World No. 1 T20I batter Abhishek Sharma was on fire for India in the third T20I against New Zealand. In the match played at Barsapara Cricket Stadium in Guwahati on Sunday (January 25), the left-handed batter opened the innings for the Men in Blue in the 154-run chase and played a knock of unbeaten 68 runs. During his stay at the crease, he faced 20 balls and didn’t play even one dot ball.
The score of 68 by Abhishek in India’s 8-wicket win helped him break the world record of the highest individual score in a men’s T20I match without a dot ball.
Abhishek’s innings of 20 balls is also the joint-longest without a dot delivery.
According to Cricbuzz, there have been 5,383 individual innings of 20+ balls faced by batters from the 12 existing full-member teams in men’s T20Is, but Abhishek’s knock of 68 runs tops all of them for strike rate (340.00).
Highest strike rate in a T20I innings (from FM nation, minimum 20 balls)
There have been 1,793 individual 50+ scores by batters from these 12 teams in men’s T20Is, but Abhishek’s knock of 68 runs is the only one that did not feature a single dot ball.
2nd fastest T20I fifty by an Indian
In the third T20I against New Zealand, Abhishek needed only 14 balls to score his fifty. The 14-ball fifty by Abhishek in Guwahati is the second-fastest half-century in the 20-over format of the game by an Indian batter.
During India’s 2007 T20 World Cup match against England in Durban on September 19, 2007, Yuvraj Singh scored a fifty in just 12 balls.
The world record for scoring the fastest half-century in T20Is is in the name of Nepal’s Dipendra Singh Airee. During Nepal’s Asian Games match against Mongolia on September 27, 2023, Airee scored a half-century in just 9 balls.
