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Indian opener Abhishek Sharma made history, overtaking legendary Rohit Sharma to become the first batter ever to hit 100 sixes in the powerplay phase of a T20I innings.
Abhishek achieved this massive feat during his side's second T20I against New Zealand at Christchurch. In a chase of 181, he gave India a solid start, but perished to Mitchell Santner in the ninth over in a middle-overs wobble for 27 off 21 balls, with three fours and a six. He scored his runs at a strike rate of 128.57. Now, Abhishek has exactly 100 sixes in the powerplay in T20Is, with a balls-per-six rate of 7.77, the best in T20Is. Rohit smashed 98 powerplay sixes throughout his career, with a balls-per-six rate of 17.05. Former New Zealand opener Martin Guptill is in third place, with 97 sixes in the powerplay phase and a balls-per-six rate of 16.58. In 36 T20Is this year, Abhishek has scored 1,012 runs in 36 matches and innings at an average of 28.91 and a strike rate of 199.60, with a century and eight fifties, including a best score of 108. Abhishek is only the third Indian batter after Suryakumar Yadav (1,164 runs in 2022) and Ishan Kishan (1,159 runs this year) to cross the 1,000-run mark in T20Is during a calendar year. Coming to the match, India won the toss and elected to bowl first. They had New Zealand down 41/3 within the powerplay. Glenn Phillips (70 in 46 balls, with four boundaries and sixes each) and Bevon Jacobs (58 in 46 balls, with five fours and a six) led New Zealand's recovery after an early top-order collapse against India after Kiwis were down 41/3 within powerplay, stitching a 116-run stand for the fourth wicket, taking NZ to 180/5 in 20 overs. Besides Arshdeep's 2/33, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Prince Yadav and Nitish Kumar Reddy got a wicket each. While chasing 181 set by New Zealand, the world champions collapsed from 40/0 to 112/6, with Mitchell Santner's four-fer causing havoc in the middle overs. The hope was reinstated by a quickfire 31 in 17 balls (with a four and three sixes) by Naman Dhir, and it was Tilak (51* in 26 balls, with six fours and a six) and Nitish (26* in 13 balls, with a four and a six) who took India to victory with a ball left. India is 2-0 up in the five-match series. (ANI)
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