Ishan Kishan played an explosive inning of 103 runs in 43 balls at a strike rate of 239.53 in the fifth T20 match against New Zealand on Saturday (January 31). Ishaan hit 6 fours and 10 sixes during his first century in T20 International. Ishaan completed his century in just 42 balls but it is worth noting that at one time he was on 18 runs in 16 balls. That means Ishaan took only 26 balls to score the next 82 runs.

Ishaan, who came to the crease in the third over after the dismissal of Sanju Samson, scored 13 runs in 10 balls in the powerplay. He managed with singles till the 8th over. Ishaan broke the shackles by hitting a six against Ish Sodhi in the 9th over and after that there was no stopping him. He first hit a four and then a six against Kiwi captain Mitchell Santner, who came in the 10th over.

Surya’s record broken

Left-handed batsman Ishaan took on Ish Sodhi in the next over after hitting a six on the fifth ball of Kais Jamieson in the 11th over. He completed his half-century in 28 balls by hitting a four on the first ball. After this, Ishaan scored 29 runs in the over by hitting 4, 4, 6, 4 and then a six on the last ball (the first legal ball was wide). He continued the same rhythm further and reached the nineties by sending Jameson for a six in the 15th over.

In the next over, Ishaan hit two sixes on the last two balls of Santner and completed a sensational century in 42 balls. This was the fifth fastest century by an Indian batsman in T20 International. Ishaan broke the record of Suryakumar Yadav, who had scored a century in 45 balls against Sri Lanka in Rajkot. Ishaan was out in the very next over after scoring a century. However, by then he had completed his work.

Fastest T20I century for India

• Rohit Sharma – 35 balls, vs Sri Lanka, Indore, 2023


• Abhishek Sharma – 37 balls vs England, Wankhede, 2025


• Sanju Samson – 40 balls vs Bangladesh, Hyderabad, 2024


• Tilak Verma – 41 balls vs South Africa, Johannesburg, 2024


• Ishan Kishan – 42 balls vs New Zealand, Thiruvananthapuram, 2026

India scored a huge score

Apart from Ishaan’s blazing century, Surya scored 63 runs in 30 balls. Earlier, Abhishek Sharma scored 30 runs in 16 balls. In the end, Hardik Pandya scored 42 runs in 17 balls and took Team India to 271 runs at the loss of 5 wickets. This is the biggest score of any team in T20 against New Zealand. This was the fifth highest total against any full member team.

Highest score against full member team

• England – 304/2 vs South Africa, Manchester, 2025


• India – 297/6 vs Bangladesh, Hyderabad, 2024


• India – 283/1 vs South Africa Johannesburg, 2024


• Afghanistan – 278/3 vs Ireland, Dehradun, 2019


• India – 271/5 vs New Zealand, Thiruvananthapuram, 2026