Wellington is the capital city and second most populous urban area of New Zealand, located at the south-western tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Rimutaka Range.The place got its namefrom Arthur Wellesley (1769-1852), the first Duke of Wellington and victor of the Battle of Waterloo (1815): his title comingfrom the town of Wellington, a small industrial town in the English county of Somerset.
Today India played New Zealand in the 3rd T20I and settled the Series with another win.The scorecard reads :India 199 for 4 in 13.2 overs (Abhishek 113, Sooryavanshi 45, Jamieson 2-45) beat New Zealand 198 for 3 (Mitchell 89*, Allen 40) by six wickets – match was won much easier than what it suggests !! thanks to the blitzkrieg of the charming Abhishek Sharma.
The visiting Indian team used the exaggeratedly oval dimensions of Hnry Stadium (long straight boundaries, short square boundaries) expertly to contain New Zealand, bowling full and straight and generating reverse swing. The hosts, who knew the conditions better could not better the performance of Indians.
Jacob Duffy bowled the first over of India's innings, started with a front-foot no-ball. He bowled a bouncer that was wide by height and beat the leaping keeper, running away to the boundary. Sooryavanshi and Abhishek carved him over point once apiece for eye-catching sixes. Twenty-six runs came off that over. Then in the torrential flow India reached 50 in just 2.2 Overs !! - the joint fastest in men's T20Is, along with three other teams.India galloped to 100 injust five overs, the second quickest in all T20s, behind Eswatini who took 4.5 overs against Mozambique earlier this year.
More importantly, despite the fall of wickets of Vaibhav, Abhishek, Sanju and Shreyas -India chased down 199 in a mere 13.2 overs.All credit to the attacking Abhishek Sharma who rushed to his fifty in 15 balls, got to his fourth T20I hundred in 35 balls, and along the way performed an even more remarkable feat, upstaging Vaibhav Sooryavanshi in a 133-run opening stand that consumed just 7.1 overs. Abhishek and Sooryavanshi took India to a T20I record 118 for no loss in powerplay.Abhishek threatened his own personal best of 30 balls for a hundred - also the fastest among Full-Members - but eventually cruised to the landmark in 35. Vaibhav Sooryavanshi also scored runs truly well.
A century in Cricket- when I started watching Cricket in mid 1970s, Sunil Gavaskar would grind the bowlers and make one with exquisite straight drives; after almost a decade of initiation into ODI, came the first century in ODI, that epic 175 against Zimbabwe. Then came one by Krish Srikkanth, Mohinder Amarnath, Ravi Shastri … .. centuries were rare at that time.
A century in a 120 ball game obviously is much much tougher.That list too has more than a dozen,Suresh Raina made in Gros Iselt way back in May 2010; then it was Rohit Sharma, .. … now Rohit has 5 and Abhishek has 4 !!!
Back in May 2018 -IPL – 16th over against RCB – Mohammed Siraj got Shreyas Iyer – in walked a young Abhishek Sharma and instantly became a hero hitting 46 off mere 19 with 4 sixers !- those regularly following young Indian’s fortunes perhaps would remember him well.Abhishek first came into the limelight with a century on Under-19 debut for Punjab in the Vinoo Mankad Trophy. Acquired by Daredevils for INR 55 lakh ($85,000) at the IPL auction in 2018 he was among three players in their squad from India's U-19 World Cup-winning side, apart from Prithvi Shaw and opener Manjot Kalra.
By now he has established a niche place with 2240 runs in 70 matches with strike rate of 196+ and 4 centuries.
Sunil Manohar Gavaskar the master technician is always hailed as a shrewd intelligent player of the game.The very first ODI was played on 5th Jan 1971 between Australia and England. Indians first played ODI at Leeds on 13th July 1974 – there were 12 debutants – 11 from India including Gavaskar and Robin Jackman whose test debut later in 1981 raised a furore !!
Sunil Gavaskar the shrewd, did not master or understand the nuances of limited overs Cricket, especially under the captaincy of Srinivasan Venkatraghavan.In the 1st match of Prudential WC 1975 – Gavaskar crawled to 36 in 174 balls consuming all 60 overs remaining unbeaten as India lost by 202 runs ! then against East Africa (no Nation !) scored 65 off 86; against New Zealand 12 off 14. Four years later in the Second verison – again under Venkat – Gavaskar performance was : 8 off 7 against West Indies; crawling 55 off 144 against New Zealand and 26 off 54 against Sri Lanka.India lost all the 3 matches in 1979 … and went on to win the title under Kapil Dev in 1983
Interesting !
Regards – S Sampathkumar
27.10.2026
