38 balls, 113 runs: Abhishek Sharma turns New Zealand bowlers into spectators

When Abhishek Sharma gets going, it's difficult to stop him. Tuesday was one of those days, and caught in his web were the hapless New Zealand bowlers.The Black Caps tried all the tricks in their arsenal: bowling short, full, outside off, cramping him for room and mixing in slower deliveries. But each time, they could only watch the ball sail to all parts of the ground.By the time the 26-year-old's innings came to an end, he had notched up his fourth T20I century, scoring a blistering 38-ball 113 laced with nine fours and 11 sixes, as India chased down the 199-run target with six wickets in hand and 40 balls to spare to take an unassailable 3-0 lead in the five-match series.The two Powerplays yielded contrasting outcomes. While India's opening pair of Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Arshdeep Singh made the New Zealand openers hop around, India's batters killed the game in the first six overs itself, racing to a world-record 118 runs.It was Vaibhav Sooryavanshi who set the tone upfront. Promoted to open the innings, the 15-year-old showed no nerves as he hit a boundary and a six off the first three balls bowled by Jacob Duffy. Sooryavanshi scored a 19-ball 45, including four fours and as many sixes, and stitched together a 44-ball 133-run opening stand with Abhishek that effectively sealed the game for India.Abhishek looked scratchy in the previous match, labouring to a 21-ball 27, but in the third T20I in Wellington he was all charged up. The left-hander began with a six off Duffy over covers and never took his foot off the accelerator.The New Zealand players' shoulders dropped with every shot he played. All they could do was hold their heads, grimace, smile and shrug their shoulders before returning to their bowling marks as the same punishment was dished out ball after ball.Abhishek was not merely swinging blindly. In contrast, his shots were played according to merit. If the ball was full, he stayed leg-side and sliced it between deep point and cover. If it was on his pads or short of a length, he flicked or pulled it through the square-leg and mid-wicket region. He knew the square boundaries on both sides were shorter and used them to devastating effect, scoring 92 runs in that region.There was a notion that Abhishek had a weakness square of the wicket on the leg side, but over the last few months he has worked on that aspect of his game and the results are there for all to see. Of his 92 runs square of the wicket, 52 came on the leg side while 40 came on his favoured off side. Abhishek has now scored 2,240 T20I runs in just 1,138 balls, almost two runs per ball, and at the rate he is going, not many bowlers would relish crossing paths with him.With India reaching 64 by the third over, New Zealand introduced Michael Bracewell to counter the two left-handers, as Abhishek in particular has previously found it difficult to put away off-spinners. During the recent West Indies series, his approach was to see off the first few balls from Roston Chase before opening his shoulders. Against Bracewell, however, with rhythm on his side, that strategy was thrown out of the window as he greeted the off-spinner with a couple of boundaries and a six.Earlier, the Indian bowling unit ensured that New Zealand were restricted to under 200. It started with Bhuvneshwar (0/40) and Arshdeep (1/33) conceding just six runs in the first two overs. A 43-ball 86-run partnership for the second wicket between Finn Allen (40, 25b; 5x6) and Daryl Mitchell (89*, 52; 5x4, 5x6) threatened to take the game away from India, but Nitish Kumar Reddy (1/38) broke the stand when Allen holed out at long-on, thanks to a brilliant diving catch from Naman Dhir.By then, India had realised that bowling fuller and forcing the batters to hit straight would yield better results than banging it in short. The strategy worked, with the New Zealand batters struggling to clear the infield on the off side.Axar Patel (1/36) then dismissed the dangerous Glenn Phillips (17, 14b; 3x4) just as he had assessed the pitch and looked to open up to further stifle the home side's charge. Mitchell and Bevon Jacobs (39*, 23b; 4x4, 1x6) were involved in an unbeaten 48-ball 75-run stand for the fourth wicket, but they could never truly launch in the death overs, scoring 10-plus runs in just one of the final five overs.Get the latest Sports News and Live updates. Download the TOI app.