New Zealand's bowlers got a real pasting in the PowerPlay yet again as Abhishek Sharma and Ishan Kishan went berserk with the field restrictions in place. Kishan couldn't quite replicate his Raipur heroics but his 13-ball 28 was brutal and showed the kind of form he is operating at. Meanwhile, it was carnage from Abhishek as he raced away to an explosive 14-ball 50 in Guwahati.
Abhishek's fifty was the second fastest by an Indian in T20Is, second only to Yuvraj Singh's 12-ball effort in the 2007 T20 World Cup game against England. It is also the second-fastest T20I fifty in a game having two full-member nations. Ahibhske continued to rule the roost with his trademark pick-up shots and also charged down the track often to disrupt the bowlers' lengths and lines.
India got to their 100 in just 6.3 overs, making it the fastest team hundred in T20Is, beating India's own effort from 7.1 overs against Bangladesh in October 2024. This outrageous batting display from the hosts made a mockery of the run chase which was already looking easy once New Zealand could only get 153 on the board.
India ended up with 94 runs in their PowerPlay, just one run short of their best-ever PowerPlay against England in Mumbai last year. Sanju Samson fell for a first-ball duck but that was the only moment of joy for New Zealand in the second innings as India's batters led by Abhishek unleashed mayhem thereafter.
Captain Suryakumar Yadav, who made a roaring return to form with the 82*(37) in the last fixture, once again appeared to be in superb rhythm and ended with an unbeaten 57*(26) with Abhishek finishing on 68*(20). The chase was buried in just ten overs to give India a resounding series win with two games to spare.
This win with 60 balls to spare made it the biggest win in T20Is by any team against a full-member nation, comfortably clear of the previous top-three wins which were all in the 30s in terms of balls left in the chase.