India T20I captain Shreyas Iyer was left amazed by the explosive batting of Abhishek Sharma and Vaibhav Sooryavanshi after the duo powered India to a record six-wicket victory over New Zealand in the third T20I at Wellington’s Hnry Stadium on Tuesday.Abhishek‘s 113 and Sooryavanshi’s 45 set the tone for India’s dominant chase, with the opening pair hammering a record 118 runs in the Powerplay, the highest total by any team in the first six overs of a T20 innings.The duo added 133 runs for the opening wicket, laying the foundation for India to chase down New Zealand’s 199-run target in just 13.2 overs. The victory marked the fastest chase of a target exceeding 190 runs by a Full Member nation and the second-fastest overall, behind Estonia’s chase of 192 against Cyprus, which they completed with 42 balls remaining.Iyer admitted that he was left wondering how the openers managed to score so freely after witnessing the conditions for himself when he walked out to bat.“Absolutely stunning. It was pleasing to the eyes the way they played strokes. Also, when Sanju and I went to bat, the ball was seaming, and I was like, how did they manage this? It was simply mind-boggling,” Shreyas said after the match.The India captain went on to describe the performance as the best he had witnessed at the international level, particularly given the rate at which the runs came during the Powerplay.“Honestly speaking, getting 100 in 5 overs, I’ve never seen that before, especially at the international level. And definitely tops it,” he added.India’s emphatic win gave them an unassailable 3-0 lead in the five-match series, underlining their ability to adapt quickly to conditions on New Zealand soil.Iyer stressed the importance of maintaining the same aggressive approach while playing overseas, where unfamiliar conditions and different bowling challenges can test a team’s adaptability.“I think it’s essential, especially coming overseas (on message for players to keep playing the way they are). You know the conditions are going to be different, and you’ll be challenged with a lot of different deliveries.“And just to overcome this by such phenomenal performance, credit where it’s due, the way they played today, it was exceptional. And obviously, winning the series with the third match and two more to go, I hope that they keep continuing with the same form and yes, it’s just amazing the way the lads pulled up to this occasion. Jet lag at the start and then the way they fitted to the occasion, mind-boggling,” he added.While India’s batters stole the show, the bowlers also played their part in preventing New Zealand from posting a bigger total. Despite Daryl Mitchell’s career-best unbeaten 89 off 52 balls, the hosts finished at 198/3.With the square boundaries relatively short and the straight boundaries longer, India turned to yorkers after the first 10 overs to limit the damage. Iyer revealed that he had specifically instructed his bowlers to adopt the tactic after realising that conventional lengths were proving ineffective.“So after 10 overs, I realised that anything they were bowling, hard length or even half volleys, it was going into the stands. I just said, that try and bowl yorkers as much as possible, even if you bowl six-ball yorkers. Make them hit down the ground, or a wide yorker is going to help us on this wicket.“So, yeah, we were able to execute that and minimise that run rate to eight to nine; that helped us a lot to keep them at 10 runs an over. And yeah, we planned to restrict them under 200,” he added.
