made 45, put on 118 runs in the six-over powerplay as India chased 199 in 13.2 overs.

The innings

The opening stand was worth 133 in 7.1 overs. Dawn reports that the 118-run powerplay beat the previous record of 116, set by Romania against Serbia in 2021.

India captain Shreyas Iyer said he had never seen a team reach 100 in five overs at international level. India finished on 199/4 in 13.2 overs and won by 6 wickets, after New Zealand made 198/3 in 20 overs.

Daryl Mitchell hit an unbeaten 89 off 52 balls for New Zealand, his highest T20I score, in a losing cause. Mitchell called Abhishek’s innings very special, said the series has gone but New Zealand still have two games left, and added that he was looking forward to Eden Park.

Eden Park sell-out

New Zealand Cricket says Friday’s crowd will break its bilateral series attendance record of 36,523, set at the 2019 doubleheader against India at Eden Park. The venue capacity is about 39,700, and the local start is 8pm.

It is the fourth sell-out of the series, following back-to-back sell-outs at Hagley Oval. NZC says over 126,000 tickets have been sold for the whole tour, 71,000 of them for the T20Is.

Series so far and what’s next

Before Wellington, India won the first two T20Is by 4 wickets each. On 22 October they chased New Zealand’s 225/4 with 230/6 in 19.4 overs, and on 24 October they reached 181/6 in 19.5 overs against 180/5.

The fourth T20I starts at 12:30 PM IST on Friday, 30 October. The fifth and final T20I is at Seddon Park on Sunday, 1 November, also at 12:30 PM IST, and the ODI series begins on Wednesday, 4 November at 7:30 AM IST.