Indian cricket team star batter Abhishek Sharma shattered a stunning world record with an 18-ball half-century in the T20 World Cup final against New Zealand in Ahmedabad on Sunday. The left-handed batter regained his form at the perfect moment as he took the New Zealand bowlers to the cleaners. Abhishek’s explosive innings featured 6 fours and 3 sixes. This was the fastest half-century by any batter in this edition of the T20 World Cup. Previously, Dasun Shanaka, Aiden Markram, Jacob Bethell, Shimron Hetmyer, and Finn Allen had slammed half-centuries in 19 balls. He was dismissed by Rachin Ravindra for 52. This was the fastest half-century in history of the T20 World Cup knockout stage as well.
Earlier, New Zealand skipper Mitchell Santner won the toss and opted to field.
“We are going to bowl first. Looks a good surface, a tinge of grass on it. So, I guess we’ll see if it does anything at the top. And we know obviously India have a lot of power to try to restrict them to, I guess, a chaseable score. Boys are good (talking about the mood in the camp). I mean, this is what we play the game for. In front of obviously this many people, it’s going to be awesome. It’s going to be a great night and hopefully we can put in a good show. I mean, we knew that, you know, making the semis obviously a great occasion and then we had to put in a good performance against a very good team.”
“And we did that, which was very pleasing. So guys can take a lot of, I guess, confidence from that. And we know we’ve got a massive challenge tonight, but we’re looking forward to it. Yeah, I think so (If the team has peaked at the right time). I think it’s, I guess every team wants to kind of peak at the right time. And we’ve started to do that. I mean, you kind of look at the stages of the competition. You want to just kind of get through each stage and I guess this is the biggest stage and we’re here now. So everyone’s ready to go. We’re going with another seamer tonight, so no McConchie. And Jacob Duffy comes back in. It looks like a very good surface, to be fair, so see if it does anything first up. But I think there’ll be a lot of runs in it,” he said.
On the other hand, India skipper Suryakumar Yadav provided a major update on the playing XI.
“No, no, we’re good (to bat first). We’re happy to bat first. We were looking to bat. It’s been working for us in the last game also. We played a similar kind of cricket. Red soil, so we’re happy to bat first. I mean, always when you play a semi-final or a World Cup final, always it’s good to have runs on board and you come out and defend.”
“And the bowlers are doing a wonderful job as well. It feels good (to be defending champions). But at the same time, it’s history now. It’s a new World Cup. But same venue from 2023 (World Cup final), but then yeah, we are very excited for it. It’s special. You know, a game like this in front of 120,000. I mean, absolutely amazing. The game has not even started. It was just toss time and it looks full already. Hopefully we give them a good show tonight. Going with the same team.” SKY said at the toss.
India (Playing XI): Abhishek Sharma, Sanju Samson(w), Ishan Kishan, Suryakumar Yadav(c), Tilak Varma, Hardik Pandya, Shivam Dube, Axar Patel, Varun Chakaravarthy, Arshdeep Singh, Jasprit Bumrah
New Zealand (Playing XI): Tim Seifert(w), Finn Allen, Rachin Ravindra, Glenn Phillips, Mark Chapman, Daryl Mitchell, James Neesham, Mitchell Santner(c), Matt Henry, Lockie Ferguson, Jacob Duffy