Abhishek Sharma provided India a flying start inside the powerplay against the Afghanistan National Cricket Team at the Arun Jaitley Stadium in New Delhi tonight in the first of the three-match T20I series.

In an over by Afghanistan bowler Fazalhaq Farooqi, Abhishek Sharma took 20 runs only by hitting big shots. With the big hits, the opener claimed a record as well as an India National Cricket Team batter.

Abhishek Sharma and Ishan Kishan took 26 runs from an over vs Afghanistan

According to the latest stats, Abhishek Sharma became the fastest Asian to complete 6000 runs in T20s. He touched the milestone while chasing a target of 157 runs in the second phase of the match. The fifth over of the second innings proved massively costly for the Afghanistan cricket team, as from this single over, India gathered 26 runs.

It was first Ishan Kishan who welcomed Fazalhaq Farooqi with a 6 over deep backward square leg followed by a four. Then, in the later part of the innings, Abhishek Sharma hit one six and one four.

Coming under pressure, Fazalhaq Farooqi gave away too many extra runs in the middle of the over after the assualt done by Ishan Kishan. A wide, which went to the boundary rope, added 5 extra runs to India's run tally.

Afghanistan started the over on a positive note, taking the wicket of Sanju Samson inside the powerplay. Despite the early breakthrough, the Afghans were never in a position to get back into the contest after posting only 156 runs on the board in the first innings. The partnership of Abhishek Sharma and Ishan Kishan took the game away from the host team.

A match winning partnership between Abhishek Sharma and Ishan Kishan

While Abhishek was dismissed for 82 runs off 32 balls with seven 4s and seven 6s, Ishan Kishan missed his half-century by only eight runs. Ishan scored 42 runs from 33 balls with five fours and one 6s.

According to a Cricbuzz stat, the 121-run partnership between Abhishek and Ishan from only 53 balls was a record-breaker against Afghanistan in the T20 International format. 121 off 53 balls at a rate of 13.70/over between Abhishek and Ishan – the highest ever in a 100+ partnership against Afghanistan in T20Is, the stat card reads.

Previously, the record belonged to Rohit Sharma and Rinku Singh when he stitched a 190* off 93 balls in Bengaluru in 2024.

India wins the match by 7 wicket

Team India needed only 13.4 overs to finish the match in style. India, the away team in the series, claimed the first match of the series by seven wickets. Captain Shreyas Iyer and Tilak Varma kept their batting simple to conclude the contest for tonight.

The next match between India and Afghanistan is scheduled on September 15, and the third and final match of the series will be on September 17. All of the matches will be held in New Delhi, at the Arun Jaitley Stadium.